November 6, 1982

France and Britain made clear today that they are unwilling to offer the United States any major concessions to halt American trade sanctions against Western European companies involved in the construction of the Soviet natural gas pipeline. The countries' positions were stated by President Francois Mitterrand and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher at a joint news conference here at the end of two days of regularly scheduled talks. The relative firmness of their remarks was surprising because reports from Washington have indicated that the United States and its main European allies were making progress on a unified trade policy toward the Soviet Union that could lead to a lifting of the sanctions. Mrs. Thatcher offered an additional expression of distress concerning American policy. After praising a French decision to abstain in a United Nations vote on an Argentine motion calling for immediate talks on the future of the Falkland Islands, Mrs. Thatcher said the United States vote in favor of the resolution was ''incomprehensible and disappointing.''

Nearly 1,000 unidentified bodies have been discovered in six cemeteries over the last few weeks. The discovery has heightened public suspicions that the military, despite its denials, was responsible for the fate of 6,000 people who disappeared during a leftist insurgency in the 1970's. A judge has already noted that the register at one cemetery gives ''military confrontation'' or a similar reason as the cause of death of 31 people from among 156 unidentified bodies. Human rights leaders are now seeking court orders to have all the bodies exhumed for identification.

Tom Pangborn, who was once extolled by Seventh-day Adventist ministers as a model for other youths and later became an Adventist pastor, is severing his ties with the church. From the time he began to doubt some of the church's teachings, the slow alienation has been ''excruciating,'' said Mr. Pangborn, a sixth-generation Adventist. The church is far more than a religious organization to its members; it is a closely woven way of life. Mr. Pangborn, who is 33 years old, was not alone in his crisis of faith. At a time when it has reached unparalleled levels of adherents and wealth, one of America's most distinct religious traditions is being tested both by modern change and by close examination of its own history.

On the basis of unofficial and disputed returns, Gov. James R. Thompson, the Republican incumbent, appeared today to have won the unusually close gubernatorial race here. With 3,616,865 ballots cast, Mr. Thompson held a thin margin of 9,401 votes. He formally claimed victory in an emotional address at his campaign headquarters here. But so did his Democratic opponent, Adlai E. Stevenson 3d, who said he was equally certain that the official election canvass Nov. 22 would make him the governor instead.

In four years as Chancellor of the New York City public schools, Frank J. Macchiarola has replaced over 60 percent of the system's high school principals, using forced retirements, reassignments and outright dismissals to bring about much of the turnover. It has been an upheaval in a system that often treated high school principals as absolute rulers with lifetime powers over their domains. The performance of the new appointees will be a matter of importance to the future of public education in the city. Research findings have increasingly pointed to the principal as the fulcrum upon which a school's fortunes are balanced. ''Having the right to run a school for a lifetime does not make sense,'' Mr. Macchiarola said. ''Tenure for principals is an obstacle because it creates a sense of security that ought not be there.''