December 6, 1983

The governors of seven Northeastern states agreed today to work toward establishing a uniform minimum drinking age in an effort to reduce alcohol- related highway accidents and fatalities. It was the first time the Governors had agreed to try to replace the three different minimum drinking ages that now prevail in their states with a single regionwide age. Governor Cuomo of New York proposed the idea of a single age at a breakfast meeting before a daylong series of panel discussions and speeches on ways to reduce acid rain in the environment. The conference was sponsored by the Coalition of Northeastern Governors and Governor Kean of New Jersey was the host.

An American flier will not be freed until ''the war'' is over and American forces leave Lebanon, Syria's Defense Minister announced. He confirmed a report that the other American airman in the attack bomber shot down Sunday had died and said his body would be delivered to the American Embassy. (Page A1, Column 6.) Moscow condemned the American air strikes against Syrian positions in Lebanon, terming them ''a serious threat to peace in the Middle East and not only in that region.'' (A18:2-5.)

The best telephone salesman in J. Rudy Martin's insurance office, near Roanoke, Va., never gets angry, never breaks for lunch and, best of all, never forgets a name. Mr. Martin's star salesman is a computer, just one of many so-called telemarketing systems that are becoming indispensable to many businesses, politicians, schools and even clergymen throughout the country. Sears, Roebuck & Company uses the machines to notify its customers when their catalogue orders are ready. Political candidates use them to canvass voters, and schools use them to check on truants. The new machines, which retail for between $3,000 and $10,000, are automatic callers and recorders, and can complete more than a call a minute - and between 512 and 7,160 total calls, depending on the model - without a human attendant.

MIDDLE COLLEGE HIGH SCHOOL, a New York City public school in Queens, is a success story. It has been deemed so successful, in fact, that the Carnegie Foundation, in its recent report on what is wrong with American high schools, pointed to Middle College as a school that seemed to be doing something right. City-As-School, another high school in the city's system, is also considered successful. It admits troubled students, most of them likely dropouts, and manages to keep a good number of them in school until they graduate.

Syria's Minister of Defense said today that the American airman captured by Syrian troops after they shot down his aircraft on Sunday would not be returned until ''the war'' was over and American troops left Lebanon. He confirmed a report that the other American flier in the Navy attack bomber had died, and said the body was to be turned over to the United States Embassy in Damascus today. A car bomb exploded in a crowded quarter of mainly Moslem West Beirut today. The blast killed 14 people and wounded 83, and set several buildings and 30 cars on fire, the police said. Marines Remain on Alert The American marines remained on alert in their compound at Beirut International Airport, although there was no resumption of the shelling that killed eight of them and wounded two on Sunday. The shelling occurred hours after an American air strike on Syrian targets east of the Lebanese capital in which two United States planes were shot down.