December 19, 1983

United States warships bombarded Syrian- controlled areas in the hills above Beirut today after two United States F-14 warplanes were fired on by Syrian antiaircraft batteries. An American military spokesman said the F-14's, flying from the aircraft carrier Independence, were on a ''tactical air reconnaissance mission.'' In Damascus, a Syrian spokesman confirmed that Syrian antiaircraft units had fired on the American planes. He called the subsequent American naval bombardment ''part of the framework of the continuous acts of aggression committed by the American forces against our forces in Lebanon.'' He offered no information on casualties.

In one of the most improbable games of the National Football League season, the Los Angeles Rams ended the playoff hopes of the New Orleans Saints today by winning, 26-24, on a 42-yard field goal with two seconds left to play. The victory gave the Rams a 9-7 record and put them into the playoffs for the first time since 1980. The Saints could have made the playoffs as a wild-card team with a victory. But when and where the Rams play their next game will not be determined until after the Dallas Cowboys, who have earned a wild-card spot, play the San Francisco 49ers Monday night in San Francisco. If the 49ers win, the Rams will be the other National Conference wild-card team and will play the Cowboys Dec. 26 in Dallas. If the Cowboys win, the Rams will be the N.F.C. West champions, and the 49ers will play the Cowboys in Dallas in the wild-card game.

An investor group led by Castle & Cooke Inc., the big West Coast food concern that is trying to buy the Dr Pepper Company, said yesterday that it has extended the deadline on its takeover bid until the end of the month. The group, the DPCC Acquisition Corporation, also disclosed that it has begun negotiations with Lazard Fr eres, the investment firm that is Dr Pepper's financial adviser, to gain access to financial and other information about the soft-drink company. The group, which has offered about $581 million, or roughly $24 a share, for the soft-drink company, could lose $550 million in bank financing for the deal if anything negative about Dr Pepper is uncovered in a review to be conducted by the banks. Loans Subject to Cancellation According to filings by the banks with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the financing for Castle & Cooke is in the form of ''letters of interest'' from the banks, and thus is subject to cancellation.

Exerpts from report, page B8. Members of Governor Cuomo's commission on the Shoreham nuclear power plant agree that it was a mistake to build the reactor, but after six months of hearings and deliberations, there appears to be agreement on very little else. The commission's 13 members now disagree even on what their chairman, Dr. John H. Marburger 3d, says they agreed to when they drafted their report to Mr. Cuomo - such things as whether the Long Island Lighting Company, the owner of the reactor, is prepared to run it and whether it would pay to open the plant. The 300-page report, formally released last Wednesday, provided no recommendations to the Governor. It gave no final assessment of the major issue: whether the nearly completed reactor should be abandoned or put into service.

The United States, pressing for reduced barriers to stimulate the $350 billion- a-year international trade in services, has laid out for the first time what it hopes to get from any new round of multilateral negotiations. One of the key objectives that emerges from a year-long, 400-page study by the Reagan Administration is international acceptance of a ''fairness'' doctrine in which foreign-supplied services would be accorded the same regulatory treatment as domestically supplied services. The study, prepared by the office of the United States Trade Representative, Bill Brock, will be submitted Monday to the 89-nation Council of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade in Geneva to begin a new phase in Washington's longstanding efforts to promote a so-called services round of negotiations. These talks would be aimed at curbing national restrictions in banking, insurance, construction, engineering, consulting, data processing, tourism, shipping and other activities that are now lumped together in trade parlance under the common heading of services.