April 14, 1984

The Reagan Administration today suspended its efforts to cut off Social Security disability benefits. It ordered that benefits be continued or restored for 40,000 of the people who are challenging their removal from the rolls. Although the action had been expected, it demonstrated an extraordinary reversal of policy by a Government agency that has been conducting what John A. Svahn, the former Commissioner of Social Security, once described as a ''crackdown on ineligibility.'' The review, which started in March 1981, found more than 485,000 recipients ineligible, and 150,000 to 200,000 people ultimately lost benefits, prompting a political, judicial and legislative furor. Under strong pressure, Administration officials began signaling today's action last month.

The Challenger astronauts, diverted by bad weather from landing at their preferred site on Cape Canaveral, Fla., landed safely here today after a mission that deftly opened an era of servicing and repairing satellites as they orbit the earth. A space official called the seven-day flight ''a great mission.'' ''The crew rendezvoused with and captured the Solar Max satellite and they repaired and returned it to orbit,'' said Burton Edelson, head of National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Office of Space Sciences. ''It appears to be working well. And that was the purpose of the mission.''

Driven by the uncertainty over the political fate of Hong Kong, an increasing number of businessmen and professionals from the British colony have sunk new roots in New York City in the last two years. China has declared its intention to reclaim sovereignty over Hong Kong when the British lease runs out in 1997, but some believe it will happen earlier and are trying to get out before it does. ''Psychologically, people want to stay in Hong Kong, where the life is good, but politically they want to get out because they feel like they're living on borrowed space,'' Tay Wong, family counselor for the Queens branch of the Chinatown Council, explained the other day. Concern About the Future Mrs. Wong, a 32-year-old teacher, came to New York in May 1982 ''because of the political uncertainties.'' She is one of many Hong Kong Chinese who are concerned about the future of the colony and are moving to Australia, Canada and the United States.

President Reagan invoked emergency authority today to give El Salvador up to $32 million in new military aid after Congress recessed without approving the money, Administration officials said. In a day marked by contradictory reports, the officials said the arrangements, worked out in a series of meetings into the evening, marked an attempt to avoid an all-out confrontation with House Democrats. The Democrats had offered a compromise of their own that the Administration appeared to accept only in part. With Congress gone for 10 days on its Easter recess, and Salvadoran troops reported in need of emergency shipments of ammunition, the issue was: Should the President accept the offer of the House Democrats and use $32 million in funds already approved for other countries, so-called reprogrammed aid, or use his own authority and approve an unspecified amount of aid, known as invoking the ''draw-down authority.''

The House Select Committee on Intelligence was informed about United States involvement in the mining of Nicaraguan ports in late January and it later monitored the operation closely, according to the committee's chairman. The chairman, Representative Edward P. Boland, Democrat of Massachusetts, said during House debate late Thursday that the Central Intelligence Agency informed the panel about the mining on Jan. 31 after some of the explosive devices had been planted at Puerto Sandino on Nicaragua's Pacific coast. A Congressional source familiar with the House Intelligence Committee briefing Jan. 31 said the full extent of C.I.A. involvement in the mining was made clear to members. Although Mr. Boland has been a leading opponent of the C.I.A.'s covert activities in Nicaragua, and his remarks on Thursday were highly critical of the mining, he did not fault the C.I.A. for failing to notify Congress.