August 4, 1984

The president of the International Olympic Committee has protested what he calls the overemphasis on American athletes in ABC's television coverage of the Games. Peter Ueberroth, the president of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing committee, characterized the protest as a ''stern message'' that ABC, with its flag-waving emphasis on American athletes, threatened to diminish the ''international flavor'' of the Games in the eyes of the American public. The president of the international committee, Juan Antonio Samaranch, made the protest in a letter to the Los Angeles committee. 'A Consensus' of Board Mr. Ueberroth, who disclosed receipt of the letter at an informal news briefing Thursday night that had been called to discuss traffic problems, said that it repesented ''quite a consensus'' of the nine-member I.O.C. executive board and that he had urged the network ''to consider trying to give a good focus'' to its coverage.

Mexico and Venezuela said today they would halt delivery of discount- priced oil to any Central American and Caribbean countries ''that initiate warlike actions'' against others in the region. The announcement by the two nations said they were adopting the policy to provide incentive for ''preservation of peace'' as well as for strengthening ''democratic and social development.'' A Foreign Ministry spokesman here said the condition for further oil deliveries would not be retroactive. It will be up to Mexico and Venezuela, he said, to determine whether a country should be put under sanction.

The Senate's assistant majority leader said today that the final military budget for 1985 would grow 5 percent after accounting for inflation, rather than the 7.5 percent that President Reagan and the rest of the Republican leadership have insisted on. The comment by the assistant leader, Ted Stevens of Alaska, who is also the chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, caught the White House and the majority leader, Howard H. Baker Jr., by surprise. It was the first time a Republican leader had publicly voiced the budget expectations, although they have been common corridor talk on Capitol Hill. Senator Baker said he did not expect 5 percent to be the final figure. ''I'm going to talk to Senator Stevens,'' he added. The White House, in a statement, said it was continuing to push for a 7.5 percent rise.

The nation's unemployment rate rose unexpectedly in July to 7.4 percent, the first increase in 20 months, the Labor Department reported today. The increase, from 7 percent in June, was the latest of several signs that the nation's strong economic expansion was moderating in late spring and early summer. It was the first overall increase in unemployment since November 1982, the bottom of a recession, and the largest one- month increase in two years, since the jump from 9.5 percent in June 1982 to 9.9 percent in July 1982. The rise, accounted for mostly by higher unemployment among adult women, brought the total of unemployed Americans last month to 8,543,000, after adjustment of the statistics to account for seasonal economic variations.

Saudi Arabia has released about half the 33 Americans it was believed to be holding in prison on a variety of offenses, according to Saudi and American officials as well as one of the freed prisoners. A State Department official said Thursday that 17 Americans had been freed recently under a general amnesty for Saudis and foreigners decreed late in June by King Fahd. More releases are imminent, the official added. A Saudi Embassy spokesman said that Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Ambassador, had been working for months to arrange the release of all Americans in Saudi prisons ''to broaden and strengthen relations between the two countries.''