August 18, 1984

President Reagan said today that the United States could not passively accept the ''permanent subjugation of the people of Eastern Europe.'' Speaking at a White House luncheon commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Warsaw uprising against Nazi forces, Mr. Reagan said the United States ''rejects any interpretation of the Yalta Agreement that suggests American consent for the division of Europe into spheres of influence.'' The 1945 Yalta agreement between the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union divided Germany into zones of occupation and set up a provisional government for Poland that included figures allied with both the West and Soviet Union. The leaders agreed to free elections for the remaining countries in Europe liberated from the Nazis.

Ruling that ''private, consensual homosexual conduct is not constitutionally protected,'' a Federal appeals panel today upheld the Navy's discharge of a petty officer who acknowledged engaging in homosexual acts. Judge Robert H. Bork wrote for the unanimous three-judge panel that while several Supreme Court decisions had recognized a vaguely defined constitutional ''right of privacy,'' the Court ''has never defined the right so broadly as to encompass homosexual conduct.'' The 21-page ruling today was the broadest and most ringing repudiation a Federal appeals court had given to the view of some libertarians that laws penalizing homosexual conduct are unconstitutional. Precedent Somewhat Unclear While some lower Federal courts have suggested that private homosexual conduct enjoys a degree of constitutional protection, the Supreme Court in 1976 affirmed a lower court decision suggesting the contrary. Because the Supreme Court issued no opinion in that case, its importance as a precedent is somewhat unclear.

A key report on the $1.6 billion plan to rebuild Times Square says the project is likely to lead to more crowded buses and subway trains than previously predicted, to deep shadows around 42d Street and to higher rents in surrounding areas. However the report, the final environmental impact statement prepared by consultants to the city and the state's Urban Development Corporation, also lists ways to limit these problems and to help the project achieve its primary goal of rehabilitating Times Square. The 1,100-page statement, which is required by the State Environmental Quality Review Act and is a revision of a draft that was issued last February, is to be printed Monday. It will be considered for approval by the development corporation Thursday.

There are tenants in New York who describe John Anthony Zaccaro as a model landlord, and there are others who call him names. Friends see him as an avid sportsman and fierce competitor, a generous neighbor, a stickler for fairness. Almost everyone agrees he has a penchant for privacy. As the husband and business partner of Representative Geraldine A. Ferraro, the Democratic Vice-Presidential candidate, the 51-year-old Mr. Zaccaro and his business activities have been the subject of considerable public attention, including controversy over his refusal to release his income tax returns, as promised by his wife. The couple spent nine hours yesterday at the New York offices of the accounting firm of Arthur Young & Company going over financial material scheduled for disclosure Monday. The disclosures are part of a required filing by Vice-Presidential candidates, but the law does not require that candidates or their spouses disclose their tax forms.

The Republican platform committee today tentatively adopted a preamble asserting that American voters face a choice ''between two diametrically opposed visions of what America should be.'' The statement on the contest between President Reagan and Walter F. Mondale was adopted as the committee ended a week of debate and delegates began arriving in this sweltering city for a convention that will formally ratify the platform Tuesday. The four-day affair opening on Monday is planned as a Texas-size coronation of Mr. Reagan and Vice President Bush. As workers scrambled to complete preparations for the opening of the convention the upbeat tone of the platform was matched by the many pictures of a beaming President that have been attached to the concrete walls of the mammoth convention center.