January 25, 1985

A headline in some editions of Sports Pages yesterday incorrectly identified the winner of the St. Francis-Fairleigh Dickinson basketball game. St. Francis beat Fairleigh Dickinson, 62-49.

''The possibility of national bankruptcy is a distinct possibility if we persist in unabated spending across the board.'' - Senator Barry Goldwater. (D16:4.)

A jury found yesterday that a 1983 Time magazine article - although it contained a false and defamatory paragraph - did not libel Ariel Sharon because the magazine did not publish it with ''serious doubts as to its truth.'' At 12:15 P.M., as tension heightened in the crowded courtroom of the Federal District Court in Manhattan, the jury announced its verdict, ending a dramatic trial that pitted one of Israel's top leaders against a major American news organization. The jury's foreman, Richard Peter Zug, also read an unusual statement by the jurors, amplifying the verdict and criticizing the correspondent who provided the disputed paragraph. 'Negligently and Carelessly' ''We find,'' he said, ''that certain Time employees, particularly correspondent David Halevy, acted negligently and carelessly in reporting and verifying the information which ultimately found its way into the published paragraph of interest in this case.'' The jury decided last week that the paragraph was defamatory and false. But the verdict yesterday ended the two-month libel trial.

Three of the country's biggest oil companies reported lower fourth- quarter earnings, reflecting the worldwide glut of oil and the period of warmer weather last year that touched off a slide in prices. The Exxon Corporation, the No. 1 oil company in the world, said its net in the final quarter dropped 11.7 percent. Its revenues also fell in the quarter by 1 percent. ''We knew it was a rough quarter,'' commented Barry Good, an oil analyst at Morgan Stanley & Company. ''It was more than rough. It was awful.'' He said the turbulence in the oil business shows no signs of abating, which could lead to further grim numbers. ''Conditions are terrible,'' Mr. Good said.

An official of the Army Corps of Engineers recommended yesterday that a crucial landfill permit be granted for Westway, the $2 billion highway and development project that has been stalled in litigation since it was proposed more than a decade ago to revive Manhattan's West Side. ''I think that Westway's time has probably come,'' said Col. Fletcher H. Griffis, the district engineer for the corps. ''All great projects need a period of gestation. Westway has certainly gestated.'' Governor Cuomo said that he was ''delighted'' by the recommendation and that he would soon create a new ''vehicle'' to oversee construction of Westway. The State Transportation Commissioner, James L. Larocca, said the construction could begin before next winter and was likely to last 10 years.