April 19, 1986

A Titan rocket carrying a secret military payload exploded today in a large orange fireball seconds after liftoff here, Air Force officials said. The explosion released a cloud of poisonous fumes and damaged the launching pad and 200 acres surrounding it. Sgt. Fred Bolinger, a Vandenberg spokesman, said tonight that at least 58 people were treated at the base hospital for skin and eye irritations. Of those injured, 47 were military and 11 were civilian employees of Vandenberg. Three of the military personnel were admitted for further observation, he said. Earlier, Air Force officials said there had been no injuries.

Saying he did not want ''to run the risk of killing this bill,'' Senator Bob Packwood, the chairman of the Finance Committee, today indefinitely postponed further voting on tax-revision legislation. The Senator, an Oregon Republican, said he had given up hope that a tax bill could be written in public, but added he believed a measure could be salvaged ''in private consultations among the members'' in the days ahead. Some opponents of changes in the tax law saw Senator Packwood's decision as the beginning of the end of President Reagan's drive to overhaul the Federal income tax system. But the consensus seemed to be that it was an inevitable turn in a difficult and still inconclusive legislative course.

The police said today that they had arrested a man wanted for questioning about a bomb found Thursday in a woman's luggage at Heathrow Airport. The police said the woman, who is pregnant, told them the man took her to Heathrow to board an El Al flight for Israel and gave her the bag with the bomb in it before he kissed her goodbye. The man, Nezar Hindawi, who a former employer said is Jordanian by birth, was arrested at a London hotel and did not resist. Timed to Explode After Munich The woman, Anne-Marie Murphy, who was arrested at Heathrow, has told the police that she did not know she was carrying a bomb. She had cleared airport security without difficulty. But El Al's security guards said Miss Murphy, who is Irish, looked different from the others checking in for Flight 016 to Tel Aviv, and they took extra care with her luggage. In previous news reports she had been described as looking Middle Eastern.

One of the three men found dead of gunshot wounds near Beirut, Lebanon, on Thursday was identified yesterday as an American, Peter Kilburn. Officials had said all the victims were Britons. A note found with the bodies Thursday said the men had been slain in response to the American air strikes against Libya and to British cooperation with the raid. There was no definite word on the man the authorities initially announced was dead, Alec Collett, a British freelance journalist who was seized by gunmen south of the city on March 25, 1985, while on a writing assignment for a United Nations agency.

President P. W. Botha announced today that the pass laws controlling where black people can live and work would no longer be enforced. For blacks, the pass laws are among the most hated aspects of apartheid. Blacks who have been convicted of violating pass laws, and those who are in jail awaiting trial, will be freed immediately, the President said in a speech to Parliament. Mr. Botha said that the passes carried by black people would be abolished and that a standard identity card would be issued for all races beginning in July. Government officials have not said whether the new ones would contain racial information or restrictions.