June 14, 1986

A Federal jury hearing one of a series of major Mafia cases in Manhattan convicted Carmine Persico and eight others yesterday of operating the Colombo crime family in a widespread pattern of labor racketeering in New York City. Major parts of the case focused on charges that the Colombo group controlled several unions, primarily the District Council of the Cement and Concrete Workers, and extorted millions of dollars from construction companies in the city. On the 12th day of deliberations, the jury found all nine defendants guilty of the main racketeering-conspiracy charge in the eight-month trial in Federal District Court. Hushed, Crowded Courtroom Mr. Persico, convicted as the boss of the Colombo family, shook his head from side to side as the jury foreman began announcing the verdict on 28 charges, intoning the word ''guilty'' over and over in the hushed, crowded courtroom.

President Reagan said today that South Africa was in a state of ''outright civil war'' and urged both the Government and its black opposition to show restraint. Mr. Reagan said through a spokesman that he had sent a personal message to the South African President, P. W. Botha, calling for ''massive restraint'' and criticizing Pretoria's declaration of a nationwide state of emergency. The message was delivered orally to Mr. Botha in Cape Town by Herman W. Nickel, the United States Ambassador. The White House issued a statement that a spokesman said was essentially the same message.

A Senate subcommittee has voted to cut the Pentagon's program to develop advanced defenses against nuclear missiles by nearly $800 million, a reduction that nonetheless allows the program more than $4 billion next year, Congressional sources said today. The panel also voted to freeze funds for a new mobile intercontinental missile at current levels, according to Senator John W. Warner, a Virginia Republican who is the subcommittee chairman. That move cuts in half the funds that would be available in the 1987 fiscal year for the missile, dubbed Midgetman. Officials familiar with the subcommittee's work on next year's strategic military budget said the two cuts were the most substantial made by the panel, which generally favors the plan for a defense against attacking missiles.

Benny Goodman, the King of Swing whose clarinet led a generation of music fans into the Big Band era in the 1930's, died yesterday afternoon at his Manhattan apartment, apparently of a heart attack. He was 77 years old. The death of the man who brought jazz to Carnegie Hall and enthralled millions with renditions of ''Sweet Georgia Brown'' and ''Stompin' at the Savoy'' brought expressions of grief and loss from his colleagues. Lionel Hampton, the vibraphonist, recalled that Mr. Goodman was the first major music figure to put black and white musicians together on stage in the 1930's. ''The most important thing that Benny Goodman did,'' he said, ''was to put Teddy Wilson and me in the quartet. It was instant integration. Black people didn't mix with whites then. Benny introduced us as Mr. Lionel Hampton and Mr. Teddy Wilson. He opened the door for Jackie Robinson. He gave music character and style.''

Organized medicine is seeking to limit the rapid growth in the supply of doctors, particularly specialists, which leaders in the profession say is making a dent in the substantial incomes most physicians receive. A report issued by the American Medical Association's board of trustees calls for doctors, states and education officials to review the size of medical school enrollments and urges standards that would limit the admission of foreign-trained doctors into the American medical system. The report represents a major reversal by the association, which is moving with extreme caution in view of antitrust constraints. For years the association has said it believed market forces, rather than regulation or planning, should determine supply and demand for medical services. Now, however, the board says ''market forces cannot be relied upon by themselves.''

The space agency today released a videotape showing its top officials being briefed Feb. 21, 1985, on the history of the booster rocket problems that eventually caused the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger. The tape appears to establish that a broad range of top space agency officials were made fully aware of the problem months earlier than had been acknowledged. The videotape shows Lawrence B. Mulloy, chief of the booster rocket program at the Marshall Space Flight Center, providing officials of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration with a two-and-a-half-minute briefing at a flight readiness review. 'An Acceptable Risk' Throughout the briefing, Mr. Mulloy described erosion problems in the O rings that seal separate segments of the booster rockets. But he concludes that the erosion ''represents an acceptable risk.''

Bishop Desmond M. Tutu met today for the first time in six years with President P. W. Botha, a day after South Africa imposed its newest and most severe emergency decree. After emerging from the 90-minute meeting in Cape Town, Bishop Tutu, recipient of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize and one of the nation's leading black spokesmen, criticized the decree, the third in modern South African history. 'Brittle Calm' Predicted ''This is not likely to help restore law and order,'' Bishop Tutu said of the emergency declaration, which bans political demonstrations and gives the police wide powers of search and seizure. ''If we do have any calm it will be brittle, it will be sullen, and at the slightest chance it will be broken again.''

In a surprising challenge to special favors in the tax-revision bill, the Senate voted today to remove a tax break that would apply to only one oil company. The special preference would have given the Unocal Corporation a $50 million tax break to help offset the debt it took on last year in successfully fighting a takeover by T. Boone Pickens. It was the first element of the Finance Committee's bill to be rejected by the Senate. The vote was 60 to 33.

President Reagan said today that the United States had recently been set back in its efforts to win the release of the American hostages in Lebanon and that his hopes for a breakthough had led to a ''great disappointment.'' Responding to questions from a group of out-of-town newspaper editors and broadcasters at the White House, Mr. Reagan caused some surprise while discussing the five Americans who are being held in Lebanon.

Earlier this year Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya tried to convince the West that he was not a terrorist. He invited five female correspondents to meet his wife, Safiya, and their seven children inside a Bedouin tent permanently pitched inside the heavily fortified Bab el-Azziziya military barracks in Tripoli. For more than two hours Colonel Qaddafi portrayed the role of devoted husband, loving father and beneficent leader of his country's 3.5 million people. He spoke about his personal life, his hopes and dreams, his desire for peace and his respect for the American people. ''They think I don't laugh or smile or tell jokes,'' Colonel Qaddafi said. ''They think I only hate.'' ''But you can see that the image Reagan has of me is not true,'' he said, stroking the hair of his only natural daughter, Aisha, age 8. ''I invite you to tell the world.''

John Cardinal O'Connor left New York Thursday night for a visit to Lebanon under secrecy about the full nature of the visit and his itinerary. ''It's an extremely dangerous trip,'' said Msgr. Peter G. Finn, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of New York. ''The safety factor is very much a concern, and we had no intention of issuing any statement in the hopes that he was in Lebanon and going about his business before anyone was aware.''

In a little-noted passage of a rambling speech broadcast earlier this week, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, the Libyan leader, gave some details of what he described as a private meeting months ago with William A. Wilson, the American Ambassador to the Vatican. Colonel Qaddafi said the two, who conferred in the Libyan's quilted tent, discussed United States-Libyan relations. The Libyan said relations were strained because of disagreements over the future of Tunisia. Mr. Wilson has persistently refused to comment on his trips to Libya. The spokesman to the Embassy to the Holy See, William Barnes, said he could not comment. And there was no independent confirmation of the Libyan's description of the meeting.