December 13, 1986

A day after South Africa drastically tightened controls on political expression and news reporting, the police announced today that they had carried out a series of actions against their adversaries. President P. W. Botha said the steps were designed to head off an impending increase in what it called revolutionary violence. What the police termed a ''swoop'' was reported to have included a cross-border raid into Swaziland that led to the abduction and detention of two foreigners sympathetic to the Government's black foes. Labor Federation Affected South Africa's state-run television reported tonight that the police responsible for black townships east of Johannesburg imposed sweeping restrictions on various anti-apartheid movements.

After two weeks of Congressional investigations into the United States arms sales to Iran and the diversion of money to the Nicaraguan rebels, legislators said today that they still could not understand the essential elements of how the policy was developed, financed and set into motion. Their complaints came as two staff members of the National Security Council, one a Marine officer on active duty, declined to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee. The officials, Lieut. Col. Robert Earl and Howard J. Teicher, said they needed more time to prepare. Their actions touched off anger and frustration and fears among committee members that a wall was being erected to prevent Congress from learning all the facts of the operation. Not Going to Get 'All the Facts' Last week, the two former National Security Council officials identified by the Administration as key figures in the operation - Vice Adm. John M. Poindexter and Lieut. Col. Oliver L. North - declined to testify and invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization distanced itself today from President Reagan's goal of eliminating all American and Soviet ballistic missiles in the framework of an arms-control accord. A communique issued at the end of a two-day meeting of NATO foreign ministers conspicuously refrained from mentioning Mr. Reagan's goal, which he first put forth during his summit meeting with Mikhail S. Gorbachev in Iceland in October. According to diplomatic sources, Britain and France made it clear that they would not endorse Mr. Reagan's proposition, which they regard as undermining the United States' ability to provide extended nuclear deterrence for its European allies. Shultz News Conference At a news conference, Secretary of State George P. Shultz said the idea of a two-step elimination of ballistic missiles over a decade remained the American position at the negotiations in Geneva. ''People have different views about it,'' he said of the allies. ''And some are intrigued and some are enthusiastic and some are reserved and some don't think it's a very good idea.''

Vice President Bush's national security adviser, Donald P. Gregg, said today that neither he nor Mr. Bush knew until August that Mr. Gregg's protege, a former employee of the Central Intelligence Agency, was deeply involved in ''private'' arms shipments to the rebels in Nicaragua. Mr. Gregg's friendship with the protege, Felix Rodriguez, which dates to 1970, and his own long service in the C.I.A. have fostered wide speculation that he, and possibly Mr. Bush, were among the Reagan Administration's links to a clandestine arms-supply network. But Mr. Gregg insisted today, in the only interview he has given since the existence of the arms-supply network became known, that neither he nor Mr. Bush had any links with the network beyond knowing Mr. Rodriguez and that they had known nothing of the diversion to the rebels of some profits from arms sales to Iran. Ends Weeks of Silence The Vice-Presidential aide's agreement to an interview, after weeks of refusing to answer press queries, had the approval of senior members of Mr. Bush's staff. It indicated that the Vice President felt compelled to take new steps to lessen the political damage caused by repeated suggestions that he and Mr. Gregg were hiding something.

Cartier, the Fifth Avenue emporium where almost nothing is artificial, was ordered by the Fire Department yesterday to remove 30 live Christmas trees from its diamond-glittering, poinsettia-draped selling floors. Fire officials, invoking a 1943 law during a regular holiday inspection, said the festive trees - 6- to 8-foot junipers and spruces adorned with discreet lights and simple gold-and-glass balls, and set in earthen bases - were fire hazards because of the pitch they contain. ''I'm wondering whether it's Mayor Scrooge who's occupying City Hall and Gracie Mansion,'' said Ralph Destino, chairman of Cartier, which occupies a six-story, landmark neo-Renaissance mansion at 52d Street. ''I wonder what kind of Christmas spirit Mayor Scrooge has this year.''