December 24, 1986

Italy Seeks Abduction Facts Italy has begun an investigation into reports that an Israeli nuclear technician was abducted by Israeli agents in Italy.

In the beginning, Dottie Spatcher tried to bathe the foster children who were delivered to her apartment in the middle of the night, then bundle them in fleecy pajamas and tuck them into warm beds. But some of the children, removed from their homes under emergency circumstances, flinched when she approached them, or cried at her touch, and so Mrs. Spatcher changed her way of going about things. ''I realized, 'This child is frightened to death, doesn't know me, doesn't recognize these surroundings,' '' she said. ''So, now I say, 'O.K., sweetheart, if you want to just lie there for a while, we'll fix you up in the morning.' ''

Sweeping out of a clear desert sky and into aviation history, the experimental airplane Voyager landed safely here early today, completing the first nonstop flight around the world on one load of fuel. The journey of 25,012 miles set records for distance flown without refueling and for endurance by aviators on such a flight. The trip, which began and ended at Edwards Air Force Base, 60 miles northeast of Los Angeles, took 9 days 3 minutes 44 seconds. ''This was the last major event of atmospheric flight,'' Richard G. Rutan, 48 years old, said at a news conference after he landed the plane. ''That we did it as private citizens says a lot about freedom in America.''

President Reagan's new budget will propose sweeping changes in farm programs designed to save more than $16 billion over the next five years, Administration officials said today. James C. Miller 3d, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, said the proposals were based on the assumption that current farm programs, which cost more than $25.5 billion in the fiscal year 1986, had become politically unsustainable. Referring to members of Congress, he said, ''A lot more people represent nonfarm districts than farm districts.'' Support for Some Proposals Because key concepts in some of the proposals resemble ideas contained in legislation introduced last year by Senators Rudy Boschwitz of Minnesota, a Republican, and David L. Boren of Oklahoma, a Democrat, the Administration says some of its proposals may receive a favorable reception in Congress. But other proposals, especially those that would cut farmers' income most sharply, are sure to face opposition on Capitol Hill.

Three white teen-agers were ordered held without bail yesterday on second-degree murder charges in the racial attack last week in Howard Beach, Queens. At an arraignment in Criminal Court in Queens, a prosecutor said the three defendants had admitted taking part in the attack, which began outside a pizza parlor and continued as a gang of whites chased three black men down a dead-end street. The white youths entered no pleas at the hearing. The authorities were also investigating two other attacks the same night in Howard Beach, a small, middle-class community near Kennedy International Airport. The police said yesterday that the three incidents appeared to be unrelated, although students from the same high school were involved in two of the incidents.