What was going on when I was born?

The State Department, in an annual review, has found continuing deprivation and abuses of human rights in most countries around the world. But a senior department official asserted that the most important trend consisted of improvements in Latin America. Elliott Abrams, Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs, said at a news conference today, ''Worldwide, I think I would say that the only significant overall trend is the trend toward improvement in the Western Hemisphere.'' ''In the last five years, I think, we are now up to nine countries that have gone from military dictatorship to democracy,'' he said. ''Zero countries have gone from democracy to dictatorship.''

Forty years after it was devastated by an Anglo-American bombing raid, Dresden's legendary Semper Opera reopened tonight with a lively performance attended by this country's leaders and foreign dignitaries. The centerpiece of an ambitious reconstruction program that aims to give the Communist regime a firm claim on the German past, the Semper resonated tonight to the strains of Carl Maria von Weber's romantic ''Freisch"utz'' - the last opera performed before the Nazis closed the theater in 1944 as they declared a total war effort. As the opera unfolded tonight the church bells of Dresden rang out, recalling the onset of the bombing of one of Europe's loveliest cities on Feb. 13, 1945. Over three days, successive waves of British and American bombers set Dresden's old Baroque center ablaze and killed at least 35,000 people.

Since the first of the year, dozens of the largest American corporations have raised a record amount of capital overseas in the Eurodollar bond market. But in their eagerness to win the business of these companies, international commercial and investment banks have been so aggressive in setting low yields that the bankers have been left with billions of dollars of unsold bonds. ''It's a mess,'' said Hans Rudloff, deputy chairman of Credit Suisse First Boston, the leading underwriter in the Eurodollar bond market. He said supply outstrips demand by 5 to 1. With most recent deals now trading well below their original offering prices not only are underwriters taking losses, but the future of global financing itself has also suffered a setback, he said. Indeed, this is the first time since the Eurodollar new issue market began heating up four years ago that international investors have so firmly turned their backs on the bonds of so many of America's blue chip corporations.

Obesity is a killing disease that should receive the same medical attention as high blood pressure, smoking and other factors that cause serious illness and premature death, a Federal panel concluded here today. Any level of obesity increases health risks, the panel noted, but it singled out a level of 20 percent or more above ''desirable'' body weight as the point at which doctors should treat an otherwise healthy adult. For those who have other health problems, such as diabetes or high blood pressure, or a family history of such problems, treatment of overweight should start sooner, the panel said. The 14-member panel, composed of health officials from a variety of disciplines, was convened by the National Institutes of Health to try to arrive at a consensus on current knowledge about the dangers to health of various levels of obesity. Treatment of overweight was not considered, although the panel urged that this question be the focus of a future panel.

The Bank of Boston for years accepted paper bags filled with cash from a family identified by Federal authorities as leaders of organized crime without reporting the transactions, according to the former head teller of a branch bank. The deals went unreported because the bank had placed two businesses owned by the family, the Angiulos, on a list of customers whose large cash deposits were exempt from Federal reporting requirements, according to the retired employee, Howard K. Matheson. Some Can Be Exempted Normally all cash transactions over $10,000 must be reported to the Internal Revenue Service, but certain retail businesses, such as supermarkets and restaurants, that generate large amounts of cash can be exempted. A Bank of Boston spokesman said he would not confirm whether the Angiulo companies were customers of the bank or, if they were, whether the bank exempted their cash transactions.

JUST as there are those who would not consider living anywhere but the city, there are others equally committed to the suburbs. Until recently, few similarities were discernible between these two life choices, as far as interior design was concerned. The spacious city loft or custom-designed penthouse had little in common with the traditional interiors of the standard split-level Colonial house. But today, some suburbanites have taken a more emphatically urban approach. Endowed with 30-foot living rooms, media centers, spa-size bathrooms and master bedroom suites, they have enthusiastically adopted a sleek, modern point of view. The result is a sometimes flashy, sometimes glamorous interior that brings city style to suburban interiors. ''If they didn't have children, they would live in a penthouse or loft in New York,'' said Eric Bernard, an interior designer who recently completed the renovation of a house on the North Shore of Long Island for a couple with two teen-age children. Mr. Bernard, who is known for his hard-edge, futuristic schemes, seemed an unusual choice to renovate the traditional- looking split-level house. But the clients wanted a contemporary, luxuriously appointed home and thought the designer would not be timid about tackling their house, a white-painted structure with fake green shutters and an old-fashioned lantern hanging above the front door.

THE popular notion of the translator is of a spectacled soul hunched over dictionaries and phrase books, while his counterpart, the interpreter, is seen at the elbow of diplomats or in the glass-enclosed language booths of the United Nations. But, say language experts, these visions of their work are outmoded. The skills of the translator, who takes the printed word from one language to another, and the interpreter, who translates speech, are today as likely to be sought by high-tech manufacturing concerns, advertising agencies and film companies as by publishing houses, governments or global organizations. Technological advancements, like the development of computers that translate, have altered the way language experts do their jobs. But most professionals view electronic translators and computerized dictionaries as time-saving aids rather than as competitors for their jobs.

An abandoned wire factory in East Harlem will be converted into a $100 million television center and production site for three daytime soap operas, Mayor Koch announced yesterday. The soap operas - ''As The World Turns,'' ''Guiding Light'' and ''Another World'' - will go into production at the new site in June 1986, according to their producer, Procter & Gamble. ''New York is the most attractive place in the world to make television shows and feature films as well,'' the Mayor said at a news conference at the Tavern on the Green. ''It has the most talented people in the world, backdrops, space and a Mayor who is available for cameo roles.''

The East Side Airlines Terminal, the first stop in Manhattan for millions of travelers for more than 30 years, was sold yesterday for $90.6 million to developers who plan to build a luxury apartment house on the site. The price for the property, which stopped functioning last year as a bus link to Kennedy International and La Guardia Airports, was believed to be the largest ever paid at an auction for a piece of real estate in Manhattan. Officials of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which sold the property, said the money would be used for capital projects to improve its subways, buses and commuter rail lines. A Joint Venture The successful bidder was a joint venture whose partners are Bernard Spitzer, a leading developer of luxury apartments; Peter L. Malkin, a real- estate lawyer, and two privately held corporations whose principals were not disclosed.

The non-Communist nations of Southeast Asia took their strongest united stand against Vietnam this week, condemning it for ignoring ''the established rules of orderly and peaceful conduct of relations between states.'' The statement by Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei and the Philippines came amid growing regional alarm over Vietnamese attacks on rebels that have begun to spill into Thailand and frustration over repeated failures to bring Hanoi to the negotiating table. 35,000 Said to Flee Fighting Today, 10,000 Vietnamese troops were reported to have surrounded rebel strongholds in western Cambodia, and the guerrillas were said to be fighting back with mortar and cannon fire. An estimated 35,000 civilians are believed to have fled across the Thai border since the Vietnamese push began on Tuesday. Regional officials and diplomats regard the statement by the six-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or Asean, which took the form of an international plea for military aid for the Cambodian guerrillas, as significant for several reasons.

New York City's major blood collection center said yesterday that it was worried that the mandatory testing of all donated blood for a suspected AIDS antibody could cut its donations by nearly a quarter. Officials of the facility, the New York Blood Center, said a recent poll of blood donors had showed that 23 percent would stop giving blood if it were tested for the AIDS antibody. ''We are extremely concerned by the finding,'' said Greg MacGregor, a spokesman for the center.

''I'M Peter Pan,'' Bernie Loomis said happily. Coming from a large, heavyset man of 61, the claim seemed unlikely. But Mr. Loomis, who has spent 25 years at some of the nation's largest toy companies and is credited with multimillion-dollar toy hits like Star Wars, Strawberry Shortcake and Care Bears, never has to grow up. Not in his business.