May 26, 1984

The Dominican Republic suspended negotiations with the International Monetary Fund on Thursday after rejecting demands that gasoline prices be raised 50 percent, Dominican officials said today. A spokesman for President Salvador Jorge Blanco said the Government made the moves because it feared that a gasoline price increase would set off more violence in the country. Increases of up to 200 percent in the prices of some foods and most imported goods in late April resulted in three days of street riots that left about 60 people dead and hundreds injured. Some Latin American leaders said the violence was evidence that tough austerity conditions being demanded by the monetary fund in return for financial help had gone beyond the point of social tolerance.

The Sandinista Government announced Thursday night that it would allow opposition parties 12 weeks to wage the first national political campaign since the 1979 guerrilla takeover. But opposition leaders said in a joint statement that they would refuse to take part unless ''laws which violate human rights'' are repealed. ''The calendar really isn't the point,'' said Mario Rappaccioli, a leader of the Democratic Conservative Party. ''If conditions for a free election do not exist, it doesn't matter if they give us two years to campaign.''

Walter F. Mondale was booed by workers as he urged the closing of the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant. Page 8. COLUMBUS, Ohio, May 25 - Walter F. Mondale is winning additional delegates to the Democratic National Convention almost every day because of his strength among party officials and the way the party's rules work to his advantage. Ohio's Democratic leaders, for example, voted Thursday night to fill out their delegation with Mondale supporters, even though Mr. Mondale lost the Ohio Presidential primary on May 8 to Senator Gary Hart.

When it comes to taxis in New York City, there is probably only one thing the industry is agreed on: If it's Friday, 5 P.M. and raining, chances are you are not going to find one. Beyond that there is little consensus - not on whether there should be more taxis, not on what kind, not even on the number of taxis now operating. The debates continue, as do the complaints that some neighborhoods lack service, that some drivers are incapable of finding the Empire State Building, and that some cars appear to double as trash cans. But while a passenger looking for a taxi in New York City still faces a broad assortment of cars - everything from the highly regulated medallion yellow cabs to the sometimes unlicensed and uninsured gypsies - there are some changes in the making. Number of Medallions Limited The number of cab medallions, which are displayed on the hood of vehicles, is strictly limited. Only cabs with the medallions can be painted yellow, and only those cabs are allowed to pick up street hails.

When The Boston Herald's gossip columnist reported that a fancy Boston restaurant had refused to seat former President Jimmy Carter because he was not wearing a coat and necktie, other news organizations found the story too amusing not to print and too innocuous to need verification. The story was inaccurate. This is a study of how it came to be published and then widely repeated around the nation. Not only did the rebuff never happen, according to Carter aides, but neither The Herald nor any other news organization ever called to ask about it before carrying the report. An official at the Copley Plaza, where the restaurant is located, said that something similar did happen, but it was eight years ago.