October 12, 1985

A ''one case, one judge'' system of assigning criminal and civil cases will be put into effect in New York State in January under guidelines just drafted by a court-appointed panel, officials said yesterday. Under the system, cases will be assigned to one judge from start to finish. Over time, the panel said, the system ''is expected to yield perceptible benefits in terms of the quality of judicial decision-making and the quality of administration of the case process.'' Under the existing master-calendar system, cases wend their way to different sets of courtrooms. These are designated to handle particular procedures, such as motions or trials. Courtrooms are presided over by judges who, to relieve caseloads elsewhere and to distribute workloads, are rotated, too.

A public prosecutor in Italy was reported tonight to have charged four Palestinians with murder and kidnapping in the hijacking of the cruise liner Achille Lauro. Italian officials also struggled to resolve a diplomatic impasse over what to do with two senior Palestinian officials who were aboard the Egyptian airliner with the four accused hijackers. The two were flown to Rome aboard the Egyptian airliner tonight. American officials urged Italy to investigate the two Palestinians to see if they, too, should be charged in the hijacking and other crimes. At the same time, the Egyptians were insisting that the two Palestinian representatives were their guests and should be immune from investigation.

President Reagan said today that a White House doctor removed additional skin cancer cells from his nose in a ''minor operation'' on Thursday. He said he had now been assured that ''my nose is clean.'' Mr. Reagan was wearing a patch on the right side of his nose when he appeared before reporters to discuss the Navy's successful interception of an Egyptian plane carrying Palestinian hijackers on Thursday. He said he was announcing the skin removal because ''I figured you might ask'' about the patch.

President Reagan expressed confidence today that the diversion of the cruise ship hijackers to Italy had ''sent a message to terrorists everywhere: 'You can run, but you can't hide.' '' As legislators of both parties warmly praised the President's decision to order Navy F-14 jets to intercept an Egyptian airliner carrying four suspected terrorists on Thursday, the White House announced that the United States would seek to extradite the Palestinians from Italy. The Italian Government is planning to place the four on trial for the ship hijacking and the murder of a wheelchair-bound New Yorker, Leon Klinghoffer. ''What we want is justice done,'' Mr. Reagan said at a brief White House news conference. ''They could be tried in both countries.''

Shortly after noon Thursday, Eastern daylight time, President Reagan conferred in a private office at a cake factory near Chicago and, after weighing the risks, decided to try to intercept an Egyptian civilian jet with United States fighter aircraft. Mr. Reagan was told that intelligence experts expected that the plane would soon be flying from Cairo with the four hijackers of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro, and the President decided to try and force them away from a safe haven and into a court of justice. His order was racing through Pentagon channels by 1:30 P.M. The bold plan for an airborne operation to seize some initiative from international terrorists was conceived and presented to the President early Thursday morning, according to White House officials. Fighter Planes Are Scrambled After he gave initial approval at midday in Illinois, F-14 fighter planes were scrambled from the American aircraft carrier Saratoga and were flying over the Mediterranean at 2:15 P.M. Eastern time - it was already evening in Europe - to await his final order. At 4:37 P.M., as he returned to Washington on Air Force One after his visit to the Chicago area, the President received confirmation that the Egyptian plane had taken off 22 minutes earlier, and he issued his final instruction to have the armed fighters carry out the interception plan.