December 4, 1986

The same planes and crews that were contracted by the State Department to carry ''humanitarian aid'' to the Nicaraguan rebels were used at other times to supply them with weapons, according to two sources who worked in the covert program. The planes, the sources said, took the nonlethal supplies from the United States to Honduras and El Salvador, were unloaded in those countries and were then refilled with weapons from Europe. The weapons usually went to the camps of the rebels, called contras, just outside Nicaragua. At the time, early this year, a Congressional ban against United States military help for the rebels was in effect. Administration officials maintain that they abided by the prohibition.

In the more than three months of publicity and pretrial maneuvering since the death of Jennifer Dawn Levin, the killing of the 18-year-old in Central Park has grown from a criminal case into a conflict over the treatment of women under the law, according to lawyers, journalists and feminists who have followed the case. In many ways, those who have watched the progress of the Levin case say, it has come to resemble less a murder prosecution than the most volatile sort of rape trial - one in which the victim's reputation, not the question of whether she was assaulted, is made the primary issue. The turning point occurred one day after the killing, when the police revealed that Miss Levin had not been slain by a stranger, as initially thought, but had chosen to enter Central Park at 4:30 A.M. on Aug. 26 with Robert E. Chambers Jr. - the 20-year-old now accused of her murder. From that time on, Mr. Chambers has maintained through his lawyer, Jack T. Litman, that he accidentally choked Miss Levin when she was hurting him during a sexual episode. Some newspapers, in turn, have reported Mr. Chambers's contention in headlines like ''Wild Sex Killed Jenny,'' ''Sex Play 'Got Rough,' '' and '' 'She Raped Me.' ''

International Japan's ruling party outlined sweeping tax changes that were partly influenced by the extensive tax revision in the U.S. The shifts are intended to make Japan's tax system fairer, to stimulate its economy and to help ease its huge budget deficit. The moves may help answer appeals by the U.S. and other major trading partners for actions by Japan to encourage domestic spending. The proposal includes a cut in income taxes, a new value-added sales tax and the abolition of tax-free savings accounts. [ Page A1. ] Rupert Murdoch offered to buy the largest newspaper group in Australia, The Herald and Weekly Times, for $1.17 billion. The deal, which would be subject to Australia's comparatively mild antitrust laws, would greatly increase the Australian holdings of Mr. Murdoch, whose global media empire includes The New York Post. The Herald group was created by his father, Sir Keith Murdoch. [ D1. ]

Faced with one of the most serious scandals to strike the commodities industry, executives of the First Commodity Corporation said today that they planned to liquidate their company and sell its assets to an unnamed British buyer. First Commodity, based here, faces a host of charges: by Federal agencies, which are seeking to withdraw its license as a commodities dealer; by the MidAmerica Commodity Exchange in Chicago, which has revoked its membership, and by more than 100 former clients, who say First Commodity bilked them out of millions of dollars through misrepresentation and fraud. The charges culminated in a Nov. 24 raid on First Commodity's offices here in which 60 agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internal Revenue Service and United States Postal Service, brandishing pistols and a search warrant, carted off enough business records to fill two 25-foot-long trucks. 'Up to the Hilt' ''We've had it up to the hilt, and we are closing down,'' said Richard Schleicher, a 41-year-old executive who co-founded First Commodity in 1973 with his brother, Donald, 48. The firm, with $40.8 million in revenues, 300 salespeople and 10 branch offices around the country, last year ranked among the nation's largest retail merchants of commodities futures contracts.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York has warned the Koch administration that because of a recent court agreement, it is giving serious consideration to discontinuing the foster care it now provides to more than 3,000 city youngsters. The archdiocese's opposition is not limited to one issue, but it centers on the court requirement that foster children have ''meaningful access'' to family-planning information, services and counseling. Under existing state and Federal laws and regulations, teen-agers receiving public assistance - which includes all children in foster care - cannot be deprived of contraception and abortion services. Meeting at City Hall Msgr. James J. Murray of Catholic Charities, the service arm of the archdiocese, told the city's First Deputy Mayor, Stanley Brezenoff, about the archdiocese's concerns at a City Hall meeting last week.