March 9, 1987

LEAD: North Carolina, upset in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament final yesterday, still came away as the top-seeded team in the East Regional of the National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball tournament.

LEAD: The push for early deployment of a rudimentary defense against nuclear missiles is speeding up some areas of weapons research but hurting others, threatening to delay progress toward the long-term goal of protecting the nation from enemy attack, according to leading scientists in the Reagan Administration's anti-missile program.

LEAD: When Thomas H. Kean addressed a meeting of A.F.L.-C.I.O. leaders in Florida last month, like several potential candidates for President who also attended, he was asked to submit a videotape of himself.

LEAD: Can Roger B. Smith, the besieged chairman of the General Motors Corporation, turn the company around?

LEAD: Holy Cross Square has been renamed Revolution Square and is now graced with a billboard hailing Communism's trinity: Marx, Engels and Lenin.

LEAD: The remarkable successes by scientists in developing new means of combating some types of cancer and treating heart attack victims have led to a fight over the legal rights to market advances in biotechnology.

LEAD: The law that set up Federal subsidies for local transit systems was intended to benefit those who have little choice but to rely on public transportation, but some critics complain that those are not the people being helped.

LEAD: Anger Over CBS Cutbacks

LEAD: Almost abandoned by the public treasury that was supposed to care for them, 20 monuments in New York City have been put up for private adoption so they can survive an increasingly hostile environment.

LEAD: The white picket fence needs painting, the front gate sticks, the three fruit saplings have long since died, and, several times, David and Irma Rivera have missed their monthly mortgage payments.

LEAD: MONDAY, MARCH 9, 1987 The Economy The U.S. and Japan are headed for a trade confrontation more serious than any of the postwar period, Government officials and private analysts believe. Attitudes have stiffened on both sides, making compromises less likely. [ Page A1. ] A growing number of biotechnology patent lawsuits could determine the fate of dozens of companies, reshape major portions of patent law and affect the prices paid by patients seeking relief from afflictions once thought incurable, experts say.

LEAD: Negotiators representing the Philippines and its bank creditors are expected to consider on Monday a new approach to foreign debt payments that, if successful, could be applied in other countries.