January 30, 1988

LEAD: In a hardening of its trade policy, the Reagan Administration announced today that it would end special trade preferences for four of the most powerful third-world economies: Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore.

LEAD: Attorney General Edwin Meese 3d was told in a 1985 memo from a close friend who wanted his help in arranging Government support for a billion-dollar Iraqi oil pipeline that the project would involve payments to the Israeli Labor Party, present and former United States Government officials said today.

LEAD: New York state and city investigators have videotaped court representatives in the act of taking valuables from apartments of people they thought were dead, according to people familiar with the unusual ''sting.''

LEAD: An Amtrak train bound from Washington to Boston derailed here early today when it struck a piece of maintenance equipment after being switched onto the wrong track, an Amtrak official said. Twenty-four people were hurt. The control tower operator responsible for setting the track switches left his post soon after the accident and could not be found, according to the official, John L.

LEAD: Postal Cuts in February