April 8, 1988

LEAD: JAMAICAN reggae - bass heavy, beat heavy, political and sensuous - has made its way around the globe, leaving its calling card wherever it goes. Whether it is the preachifying reggae of Bob Marley or the watered-down reggae of the Police, the music has influenced the blandest of pop songs and raised political issues where they had not been raised before.

LEAD: Because of Eastern Orthodox Good Friday and the seventh and eighth days of Passover, alternate-side parking rules are suspended in New York City today and tomorrow. Other regulations remain in effect.

LEAD: The Soviet Union and Afghanistan said today that they believed the last barriers to a negotiated settlement of the war in Afghanistan had been eliminated.

LEAD: Marion Dunlevy and Nancy Hanson live in attractive middle-class homes next to each other on Monroe Street here. They get along miserably. ''I haven't talked to her in 20 years!'' Mrs. Dunlevy said.

LEAD: A rise in the use of machine pistols by drug dealers in New York - and a decision to issue submachine guns this month to 300 Federal drug agents in the region - has officials arguing about the safest way to arm agents and the police in the densely populated city.