LEAD: After four days of American-sponsored talks, South Africa, Angola and Cuba announced this evening that they had agreed on ''a sequence of steps to achieve peace in southwestern Africa.''

3 NATIONS AGREE ON PEACE MOVES IN AFRICAN STRIFE

LEAD: Stung by Vice President Bush's attacks on his ability to defend the United States and keep the peace, Gov. Michael S. Dukakis struck back today by charging that his prospective Republican opponent ''doesn't have what it takes to lead this country when it comes to foreign policy.''

DUKAKIS QUESTIONS BUSH'S LEADERSHIP

INSIDE

LEAD: The pending changes in the nation's welfare system to require more recipients to work, enroll in job training or lose their benefits could steer tens of thousands of people to profit-making business and trade schools.

Changes in Welfare a Boon to Trade Schools

LEAD: The Circle K Corporation, the nation's second-largest convenience store chain, says it will cut off the medical coverage of employees who become sick or injured as a result of AIDS, alcohol, drug abuse or self-inflicted wounds.

Company Halting Health Plan On Some 'Life Style' Illnesses

LEAD: A surge in the number of new jobs created in July suggests that the economy is gathering new momentum that could increase the rate of inflation, Government figures showed today.

JOB SURGE SPURS INFLATION WORRY

LEAD: The judge in the Iran-contra case announced today that the trial of Oliver L. North, the former White House aide, would be delayed until at least mid-November to give lawyers extra time to sort through thousands of classified documents.

IRAN-CONTRA TRIAL OF NORTH PUT OFF TILL PAST ELECTION

LEAD: A Federal housing official said today that reaching a compromise in the desegregation dispute here, as called for by Governor Cuomo, posed great difficulties.

U.S. Official Casts Doubt on Prospects For Yonkers Accord

LEAD: Treasury Secretary James A. Baker 3d resigned today to join Vice President Bush's Presidential campaign, completing the dismantling of the White House team that gave President Reagan his greatest successes.

Baker Resigns to Work for Bush; Brady Is Named for Treasury Job

LEAD: ''One has to be hypersensitive to appearances of impropriety as well as impropriety itself.

Quotation of the Day

LEAD: Fire has destroyed at least 60 percent of Brazil's National Park of the Rheas, one of the richest wildlife preserves in South America, officials said today.

Fire Damages Brazilian Park

LEAD:  International 2-5, 26  South Africa, Angola and Cuba said that they had agreed on a plan for steps to end conflicts in southern Africa. A communique issued after four days of American-sponsored talks gave no details on the accord. Page 1  A United Nations peacekeeping force of 250 members would be sent to monitor any cease-fire agreement between Iran and Iraq, Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar told the Security Council.

NEWS SUMMARY

LEAD: A United States Appeals Court panel today upheld the Reagan Administration's order to close an information office in Washington affiliated with the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Palestinians Lose in a U.S. Court

LEAD: Because of a production error, an art review on page C22 in Weekend yesterday included several misplaced lines from another review.

Corrections

LEAD: The finding that crew errors were partly responsible for the shooting down of an Iranian civilian airliner by an American warship in the Persian Gulf last month points up a fundamental shortcoming of American military forces. Since the end of World

U.S. as Peacekeeper: When Role Blurs

LEAD: Because of an editing error, an article yesterday about a company's closing as a result of the Pentagon fraud inquiry misidentified the two companies whose offices were searched in June by Federal investigators. They were the Unisys Corporation and Armtec Inc. - not the United Technologies Corporation and Diagnostic/Retrieval Systems Inc.

LEAD: An article yesterday about the movie ''The Last Temptation of Christ'' misstated the church affiliation of the Rev. Donald Wildmon, an opponent of the film. He is a minister of the United Methodist Church, not a Baptist.

LEAD: The On Stage column in Weekend on July 29 gave an incorrect location and starting date for a summer stock production of ''A Walk in the Woods.''

LEAD: Like many Palestinians, Dr. Yasir Obeid, Jordan's chief health administrator in the West Bank, was angry but optimistic today.

Arabs Seeing Pay Cut as 'Autonomy'

LEAD: Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar told the Security Council today that he plans to a send a 250-member peacekeeping force to monitor any cease-fire agreement between Iran and Iraq and the disengagement of their forces, diplomats said.

U.N. Plans 250 Peacekeepers for Gulf

LEAD: Because of an editing error, an article yesterday about the resignation of Sergiu Comissiona as music director of the New York City Opera misattributed an interpretive comment about the company's prospects. The statement - that the progress made by the opera's orchestra during the last year might be dissipated with Mr.

LEAD: An unidentified gunman killed Pakistan's most prominent Shiite Moslem clergyman here today, leading to violent protests and to fears of a new outbreak of sectarian killings.

Leader of Pakistan's Shiites Is Killed, Spurring Protests

LEAD: It is hard work getting Japanese to relax. But the summer holidays are looming, and the Labor Ministry is gearing up for a tough campaign.

It's Official! Vacations Really Aren't Un-Japanese

LEAD: Bishops from Anglican churches around the world voted by a narrow margin today to allow England to continue appointing the Archbishop of Canterbury, the leader of the Anglican Communion.

England Still Has Final Word On Archbishop of Canterbury

LEAD: Several members of the House and the Senate wrote to President Reagan today to oppose amending a recently signed treaty that allows plutonium shipments from Europe to Japan. The treaty allows shipments by air, and the changes would permit transportation by sea.

August 6, 1988

Headlines from August 6, 1988

3 NATIONS AGREE ON PEACE MOVES IN AFRICAN STRIFE

DUKAKIS QUESTIONS BUSH'S LEADERSHIP

INSIDE

Changes in Welfare a Boon to Trade Schools

Company Halting Health Plan On Some 'Life Style' Illnesses

Billboard 200

Appetite For Destruction

Hysteria

Roll With It

Tracy Chapman

Dirty Dancing

Historical Context for August 6, 1988