LEAD: RALPH LAUREN, Oscar de la Renta, Carolyne Roehm. Rat-tat-tat. Three major collections back to back yesterday. Together they embrace the major trends as the fall and winter fashion openings in New York pass the halfway mark. The sweep is vast, from Mr. Lauren's minimalist approach to the sumptuous luxury of Mr.

3 Collections, From Stark To Sumptuous

LEAD: Capping a two-year investigation, the Federal Communications Commission ruled yesterday that the American Telephone and Telegraph Company had illegally offered customized telephone networks to large business customers at special prices, terms and conditions.

A.T.&T. Cited On Illegal Service

LEAD: The symbol of radical activism and the founder of the Yippie movement in the 1960's was found dead in his home in New Hope, Pa. He was 52 years old.

Abbie Hoffman Dies

LEAD: Seeking ways to lighten its debt burden, Mexico will ask its American creditors and other foreign bankers to cut the value of their loans by $20 billion to $30 billion, international banking officials said today.

Mexico Will Seek Debt Relief

LEAD: WITH the new International Antique Dealers Show to open this fall at the Seventh Regiment Armory on Park Avenue at 66th Street, long the site of the prestigious Winter Antiques Show, rumblings are heard of a so-called Antiques War. What better place for a war than the century-old armory, a Victorian dream of a medieval French fortress?

Antiques War: Jousting For Position

LEAD: An Israeli court indicted the leader of Israel's settlers' movement today, accusing him of killing a Palestinian and wounding another after he was stoned outside his settlement last fall.

SETTLERS' LEADER INDICTED IN ISRAEL IN DEATH OF ARAB

LEAD: Despite extensive programs to prevent students from dropping out of New York City schools, the number of students who left before graduating remained virtually unchanged last year and is not expected to be much better this year, figures released yesterday by the Board of Education indicated.

Dropout Rate Unchanged, Despite More Spending

LEAD:  COMPANIES  Peter V. Ueberroth's effort to buy Eastern collapsed. Despite intense talks, the airline's unions refused to compromise on their demand that a trustee be appointed to oversee the company's transition out of bankruptcy. The unions are adamant that Frank Lorenzo, the chairman of Eastern's parent, play no role in the transition.

BUSINESS DIGEST

LEAD: Officials from two countries told a gruesome story today of drugs, ritual murder and the occult that has begun to unfold at a remote ranch in the bleak, empty countryside near the United States border.

Drugs, Death and the Occult Meet In Grisly Inquiry at Mexico Border

LEAD: A Lebanese-American student apparently was the unwitting carrier of the bomb on Pan Am Flight 103, Administration officials said. Page A9.

U.S. Identifies Bomb Carrier

LEAD: A state official who spent millions in unauthorized money to establish new programs for the mentally retarded has created a furor here. And the Kean administration is scrambling to figure out just how he did it and how to pay for the programs.

Unapproved Spending Upsets Trenton

LEAD: The House ethics committee, approaching the end of its long investigation, has voted to charge Speaker Jim Wright with violating a series of House rules, officials on Capitol Hill said today.

ETHICS UNIT READY TO CHARGE WRIGHT, DEMOCRATS REPORT

LEAD: With advertisements photographed and directed by Richard Avedon, the International Business Machines Corporation yesterday introduced its first major advertising campaign since shifting its $130 million account last year.

I.B.M.'s New Theme: We Care

LEAD: Taxpayers may be confused or they may be cheating, but the Internal Revenue Service is uncovering evidence that many people are not complying with changes in the tax code that were enacted in 1986.

U.S. Says Many Taxpayers Fail to Follow '86 Revision

LEAD: There is mayoral candidate Ronald S. Lauder, between innings in a Yankees game on television, staring into the camera and talking about cutting cronyism, waste and fraud in city government.

Campaign Matters; Tune In Comedy, Drama or Sports, You'll Get Lauder

LEAD: Additional documents released in the trial of Oliver L. North show that George Bush, as Vice President, supported a 1985 plan to increase covert aid to Honduras and thus was more aware than he has publicly acknowledged of Reagan Administration efforts to circumvent a Congressional ban on military aid to the Nicaraguan rebels.

Trial Hints at Wider Role For Bush in Aid to Contras

LEAD: The effort by Peter V. Ueberroth to buy Eastern Airlines collapsed yesterday after the carrier's striking unions refused to compromise on their demand that a trustee be appointed to oversee Eastern's transition out of bankruptcy.

Dispute on Trustee Blocks Sale of Eastern Airlines

LEAD:  Cheers and Skepticism For Fusion in a Jar

INSIDE

LEAD: With a little help from some audacious engineers and dedicated landscape architects, New York City is quietly creating a 399-acre, 505-foot-high pyramid of garbage at the Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island. And yes, they're going to use a deodorant specialist, too.

A Wonder Of Waste Rises on S.I.

LEAD: The SmithKline Beckman Corporation and the Beecham Group P.L.C. announced today that they plan to merge into a new company, SmithKline Beecham P.L.C., that would be the second-largest drug company in the world.

SmithKline, Beecham to Merge

LEAD: New York City, threatened with huge reductions in state aid and facing a large budget gap, is suffering an unexpected decline in revenues from several important local taxes amounting to $150 million this fiscal year and perhaps even more next year.

New York City Faces Big Cuts In Services

LEAD: Sugar Ray Robinson, the five-time world middleweight champion who was considered by many boxing experts to have been the best fighter in history, died yesterday in Culver City, Calif. He was 67 years old.

Sugar Ray Robinson, Boxing's 'Best,' Is Dead

LEAD: Retail gasoline prices have jumped sharply in the last two weeks, reaching their highest levels in more than three years. Prices at some service stations have gone up by 10 cents a gallon or more, or about 10 percent.

Gasoline Prices Post a Sharp Rise

LEAD: Officially, Judge Charles L. Brieant called the hearing set for this morning in Federal District Court in Manhattan to decide whether Anthony (Fat Tony) Salerno and eight other men are entitled to a new trial after their conviction last May on mob-related racketeering charges.

Federal Hearing to Focus on Judge's Words to Jurors

LEAD: Mr. Bush proposed far-reaching legislation on conflicts of interest, financial disclosure and campaign funds, but he did not mention a proposal to ban honorariums. Page B10.

President Offers Ethics Plan

Joshua Reynolds is a former Australian professional rugby league footballer who played as a five-eighth for Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs in the National Rugby League.

April 13, 1989

Headlines from April 13, 1989

3 Collections, From Stark To Sumptuous

A.T.&T. Cited On Illegal Service

Abbie Hoffman Dies

Mexico Will Seek Debt Relief

Antiques War: Jousting For Position

Billboard 200

Loc-ed After Dark

Electric Youth

Like A Prayer

Don't Be Cruel

Mystery Girl

Notable Births

Historical Context for April 13, 1989