December 9, 1989

LEAD: Arrivals and departure delays over 15 minutes have grown sharply at New york area airports this year, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. LaGuardia has one of the worst records in the country. Article, page 27.

LEAD: Whatever else they were saying at a party congress tonight, the East German Communists had really gathered to bury the remnants of a party that had ruled with an iron hand for 40 years, in the hope that something new could still sprout in its place.

LEAD: Czechoslovakia's acting Prime Minister, in his second day in office, said tonight that he wanted half his cabinet to be made up of people outside political parties. Such a cabinet would put the Communists in a minority and go a long way toward meeting opposition demands.

LEAD: The long-running inquiry into Pentagon fraud edged closer to former senior Defense Department officials today when a New York military contracting company admitted in court that it had illegally obtained inside purchasing information from the Navy and Air Force.

LEAD: East Germany's Communist Party met in an emergency congress this morning and debated its own survival, nominating a lawyer as its new chairman.