LEAD: When Westley Allan Dodd was arrested in November and charged with killing three young boys in this Columbia River community, his case provided critics of the legal system with a tragic demonstration of their argument that the law has failed to protect society from sex offenders.

Therapy for Child Molesters: Many Doubt That It Works

LEAD: Despite some seemingly spectacular successes, the drug war in South America is not going well. Critics say the American military attack on Panama, justified in part as an anti-drug initiative, has only fragmented what is already a largely ineffective effort.

  Battle Against Cocaine Traffic Is Languishing in South America

LEAD:    In Japan, Year of the Horse       Japanese observed a national New Year's ritual combining a Times Square-like countdown and Eastern mysticism. Page 3.       Worry Over Khmer Rouge       Prime Minister Hun Sen of Cambodia said the Khmer Rouge had obtained American arms from non-Communist guerrilla factions.

INSIDE

LEAD: With the impasse over the fate of Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega entering its second week, the new President of Panama and his Attorney General disagreed today over whether to file charges against the deposed strongman or leave the question of his prosecution to the United States.

PANAMA OFFICIALS SPLIT ON NORIEGA

LEAD: ''Personally I'm optimistic on everything,'' said 10-year-old Chris Park, pausing to contemplate the minting of a crisp new decade and a historic changeover at City Hall -New York's first new Mayor in his lifetime.

New Year, New Mayor and New Hopes

LEAD: Senator Sam Nunn, the leading Democratic figure on military issues on Capitol Hill, says the United States should seek deeper cuts in American and Soviet troop strength in Europe than the Bush Administration has proposed in arms negotiations.

Nunn Says U.S. Should Negotiate Deeper Cuts on Troops in Europe

LEAD: Confronted by growing demands that the Communist Party dissolve itself, top officials of this country's old order say they will call a special congress to dismantle the disgraced party even before free elections are held in April.

  OFFICERS SAY PARTY IN RUMANIA PLANS TO DISSOLVE ITSELF

LEAD: At the stroke of midnight, Poland becomes the first Eastern European country to leap into the capitalist era.

  In Poland, Capitalism Brings Hope Tempered With Worry

LEAD: Because of holiday production requirements, The Times is printed today in two sections.

Holiday Box

LEAD: Morocco appealed for help today in its struggle to keep a 230-square-mile oil slick away from its coastline and to halt the spill that began when an Iranian tanker was damaged in an explosion nearly two weeks ago.

Morocco Pleads for Aid as Oil From Huge Spill Nears Coast

LEAD:    INTERNATIONAL    2-9       The Communist Party in Rumania will dismantle itself during a special congress that top officials of the ousted Government will call before free elections are held in April.    Page 1       Helicopter pilot describes Ceausescu's escape attempt    6

NEWS SUMMARY

LEAD: President Corazon C. Aquino announced changes in her Cabinet today in the aftermath of the military mutiny against her Government earlier this month.

Aquino Reorganizes Her Cabinet

LEAD: ''It's nice to have a black Mayor, and it'd be even better if he could really do something about the crime and about the homeless. The best thing about New York is when people really want to get together and do something, people really do get together.''       -Michael Kanatous, of Brooklyn. [30:1.

Quotation of the Day

LEAD: Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir today dismissed Science Minister Ezer Weizman from the Israeli Cabinet, saying the influential Labor Party minister had met with leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization and given them advice on how to thwart a Government peace initiative.

Shamir Dismisses Weizman From Israel's Government

LEAD: Former President Chun Doo Hwan testified for the first time today about his repressive eight-year martial rule over South Korea, but he was cut short as a melee broke out in the National Assembly and walked out amid screams, curses and shoving.

A Melee Interrupts Testimony by Chun

LEAD: A few seconds before midnight, the chief priest of a small hilltop sanctuary known as Sengen Shrine fidgeted in his scarlet robes and looked nervously at his watch while listening to the radio for the electronic beep signaling the arrival of the Year of the Horse.

Praying In The Year In Japan

LEAD: An article in Business Day on Saturday about economists' views of changes in Eastern Europe misidentified a Princeton University professor. He is Alan Blinder.

Correction

LEAD: Fanyana Zwane was watching television with two of his sons one evening last August when two Soviet-made hand grenades smashed a window and exploded in their living room, seriously wounding 12-year-old Gabriel. The neighborhood in the black township of Soweto, where the Zwanes live, was shocked but not surprised.

Soweto Journal;   To Be Black and a Police Officer: Perils and Pride

LEAD: Prime Minister Hun Sen expressed concern today that Khmer Rouge forces were coordinating military operations and strategy with non-Communist guerrilla armies supported by the United States, and he said the Khmer Rouge had obtained weapons from the non-Communist factions.

CAMBODIA ASSERTS U.S. GUERRILLA TIES

LEAD: Nicolae Ceausescu's brief and vain attempt to escape capture was described today by his helicopter pilot as a scrambled flight in which crew members were held at gunpoint and one of them sat in the Rumanian dictator's lap.

  Pilot of Helicopter Describes Ceausescu's Escape Attempt

LEAD: The Soviet nation bid an ambivalent adieu to 1989 in midnight revels, joining President Mikhail S. Gorbachev in expressing regret over the ''bitterness'' of the withered economy while hailing the ''waves of revolutionary renewal'' that have tattered the Kremlin's Eastern European bloc.

  In a Land Without Abundance, Joy in the New Year Has Limits

LEAD: Israel paid thousands of dollars in cash to Nicolae Ceausescu for every Rumanian Jew he allowed to emigrate for two decades, an Israeli newspaper reported.

  An Israeli Paper Says Jews Were Released And Ceausescu Paid

LEAD: Neil Kinnock, leader of the opposition Labor Party, will meet with President Mikhail S. Gorbachev in Moscow on Jan. 16, a party spokesman said today. No details of the visit were available, the spokesman said.

  Kinnock to Meet Gorbachev

LEAD: Local Communist authorities in the Bulgarian town of Kardzhali have defied party orders to restore full civil rights to the Turkish minority, jeopardizing Government efforts to reassure the Muslim population.

  Town in Bulgaria Defies Order to Give Muslims Full Rights

LEAD: Nicolae Ceausescu's eldest brother, Marin, found hanged in a Viennese cellar on Thursday, may have played a role in espionage in Western Europe, Austria's Interior Minister has asserted.

  Brother of Ceausescu Was Suspected as Spy

Julia Glushko is an Israeli former tennis player.

Julia Glushko, Israeli tennis player

Julia_Glushko

Ali Maâloul is a retired Tunisian footballer who used to play as a left-back for Egyptian Premier League club Al Ahly and the Tunisia national team.

Ali Maâloul, Tunisian football player

Ali_Maâloul

David Norman Dinkins was an American politician, lawyer, and author who served as the 106th mayor of New York City from 1990 to 1993.

David Dinkins is sworn in as New York City's first black mayor.

January 1, 1990

Headlines from January 1, 1990

Therapy for Child Molesters: Many Doubt That It Works

Battle Against Cocaine Traffic Is Languishing in South America

INSIDE

PANAMA OFFICIALS SPLIT ON NORIEGA

New Year, New Mayor and New Hopes

Billboard 200

...But Seriously

Girl You Know It's True

Storm Front

Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814

Forever Your Girl

Notable Births

Historical Events

Historical Context for January 1, 1990