May 11, 1990

LEAD: A 24-foot concrete floor slab, the skeletal remains of a tenement demolished years ago, collapsed in a pounding rain on a bleak hillside lot in the Bronx yesterday and killed three homeless men huddled underneath in a makeshift shelter, the police said.

LEAD: China today announced the release of 211 people jailed for taking part in the democracy movement last year, including several of the most prominent supporters of greater democracy. Diplomats described the action as an attempt to improve Beijing's relations with the West.

LEAD: New York City's Schools Chancellor, Joseph A. Fernandez, urged a state legislative panel yesterday to strip community school boards of almost all their hiring powers and to limit their authority to setting broad policy.

LEAD: Loyal Garner Jr. had been dead for only an hour when officials began the fight over his body and over who would rule on how he had died.

LEAD: John H. Sununu, President Bush's chief of staff, has taken an expanded role in White House political operations to fill a gap created by the prolonged illness of Lee Atwater, the Republican national chairman, Administration officials and party strategists say.

LEAD: Because of the Salute to Israel Parade, Fifth Avenue from 57th to 86th Streets will be closed on Sunday from 11 A.M. to 5 P.M.

LEAD: The tensions that fueled the big anti-Government demonstrations in South Korea Wednesday have been building for months. And the main causes of the rising discontent have been the troubles of this nation's economy and what is seen to be the Government's inept, heavy-handed response.

LEAD: The Senate today approved a measure that would allow Federal workers to participate in many partisan political activities from which they have been excluded for 50 years.

LEAD: THE cult of rockabilly lives on, more than 30 years after its heyday and long after many of its original purveyors have faded into obscurity. The Cramps and Flat Duo Jets, two rockabilly-influenced bands intent on carrying that music's raunchy energy and grisly passion into the 90's, will perform tomorrow night at the

LEAD: Downstairs in occupied Milledoler Hall at Rutgers University, Amiri Baraka, the poet, was reading from his works and stoking the spirits of student protesters seeking, among other demands, a freeze on tuition and tenure for him.

LEAD: U.S. Criticism of Israel The United States is working on a proposed United Nations resolution criticizing Israeli settlements in occupied territories. Page A3. Makeshift Home Is a Tomb A concrete floor slab in the Bronx collapsed in a pounding rain, killing three homeless people huddled underneath in a makeshift shelter.

LEAD: After years of sitting on the sidelines of the space business, some of Japan's largest industrial and electronics companies are joining forces in the country's first commercial venture to launch private satellites into orbit, Government and industry executives say.