October 11, 1990

LEAD: Saks Fifth Avenue, which has been owned by a Middle East financial company since last spring, announced a five-year strategic program yesterday that calls for a cut of 700 jobs, capital investments of $250 million and plans for an additional chain of small fashion specialty shops.

LEAD: The final chapter in the four-year investigation of Michael R. Milken begins today with a hearing to address a crucial question: Were the crimes of the former financier part of a wide scheme to manipulate markets illegally for his own gain, or were they simply isolated cases of going too far to help a client?

LEAD: Dave Stewart threw a four-hit victory and Roger Clemens threw a second-inning temper tantrum yesterday as the Oakland Athletics beat the Boston Red Sox, 3-1, to win the American League pennant and advance to the World Series for the third straight year.

LEAD: WANTED: Top-notch policy maker with firm grasp of accounting theory/ business practice. Needed to make accounting rules for Corporate America. Bucolic Connecticut setting, three-and-a-half-year commitment preferred. Starting salary $290,000.

LEAD: In the pre-sentencing hearing of Michael R. Milken, the Government plans to present evidence about what it contends are illegal actions in three transaction. The accusations have all been denied by the defense. They involve these charges: WICKES COMPANIES

LEAD: CONSIDER the newborn infant. So small. So wrinkled. Above all, so helpless.

LEAD: Most of the funds used to pay for a new 5.5 percent contract for New York City teachers will come from a pension change based on earnings projections that are unusually optimistic for a public employee pension plan, experts said yesterday.

LEAD: On the surface, most Japanese view their country as a classless society prizing harmony and consensus among its many contending forces. Every once in a while, however, an incident occurs that exposes stresses, conflicts and anti-social behavior underneath the placid exterior.

LEAD: Two young men were arrested yesterday in the shooting of 10 people, most of them teen-agers, outside a Bronx housing project on Tuesday night, when a ''territorial dispute'' between two groups of youths turned into a brawl, the police said.

LEAD: The Economy

LEAD: CBS Inc. announced yesterday that its net income had fallen 30 percent in the third quarter.

LEAD: With real estate values going downhill and banks nationwide struggling to avoid being buried in the slide, anxieties are focusing on another group of lenders: life insurance companies.