October 2, 1991

A Flat Economic Outlook The Government index used for predicting the course of the economy was unchanged in August after six straight increases. Page D8. Cutting Teen-Age Pregnancy A youth organization says an inexpensive program sharply reduced the incidence of teen-age pregnancy in a four-city test. Page A14. A Las Vegas Makeover MGM Grand is betting $1 billion on a resort complex to turn Las Vegas "from a gambling town into the great American vacation spot." Page D1. Soviet Military Cuts A Soviet official said the size of the armed forces would be cut by about half, and missile units were reported being taken off alert. Page A6.

The Justice Department has blocked the testimony of two key witnesses scheduled to appear Wednesday at a Senate hearing on the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, causing Senator John F. Kerry, chairman of the panel, to cancel the hearing. The cancellation is the latest incident in a dispute between Senate investigators and the Justice Department. The Senate believes that the Justice Department has tried to hamper the Senate investigation, and the Justice Department said it feared that the Congressional inquiry could undermine its own investigation of the bank.

The New York State insurance superintendent yesterday denied a request by Empire Blue Cross-Blue Shield to raise the rates of 730,000 customers as much as 50 percent but said he would reconsider the request if the State Legislature does not reform the industry by April. The challenge to the state's political leaders comes as Blue Cross tries to confront serious financial problems by sharing its burdens with the state's other insurers.

COMPANIES Time Warner is reportedly close to a deal that would raise $1 billion from Toshiba and C. Itoh. [ Page D1. ] Chrysler raised about $350 million with a successful sale of new common stock to a syndicate of investment banks. [ D1. ]

THE term multicultural has been deployed with such abandon lately that Joseph Ben-Moha, the owner of the Roxy Deli, began to take a more philosophical view of dumplings. "I look at my kreplach and I say, 'What makes you different from my pirogi?' " he said. "And then I must think, 'What makes a wonton not a kreplach, a kreplach not a pirogi, a pirogi not a wonton?' "