July 11, 1994

With the same audacity he uses to score his many goals, Hristo Stoichkov has insisted, twice now, that God is a Bulgarian. That's a bit much, but in this World Cup, Cinderella certainly is a Bulgarian. The unglamorous, little-noticed team from Eastern Europe sent the regal defending champions home early today, upsetting Germany in the quarterfinals, 2-1, on two late goals. One came, almost inevitably, from the magic foot of Stoichkov. The other came from the bald head of Yordan Lechkov.

The three big broadcast networks had few second thoughts last week about clearing out almost all of their daytime schedules to cover the preliminary hearing in the O. J. Simpson murder case. Their decisions were relatively easy for two main reasons: the courtroom coverage wasn't costing them all that much, and there was just too much interest in the story to allow viewers to slip away somewhere else, like CNN.

After only one California batter yesterday afternoon, the big crowd at Yankee Stadium was grumbling about Terry Mulholland, the starting pitcher for the home team. The batter was Chad Curtis and he walked. The grumble swelled into a loud chorus of booing when the second hitter, Spike Owen, put a home run over the left-field wall to give the Angels a 2-0 lead. The vocal locals might have been harsher when Mulholland left the mound for good early in the fifth inning had not Buck Showalter, the manager, insisted on walking back to the dugout alongside him, a move that helped hold the catcalls to a gentle roar.

A nationwide poll of teen-agers found that boys are substantially more traditional than girls in their expectations of the family life they will have as adults. The girls surveyed were more likely than the boys to say that they could have a happy life even if they did not marry and that they would consider becoming a single parent. And 86 percent of the girls said they expected to work outside the home while married, while only 7 percent said they did not.

In 1969, the Federal Government passed a tax law declaring that private charities generally could no longer own a controlling stake in a profit-making business. Yet in 1979 the Shubert Foundation, through an inspired strategy, managed to avoid giving up its ownership of the Shubert theater chain. This was not illegal, although some have questioned it. It met the letter of the law and represented a great coup for the foundation.

I.R.S. TAX BREAK IS SHUBERT'S BIG SCRIPT Despite a 1969 tax law generally forbidding charities to control profit-making businesses, the Shubert Foundation, through an inspired strategy, managed to avoid giving up its ownership of the Shubert theater chain. The unusual 1979 tax ruling represented a great coup for the foundation, letting the Shubert theater empire remain intact, and enabling the foundation to grow and prosper. A1.

The Economy Another rise in interest rates is expected by many credit market analysts and traders. The employment report for June, which was released on Friday, showed economic strength and reinforced their view that the Federal Reserve will move on rates for a fifth time this year. [ Page D1. ]

Questioning a 'Technocrat' When the Senate takes up the nomination of Judge Stephen G. Breyer to the Supreme Court, his views of regulation will take center stage. Page A13. Worried by CNN Dropping soap operas for the O. J. Simpson proceedings, the big three networks showed a fear of their cable rival. Business Day, page D1. A Vote on United Airlines Shareholders will decide tomorrow on the employees' offer of wage and work-rule concessions in return for 55 percent of the company. Page D1. A2 Arts

Interest rates, particularly those controlled by the Federal Reserve Board, are headed higher, many credit market analysts and traders seem certain. The only unresolved questions, they say, are the timing and the size of the next Fed increase. What they had viewed as a likely increase in the overnight Federal funds rate turned Friday into a virtual certainty, when the Labor Department released a skein of new and revised employment figures for April, May and June that suggested the economy was boiling along in the second quarter.

Despite prodding from President Clinton, President Boris N. Yeltsin said today that he would not meet a commitment to withdraw all Russian forces from the Baltic countries by Aug. 31. While promising that Latvia would join Lithuania by that date in finally being free of Russian troops, Mr. Yeltsin said he would not pull the remaining 2,000 Russian soldiers out of Estonia until Estonia agreed to grant wider rights to retiring officers who stay.

As the boards of CBS and QVC prepare to meet this week to vote on a merger of the two companies, Wall Street and Hollywood executives continue to raise the possibility that the Walt Disney Company may emerge as a wild card in the deal. Ever since the merger announcement 11 days ago -- and even before -- many people in the television industry have been looking at Disney as a logical fit with a broadcast network. CBS is now at the center of much speculation about Disney simply because the network's merger plan with QVC opens a door to other potential bids.

Consumers of Cheerios and other popular General Mills products scarcely noticed. General Mills investors shrugged it off. But lawyers will dine for months, if not years, on the cereal giant's woes with sprayed oats. General Mills announced on June 15 that a contractor had been spraying imported oats headed for storage at its terminals in Duluth, Minn., and in Superior, Wis., with a pesticide called Dursban, instead of the federally approved and closely related product called Reldan 4E.