PRESS DIGEST - New York Times business news - Sept 1

Sept 1 (Reuters) - The following were the top stories in the New York Times business pages on Tuesday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

* The team that could find a way to pay General Motors Co [GM.UL] retirees and save the government money is being scrutinized by the government.

* China is set to tighten its hammerlock on the market for some of the world's most obscure but valuable minerals.

* Khosla Ventures, the firm Vinod Khosla founded in 2004 after leaving Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, is announcing on Tuesday that it has raised $1.1 billion in two funds that will invest in green technology and information technology start-ups.

* EBay Inc (EBAY.O) plans to announce on Tuesday a deal to sell its Skype Internet calling division to a group of private investors, according to two people briefed on the company's plans.

* Most of the nation's largest tobacco companies filed a free-speech lawsuit on Monday in Kentucky to try to stop a landmark federal law from curtailing their marketing or forcing them to print graphic warnings on the top half of cigarette packages next year.

* Walt Disney Co (DIS.N) said on Monday that it would pay cash and stock to acquire Marvel Entertainment Inc MVL.N, the comic book publisher and movie studio whose library of 5,000 characters includes some of the world's best-known superheroes: Spider-Man, the X-Men, Thor, Iron Man and the Fantastic Four.

* Restrictions on the sale of incandescent bulbs begin going into effect across most of Europe on Tuesday in the continent's latest effort to get people to save energy and combat global warming. But even advocates concede the change is proving problematic.

* Japan's opposition party won an overwhelming victory at the polls on Sunday pledging to increase social welfare, better protect workers and do away with American-style, pro-market reforms to lead the country out of its long slump.

* The oil giant Chevron Corp (CVX.N) said Monday that it had obtained video recordings of meetings in Ecuador this year that appear to reveal a bribery scheme connected to a $27 billion lawsuit the company faces over environmental damage at oil fields it operated in remote areas of the Amazon forest in Ecuador.

* The oil field services company Baker Hughes Inc (BHI.N) said on Monday that it would buy a rival, BJ Services Co BJS.N, in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $5.5 billion.

* A federal judge upheld a jury's verdict that found that a private company run by Maurice R. Greenberg had not breached its duty of trust to the insurer the American International Group Inc (AIG.N).

* Lufthansa (LHAG.DE) and JetBlue Airways Corp (JBLU.O) signed a ticketing partnership on Monday, the first such commercial arrangement between the two since the German flag carrier bought a minority stake in the American low-fare airline more than 18 months ago.

* An investigation into possible violations by Porsche (PSHG_p.DE) regarding the trading of Volkswagen (VOWG.DE) shares has spread outside the sports-car maker's home base of Stuttgart to Frankfurt.

* American goods will face about $295 million in annual sanctions as a result of the United States' failure to eliminate illegal subsidies to domestic cotton growers, the World Trade Organization ruled on Monday.

* Boeing Co (BA.N) said Monday that the executive overseeing its commercial-plane programs, including the delayed 787 Dreamliner, would retire.

* Business activity in the United States rose more than forecast in August, adding to signs the economy is improving.

* The decline in prices in the euro zone moderated in August, the European Union statistics agency Eurostat said Monday, further evidence that the downturn might be easing.

* The Canadian economy contracted at a 3.4 percent annual pace in the second quarter, an improvement from the first three months of the year, the government said Monday.

* India's economy grew a slightly faster-than-expected 6.1 percent in the April-June quarter from a year earlier, as government stimulus measures helped spur demand, although a poor monsoon threatens to crimp growth later in the year even as it drives inflation.