PRESS DIGEST - Wall Street Journal - Sept 23

Sept 23 (Reuters) - The following were the top stories in The Wall Street Journal on Thursday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

* White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is likely to resign in a matter of weeks, hastening a remake of the Obama White House that could lead to a lower-key, more cooperative approach after the November midterm elections.

* Big U.S. banks are facing legal pressure to make up for losses tied to pools of soured low-end mortgage loans.

* Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N) is fighting back against a longtime corporate-sabotage campaign undertaken by grocery competitors to slow its growth.

* Abbott Laboratories Inc (ABT.N) is recalling about five million containers of Similac powdered baby formula, after learning that beetles or their larvae could be in packages made at one of its U.S. production plants.

* The chairman of the Securities Investor Protection Corp on Thursday is expected to defend the method being used to pay claims for customers defrauded in Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme. The approach has been upheld in court, though some lawmakers and victims have questioned its fairness.

* Mark Zuckerberg, the 26-year-old founder and chief executive of Facebook Inc, plans to announce a donation of up to $100 million to the Newark schools this week, in a bold bid to improve one of the country's worst performing public school systems.

* After the luxury car market's most severe downturn in decades, smaller, less ostentatious models from the premium auto makers were expected to lead the rebound -- or at least that's what many industry experts had predicted. Instead, the costliest and largest sedans made by BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi and Lexus have fueled a sales boom this year, particularly in China and the U.S.

* The Food and Drug Administration approved for sale the U.S. market's first oral drug to treat multiple sclerosis -- a disease typically treated with more cumbersome injections and infusions -- in another sign of the improving picture for MS treatment.

* Potash Corp (POT.TO) on Wednesday sued in U.S. federal court to block BHP Billiton Ltd's (BHP.AX) (BLT.L) hostile $39 billion takeover bid for the Canadian mining company.

* The U.S. government needs to sell all its stock in General Motors Co [GM.UL] at an average price of $133.78 a share to fully recoup the $49.5 billion it spent to rescue the auto maker, according to the Obama administration official overseeing the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

* As Ireland's economic crisis again flares up, Brian Lenihan, the man charged with fixing it is facing a war on two fronts: One against a troubled banking system and another against his own health.

* The number of new borrowers receiving help from the Obama administration's signature loan-modification plan fell to its lowest level since the program began last year, according to figures released Wednesday.

* Time Warner Inc (TWX.N) announced a phased succession plan for Warner Bros, with the film studio's chief executive, Barry Meyer, extending his contract through 2013 and the chief operating officer, Alan Horn, stepping down effective April 1.