PRESS DIGEST - New York Times business news - Sept 2

Sept 2 (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.

* Google Inc (GOOG.O) will release a free Web browser called Chrome that the company said would challenge Microsoft Corp's (MSFT.O) Internet Explorer, as well as the Firefox browser.

* Doctors continue to heavily prescribe the cholesterol drug Vytorin, though six years after its approval there is still no proof that the drug helps patients live longer or avoid heart attacks.

* Waves of relief rather than water washed over the oil patch after Hurricane Gustav's punch appeared to be much less powerful than those of Hurricanes Rita and Katrina three years ago.

* Analysts say Hurricane Gustav's punishing blow to the Louisiana coastline will cost nowhere near as much as the insurance industry's single largest insured loss three years ago.

* The nation's airlines had hoped for a fresh start after Labor Day, with streamlined schedules and smaller fleets that were meant to help them cope better with the high cost of jet fuel. Instead, the airlines spent the Labor Day holiday dealing with the fallout of Hurricane Gustav.

* Fewer people went to the movies this summer than last, but higher ticket prices and a Batman sequel delivered near-record revenue to the major studios.

* The president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Thomas Hoenig, said that for economies to work best, institutions must be allowed to fail.

* Landowners campaign to change a provincial law that allows anyone who pays the equivalent of $23.50 to dig for pretty much any mineral on private property in much of rural Ontario.

* Multinationals, Orthodox entrepreneurs and small businesses across the globe are now creating rabbinically approved products. The inventions, which help the world's more than 1.5 million Orthodox Jews use the conveniences of modern life, are gaining in popularity as manufacturing in Asia keeps prices low and the Internet makes it easier to shop for niche products.

* London's traditional big black cabs face a sleek new rival on the streets. The new cabs are a bigger and, according to the manufacturer, a less polluting alternative to the tourist symbol that traces its roots to 1919.