The News in 2 Minutes

From The Associated Press

Gigantic Hurricane Ike taking aim at Texas

HOUSTON—Cars and trucks streamed inland and chemical companies buttoned up their plants Thursday as a gigantic Hurricane Ike took aim at the heart of the U.S. refining industry and threatened to send a wall of water crashing toward Houston.

Nearly 1 million people along the Texas coast were ordered to evacuate ahead of the storm, which was expected to strike late Friday or early Saturday. But in a calculated risk aimed at avoiding total gridlock, authorities told most people in the nation’s fourth-largest city to just hunker down.

Ike was steering almost directly for Galveston and, beyond that, Houston, where gleaming skyscrapers, the nation’s biggest refinery and NASA’s Johnson Space Center lie in areas vulnerable to wind and floodwaters. Forecasters said the storm was likely to come ashore as a Category 3, with winds up to 130 mph.

But the storm was so big, it could inflict a punishing blow even in those areas that do not get a direct hit.

Israeli leader to resign ‘immediately’ after vote

JERUSALEM—Ehud Olmert pledged Thursday to immediately resign as Israel’s prime minister once his party chooses his successor as leader next week, shooting down speculation he would try to hold on to his office.

The announcement means Israel could find itself racing to form a new government in as little as a seven days.

Olmert, who is battling a corruption investigation, announced in July that he would resign after his Kadima Party chooses a new leader in Wednesday’s primary.

Bankers say Lehman approaching rivals

NEW YORK—Its future in jeopardy and options dwindling, Lehman Brothers scoured Wall Street Thursday for a financial lifeline. Top executives contacted banks and rival investment houses about a possible deal to buy the company, bankers and industry executives close to the situation said.

The nation’s fourth-largest investment bank, which had tenaciously resisted putting itself up for sale, finally relented after a free-fall in its stock price and growing doubts about whether other financial institutions would continue to do business with it, according to these officials.

The Washington Post reported late Thursday that the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve are arranging a sale through a consortium of private firms. It said the deal has not been finalized, but quoted unnamed sources as saying it could be announced this weekend.