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According to a report in the online edition of the Wall Street Journal citing people familiar with the matter, the outlines of a rescue plan emerged, but at the same time talks revealed that a sale of the entire firm to a big bank could probably not be managed.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Treasury officials and banking executives have been meeting since Friday evening in the hopes of engineering a plan for a private-sector rescue for the once-venerable investment firm before Asian markets open for trading Monday.

Shortly before 7 p.m. Eastern on Saturday, media outlets reported that no deal had been reached over Lehman’s fate but that negotiations would likely continue between the Fed and bank executives on Sunday.

As expectations of a deal swung to doubt, the Journal reported, plans emerged for firms to either buy pieces of Lehman or for an orderly winding down of the firm.

The Journal said that under one scenario, Barclays PLC or Bank of America Corp. would buy Lehman’s valuable assets, such as its equities business, while the more risky real-estate assets would be merged into a another entity that would contain about $85 billion in souring assets.

Other Wall Street firms would try to inject some capital into that “bad bank” so that a flood of bad assets doesn’t deluge the market, damaging the value of similar assets held by other banks and insurers, according to the report. The banks are also looking for the government to somehow support the bad bank.

An earlier story in the Journal reported that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has made it clear to participants in the talks, called Friday by the New York Federal Reserve, that no government bailout for Lehman should be expected.

The Journal reported that while teams of bankers are working on the plans, it appears few banks are in a position to provide enough funding. Many banks are inclined to preserve capital ahead of third-quarter and year-end cash preservation moves. Also, the report noted, banks don’t want to see rivals such as Barclays or Bank of America pay so little for the valuable assets.

Citing people familiar with the matter, the Journal said Bank of America, until today considered Lehman’s most likely savior, seems to be less interested in a deal. Neither Barclays nor Bank of America wants to buy all of Lehman without some government assistance, the Journal said.

In addition to Paulson, New York Fed President Timothy Geithner and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox were present at the weekend talks. According to media reports, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is involved in the deliberations, but did not attend Friday night’s meeting.

The Wall Street executives attending included Morgan Stanley Chief Executive John Mack, Merrill Lynch Chief Executive John Thain, J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, Goldman Sachs Group CEO Lloyd Blankfein, Citigroup Inc. head Vikram Pandit and representatives from the Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC and Bank of New York Mellon Corp., as well as others, according to the Journal.

As hopes fade for a sale, a second group of bankers reportedly is weighing the alternative of liquidating the firm’s business, according to reports.

The move has plunged relations between Islamabad and Washington into deep crisis over how to deal with al-Qa’ida and the Taliban

What amounts to a dramatic order to “kill the invaders”, as one senior officer put it last night, was disclosed after the commanders – who control the army’s deployments at divisional level – met at their headquarters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi under the chairmanship of army chief and former ISI spy agency boss Ashfaq Kayani.

Leading English-language newspaper The News warned in an editorial that the US determination to attack targets inside Pakistan was likely to be “the best recruiting sergeant that the extremists ever had”, with even “moderates” outraged by it.

“Senior representatives of major financial markets met at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Friday evening to discuss recent market developments,” a Fed official told Reuters.

The official said New York Fed President Timothy Geithner, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox were among the participants in the meeting.

Financial markets have been on tenterhooks over the future of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc and whether the struggling investment bank, whose stock value has collapsed, may or may not be able to find a buyer. The talks at the New York Fed took place as discussions between Lehman and other parties continued.

Senior officials at Telford and Wreckin Council said the policy was to protect children and the vulnerable, and they would only stop anyone acting suspiciously.

But their actions have been branded heavy handed and “draconian”.

The policy came to light after two environmental campaigners dressed as penguins were thrown out of Telford Town Park when caught handing out leaflets on climate change.

Rachel Whittaker and Neil Donaldson, of the Wrekin Stop War pressure group, were told they had to leave the park because they had not undergone Criminal Records Bureau checks or risk assessments before being allowed near children.

David Ottley, Telford & Wrekin’s sports and recreation manager, said in a letter to them: “Our Town Park staff approach adults that are not associated with any children in the Town Park and request the reason for them being there.”

“In particular, this applies to those areas where children or more vulnerable groups gather, such as play facilities and the entrances to play areas.”

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Mr Evans, a former childcare social worker, added: “It is authoritarian madness which can only be based on ignorance.

“It appears that the council wants to use child protection as a cover for anything they don’t like taking place in the park.

As the first particles were circulating in the machine near Geneva where the world wide web was born, a Greek group hacked into the facility, posting a warning about weaknesses in its infrastructure.

Calling themselves the Greek Security Team, the interlopers mocked the IT used on the project, describing the technicians responsible for security as “a bunch of schoolkids.”

However, despite an ominous warning “don’t mess with us,” the hackers said they had no intention of disrupting the work of the atom smasher.

“We’re pulling your pants down because we don’t want to see you running around naked looking to hide yourselves when the panic comes,” they wrote in Greek in a rambling note posted on the LHC’s network.

The scientists behind the £4.4 billion “Big Bang” machine had already received threatening emails and been besieged by telephone calls from worried members of the public concerned by speculation that the machine could trigger a black hole to swallow the earth, or earthquakes and tsunamis, despite endless reassurances to the contrary from the likes of Prof Stephen Hawking.

The website – www.cmsmon.cern.ch – can no longer be accessed by the public as a result of the attack.

Scientists working at Cern, the organisation that runs the vast smasher, were worried about what the hackers could do because they were “one step away” from the computer control system of one of the huge detectors of the machine, a vast magnet that weighs 12500 tons, measuring around 21 metres in length and 15 metres wide/high.

If they had hacked into a second computer network, they could have turned off parts of the vast detector and, said the insider, “it is hard enough to make these things work if no one is messing with it.”

Fortunately, only one file was damaged but one of the scientists firing off emails as the CMS team fought off the hackers said it was a “scary experience”.

The hackers targeted the Compact Muon Solenoid Experiment, or CMS, one of the four “eyes” of the facility that will be analysing the fallout of the Big Bang.

The CMS team of around 2000 scientists is racing with another team that runs the Atlas detector, also at Cern, to find the Higgs particle, one that is responsible for mass.

“There seems to be no harm done. From what they can tell, it was someone making the point that CMS was hackable,” said James Gillies, spokesman for Cern. “It was quickly detected.”

“We have several levels of network, a general access network and a much tighter network for sensitive things that operate the LHC,” said Gillies.

“We are a very visible site,” he said, adding that of the 1.4 million emails sent to Cern yesterday, 98 per cent was spam.

At least four analysts cut their price targets for the thrift, though Goldman Sachs & Co raised its rating to “neutral” from “sell.”

Washington Mutual shares were down 16 cents, or 5.7 percent, to $2.67 in pre-market trading. Through Thursday, the shares had fallen 34 percent this week and 92 percent in the last year.

In an unusual move to quell investor anxiety about its survival prospects, Seattle-based Washington Mutual late Thursday released third-quarter projections six weeks early and said it had ample liquidity. The thrift has said losses from home loans could reach $19 billion through 2011.

But Moody’s Investors Service lowered Washington Mutual to below investment-grade status, citing “reduced financial flexibility, deteriorating asset quality, and expected franchise erosion.” Fitch Ratings also downgraded the thrift.

Washington Mutual said it expects to set aside $4.5 billion for loan losses in the third quarter, down from the second quarter’s $5.9 billion. It also said it expects about $2.7 billion of loan write-offs.

Lehman’s bonds also dropped ahead of what is expected to be a series of frantic calls this weekend between Lehman, U.S. regulators and potential bidders. Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) is widely seen as a leading contender, with British bank Barclays Plc (BARC.L) also cited as a possibility.

European Union rules ban farmers from using combine harvesters on wet land to protect soil quality. Those who flout the ban can be prosecuted. The exemption is expected to last for about three weeks.

The poor harvest is unlikely to lead to a rise in the price of bread, cakes, biscuits and flour, however. Gordon Polson, director of the Federation of Bakers, said that although much of the milling wheat was of a poor quality it could still be used for bread and flour.