March 19 (Reuters) - The following were the top stories in The Wall Street Journal on Friday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.
* Germany signaled it is open to supporting a joint bailout of Greece by European governments and the International Monetary Fund should the country need assistance, as Greece pressed Europe for concrete help by next week.
* Swiss drug giant Roche Holding AG laid out its strategy for growth, telling investors it can continue a long winning streak by strengthening its already dominant position in cancer drugs and by expanding into new disease areas, such as diabetes and schizophrenia.
* A rise in U.S. car sales during the first half of March is lifting expectations that totals for the month will show the industry's recovery is picking up speed.
* The U.S. government faces shortcomings in producing its oil-inventory data, according to internal Department of Energy documents, casting doubt on figures that affect the production and prices of the world's most important industrial commodity.
* The Securities and Exchange Commission has failed to turn key parts of a landmark stock-research settlement into industrywide rules, a move that threatens to gut pieces of the pact.
* An investigation of a Toyota Prius accident in Harrison, New York, suggests driver error may have been involved after federal safety regulators said the brakes hadn't been applied and the throttle was "wide open."
* Prudential Plc Chief Executive Officer Tidjane Thiam said he won't be joining the board of French bank Societe Generale SA, after drawing fire for taking another high-profile job while working on a massive planned insurance takeover.
* Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd won the bidding Thursday for Germany's Ratiopharm Group, agreeing to pay about $5 billion to beat back Pfizer Inc.'s efforts to expand into the fast-growing generic-drug business that Teva dominates.
* Yelp Inc, a popular Web service that allows users to rate local businesses, is in the hot seat to defend the way it sells online advertising to local businesses. Three civil suits have been filed against the San Francisco start-up in the last month, accusing the company of extorting businesses to advertise.
* New York became the latest state to shine a light on the practice of pension "spiking" - big increases in a government worker's salary just before retirement to boost the lifelong pension payout.
* Global consumer goods giant Unilever Plc on Thursday announced the resignation of top executive Vindi Banga, the latest in a series of high-level executive departures from the company since Paul Polman took over as CEO a little over a year ago.
* British politicians wrangled about new figures that showed a portion of the deficit widening to a record level last month, as a national election that must be held by June 3 edged closer. Keywords: PRESS DIGEST/WSJ
(Compiled by Neha Singh; Bangalore Equities Newsdesk +91 80 4135 5800; within U.S. +1 646 223 8780)
COPYRIGHT
Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved.
The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
