PRESS DIGEST - Wall Street Journal - June 30
June 30 (Reuters) - The following were the top stories in The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.
* Bernard Madoff, the self-confessed author of the biggest financial swindle in history, was sentenced to the maximum 150 years behind bars for what his judge called an "extraordinarily evil" fraud that shook the nation's faith in its financial and legal systems and took "a staggering toll" on rich and poor alike.
* The securities firms still standing on Wall Street are about to close the most lucrative quarter since the credit crisis erupted.
* Apple Inc (AAPL.O) said Chief Executive Steve Jobs returned to work after a nearly six-month medical leave, but the company provided no update on its leader's health and didn't say if his responsibilities would change.
* A federal jury in Texas Monday upheld the patent on Johnson & Johnson's (JNJ.N) arthritis treatment Remicade and ordered Abbott Laboratories (ABT.N) to pay its rival $1.67 billion for infringing on the patent.
* The beleaguered auto industry could see signs of strengthening demand when auto makers report U.S. sales for June on Wednesday, according to auto makers and analysts.
* Hyundai Motor Co (005380.KS), looking to fuel its recent market share gains in the U.S., will kick off a new incentive program Wednesday offering consumers gasoline at $1.49-per-gallon for a year if they buy a car by Aug. 31.
* A will drafted by Michael Jackson in 2002 which divides the singer's estate among his mother, three children and one or more charities could play a central role in determining how his tangled financial relationships will be unwound.
* Facebook announced it hired David Ebersman, former chief financial officer of biotech company Genentech Inc as the social network's new chief financial officer.
* The Justice Department belatedly objected to a plan by United Airlines parent UAL Corp (UAUA.O) and Continental Airlines Inc (CAL.N) to cooperate on routes world-wide within the Star Alliance of air carriers, and recommended instead a more-limited trans-Atlantic deal.
* Enterprise Products Partners LP (EPD.N) agreed to pay $3.3 billion in stock for Teppco Partners LP TPP.N in a deal that would create one of the country's biggest pipeline companies.
* Texas financier Allen Stanford failed to disclose that a friend had fetched his Antigua passport and brought it to Texas, federal prosecutors said at a Monday bail hearing for Stanford, who stands accused of running an international Ponzi scheme.
* A former top banker of ABN Amro Holding NV was found dead outside London on Sunday, a week after he disappeared and his family reported a gun missing from his collection.
