PRESS DIGEST - Wall Street Journal - July 3

July 3 (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.

* U.S., U.K. and Austrian prosecutors are investigating a former Austrian fund manager they believe was paid more than $40 million in kickbacks to funnel billions of dollars of investments to Bernard Madoff.

* A federal judge in Los Angeles handed financier Danny Pang a legal blow, ordering the appointment of a permanent receiver over Pang's companies and ruling that there was sufficient evidence of fraud in the case to justify a continued freeze of Pang's assets and other measures sought by federal regulators.

* Job losses accelerated more quickly than expected last month and the unemployment rate rose to 9.5 percent, casting doubt on prospects for the U.S. economy to soon rebound.

* The U.S. Justice Department said it is investigating a settlement between Google Inc (GOOG.O) and authors and publishers, saying that antitrust issues raised by the deal warrant scrutiny by the agency.

* State regulators closed six banks in Illinois and one in Texas, raising the number of bank failures in the U.S. to 52 this year. The seizures were the most in a single day during the financial crisis.

* Private-equity giant Leon Black's Apollo Management LP and distressed-investment specialist Angelo, Gordon & Co have held discussions with investment banks about raising capital through mortgage real-estate-investment trust offerings, according to people familiar with the talks.

* The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp proposed new rules that would place restrictions on private-equity investors wanting to buy failed banks, sparking concern from other regulators that the policies could scare away potential investors.

* The European Central Bank kept its key rate unchanged and signaled no plans for new lending programs to bolster the euro-zone economy, as unemployment in the 16-nation bloc rose to a 10-year high of 9.5 percent.

* The Iraqi oil ministry said it will move up a second round of licensing bids for 11 oil and natural-gas fields that was to be held at the end of this year.

* Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) on Thursday said it will buy an 18.4 percent stake in Irish biotech company Elan Corp (ELN.I), in a $1.5 billion bid to crack the elusive but potentially lucrative market for Alzheimer's disease treatments.

* Oracle Corp (ORCL.O) is planning to cut up to 1,000 jobs in Europe, according to a French labor union.

* The CEO of Atlanta's second-largest bank has been ousted in another sign of the financial turmoil gripping Georgia. The $2.2 billion-asset Georgian Bank told employees Thursday that it has split the roles belonging to Chairman and CEO Gordon Teel among several other officers.