March 31 (Reuters) - The following were the top stories in The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.
* A Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) bond salesman and a hedge-fund trader stand accused of improperly using nonpublic information involving a bond offering. The case is a test of how far regulators can go in pursuing insider trading.
* BP Plc (BP.L) awarded about $500 million in contracts to drill wells in Iraq’s giant Rumaila oil field, kicking off a huge push by foreign oil companies to revive the country’s troubled energy industry.
* AT&T Inc (T.N) is cranking up efforts to improve its network quality as Apple Inc (AAPL.O) prepares a new version of its iPhone able to run on rivals’ wireless networks.
* Redwood Trust Inc (RWT.N) is trying to reopen the market for securities backed by home-mortgage loans without any government backing with an offering totaling at least $200 million, according to people familiar with the situation.
* The White House has asked the National Academy of Sciences to study the use of computer technology in cars, and tapped NASA to examine Toyota’s problems.
* Google Inc’s (GOOG.O) search sites in China abruptly stopped working Tuesday, but the explanation for the outage shifted as the day wore on. The Internet giant first blamed itself, citing a technical change, but later reversed course and pointed to the heavy hand of China’s “Great Firewall” — even as service appeared to be back to normal.
* A New York trading firm ensnared in the expansive insider-trading case involving the Galleon Group hedge-fund firm has agreed to pay about $1.2 million to settle civil charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
* Ireland’s government unveiled a new plan to revitalize its banks, its latest step to put the Irish financial system back on a firm footing and encourage banks to start lending again.
* A broad alliance of aviation regulators and industry groups signed an agreement Tuesday to collect and jointly analyze airline-safety data from around the world, a move that has the potential to produce major advances in responding to safety threats.
* In a verdict marking a significant turn in a long-running battle over who owns parts of the popular Unix operating system, a federal jury on Tuesday found that two key Unix copyrights belonged to Novell Inc NOVL.O and not to SCO Group Inc.
* Republican Senator Bob Corker said Tuesday he “absolutely cannot support” a bill written by Senate Democrats to overhaul financial regulations unless changes are made, clouding the outlook for a bipartisan measure.
