PRESS DIGEST - Wall Street Journal - July 4

July 4 (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.

* Barack Obama defended his position on the Iraq War on Thursday after saying he may "refine" his position to withdraw combat troops within his first 16 months in office if military officials said such a timeline is unsafe.

* After embracing her children Thursday for the first time in six years, former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt said the thought of them helped her stay alive until a Colombian special forces rescued her and 14 other hostages from Communist rebels Wednesday in a daring jungle raid.

* U.S. nonfarm payrolls shrank for a sixth consecutive month, decreasing by 62,000 jobs in June, as businesses retrenched in the face of rising costs and a weak economy. The month's unemployment rate held at 5.5 percent, after rising sharply in May.

* The European Central Bank raised its key interest rate by a quarter-percentage point to 4.25 percent. ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet suggested a series of rate increases was unlikely, even as he strove to keep his options open.

* Lawyers for Google Inc (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research) Thursday asked Viacom Inc (VIAb.N: Quote, Profile, Research) for permission to better hide information that might help personally identify YouTube users before Google complies with a judge's demand that it hand over YouTube "user logs" -- the records of what videos people watch -- to Viacom.

* Former Refco Chief Executive Phillip Bennett was sentenced to 16 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to criminal charges in a scheme to hide the commodities broker's financial troubles.

* A federal judge Thursday ordered Samuel Israel III to immediately begin serving a 20-year prison term one day after the former hedge-fund executive surrendered following more than three weeks on the run.

* Assets the Federal Reserve agreed to accept in March from Bear Stearns Cos to facilitate its sale to JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) are now worth about $1 billion less than estimated at the time of the transaction.