March 20 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Wall Street Journal. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.
- Uber Technologies Inc UBER.UL said a prominent retail executive it hired as president just six months ago is leaving, the most senior in a string of executive departures as the ride-hailing giant reels from an escalating series of controversies.
- Pay raises are back in style in the corner office, wiping out cuts from a year earlier and pushing CEO compensation to new highs amid a surging stock market.
- Walt Disney Co's DIS.N "Beauty and the Beast" was a monster at the box office this weekend, opening to $170 million from Thursday night through Sunday in the U.S. and Canada, according to studio estimates.
- Freeport-McMoRan Inc's FCX.N standoff with Indonesia over the giant Grasberg copper and gold mine is entering a new phase, as the company scales back operations while trying to force a resolution to the dispute.
- Music mogul Irving Azoff and a business partner, Tim Leiweke, recently purchased Venues Today, and are in talks to buy Pollstar, people familiar with the matter said. Both outlets cover the live-music business.
- Canadian mining company Dominion Diamond Corp DDC.TO received a $1.1 billion bid from a privately held conglomerate in Montana, but the two sides are at a negotiating impasse, setting the stage for a public takeover fight.
- The Italian government on Saturday made a series of nominations for the top management of large listed companies it controls, including confirming the chief executive of oil major Eni SpA ENI.MI for a second three-year term.
- Apple Inc's AAPL.O Chief Executive Tim Cook defended globalization in a rare public speech in China, as his company faces political pressure in the U.S. to bring back factories.