PRESS DIGEST - Wall Street Journal - March 14

March 14 (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.

* Malaysia Airlines' missing jet transmitted its location repeatedly to satellites over the course of five hours after it disappeared from radar, people briefed on the matter said, as searchers zeroed in on new target areas hundreds of miles west of the plane's original course. ()

* Ukraine appealed for arms, ammunition and intelligence support, according to senior U.S. officials. But the Obama administration has agreed to send only military rations for now, wary of inflaming Russia.()

* General Electric Co filed for an initial public offering of the unit that provides financing plans and private-label credit cards for North American retailers. ()

* BP PLC and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have reached an agreement that will allow the oil and gas company to start doing business again with the federal government. ()

* Asian stock markets are lower as tensions between Ukraine and Russia combined with fears about China's economic slowdown, pushed the Nikkei almost 3 percent lower. ()

* Amazon.com Inc said it will raise the annual price of its Prime shipping and streaming-video service by $20 to $99, the first increase in its nine-year history. ()

* China's central bank is temporarily suspending the use of two forms of smartphone payments in a setback for China's two largest Internet companies as they try to gain a larger share of the online finance market. ()

* Target Corp's computer-security team was alerted when hackers broke into the retailer's systems during the holiday shopping season, but decided the warning didn't need a follow-up. ()

* U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said Thursday that regulators might have acted sooner to push for a recall of General Motors Co cars equipped with faulty ignition switches, but lacked the information company officials had about problems with the vehicles. ()

* Consumers appear to be emerging from their dens to visit stores and restaurants, a sign the U.S. economy could be poised to perk up from a winter chill. ()