(Reuters) - Greece is unlikely to be able to pay what it owes and further debt restructuring is likely to be necessary, three EU officials said on Tuesday, a cost that would have to fall on the European Central Bank and euro zone governments. The officials said that twice bailed-out Greece would be found to be way off track by EU and International Monetary Fund officials who have been assessing the country.

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(Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) has agreed to pay $100 million to settle litigation by credit card customers who accused the largest U.S. bank of improperly boosting their minimum payments as a means to generate higher fees. The class-action settlement resolves a three-year-old case stemming from Chase's decision in late 2008 and 2009 to boost minimum monthly payments for thousands of cardholders to 5 percent of account balances from 2 percent.

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(Reuters) - Iraq hit out at Chevron Corp over its just-signed oil contract with Kurdistan, barring it from any oil agreements with the central government in a move meant to deter other companies from dealing directly with the semi-autonomous northern region. Baghdad has long held that contracts signed by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) are illegal, and last year Exxon Mobil Corp aroused its anger by striking a deal with the region while also running a project at a supergiant oilfield in the south. Baghdad retaliated by banning Exxon from an exploration tender in May.

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(Reuters) - Stocks fell on Thursday, led by losses in the technology sector, on concerns about the impact of a faltering global economy on corporate earnings. Data showed initial claims for state unemployment benefits in the United States dropped to the lowest in four years, but that did little to alleviate concerns that a broader economic slowdown could chip away at corporate profits. Those worries have sent the S&P 500 down more than 3 percent since July 3.

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(Reuters) - The number of Americans signing up for new jobless benefits last week fell to a four-year low but an unusual pattern for summer factory shutdowns marred what would have been a hopeful sign for the struggling labor market. A separate report on Thursday showed falling import prices, fresh evidence of a cooling global economy but also a reminder that a drop in gasoline prices could help U.S. consumers.

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(Reuters) - General Motors Co (GM.N), a pioneer in outsourcing information technology, said it is beginning to reverse that trend with plans to at least double the number of in-house IT experts over the next three years. GM now outsources about 90 percent of its IT services and provides 10 percent of that work in-house. Within the next three to five years, GM hopes to reverse those percentages in part by hiring "thousands" of new software developers, database experts and others globally, GM spokeswoman Juli Huston-Rough said.

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(Reuters) - BP Plc on Thursday agreed to pay $13 million to settle safety violations at its Texas City, Texas, refinery, paving the way for a sale of the refinery by the London-based energy company. The settlement struck with the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration clears most violations safety inspectors found in 2009 in a follow-up inspection after a deadly 2005 explosion at the refinery, which killed 15 workers and injured 170 others.

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(Reuters) - United Continental Holdings Inc (UAL.N) said it will buy 100 Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft and fifty 737-900ER planes in a deal that Boeing Co (BA.N) valued at $14.7 billion at list prices. United Continental, the holding company that owns United Airlines, the world's largest carrier, said it will begin taking delivery of the 737 MAX 9 planes in 2018.

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(Reuters) - Activist investor William Ackman appears ready to shake up management at yet another major company, building a stake in the iconic U.S. household products company Procter & Gamble Co (PG.N), a person familiar with the matter said. Ackman's Pershing Square has been building a position in P&G for the last few weeks and may grow its stake further, said the source who was not permitted to speak publicly.

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(Reuters) - The chastened former head of Barclays apologized for the "reprehensible" behavior of his traders who fixed interest rates, but told British lawmakers on Wednesday his bank had been unfairly singled out after coming forward to admit wrongdoing. Bob Diamond, 60, quit this week after Barclays agreed to pay nearly half a billion dollars in fines for manipulating the interest rates at the heart of the global financial system.

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