March 18 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the New York Times business pages. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

* Top officials from Emirates Airline and Etihad Airways on Tuesday praised the virtues of open-skies agreements between countries, saying passengers had benefited from more competition, better service and lower fares. They shot back at American rivals who had accused them of unfair competition, saying attempts to review the agreements amounted to protectionist measures by United States carriers.(http://nyti.ms/1EuKvnl)

* Facebook Inc, the social networking company, announced Tuesday that American users of its Messenger app would be able to link their debit cards to the service and use it to message money to one another just as easily as they send a snapshot or text. (http://nyti.ms/1GTgQEl)

* Nintendo Co Ltd said on Tuesday it had formed a partnership with another Japanese company that specializes in mobile games, DeNA, to develop games based on Nintendo brands for smartphones and tablets. (http://nyti.ms/1Bwe4jI)

* Biomet disclosed on Tuesday that the Justice Department is investigating whether the company helped bribe government officials in Mexico and Brazil, a painful reminder of an earlier bribery case it settled in 2012. (http://nyti.ms/1FyMFUG)

(Compiled by Shivam Srivastava in Bengaluru)