PRESS DIGEST - Wall Street Journal - Dec 22

Dec 22 (Reuters) - The following were the top stories in The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

* A new strategic arms agreement with Russia is on the verge of being ratified by the Senate, presenting U.S. President Barack Obama with a potential political victory while exposing splits within the Republican Party on whether to oppose the president on important national-security issues.

* Physical therapy, which cost Medicare almost $3.5 billion in 2008, exemplifies how Medicare polices payments. Even when provider billing raised flags, Medicare kept paying thousands or even millions of dollars.

* Analysts are predicting that Christmas 2010 will be another good one for dollar stores, which captured a lot of new customers who traded down during the recession.

* Mark Hurd is fighting to keep private the letter that led to his resignation as Chief Executive Officer of Hewlett-Packard Co (HPQ.N) and has triggered an investigation by federal regulators.

* New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo filed a civil-fraud lawsuit against Ernst & Young, accusing the accounting firm of helping Lehman Brothers hide its financial weakness before the bank collapsed.

* Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) agreed to pay $553.6 million and admit criminal wrongdoing in a long-running probe over tax shelters that prosecutors claim generated billions in false tax losses.

* Consumers for the first time got federally approved rules guaranteeing their right to view what they want on the Internet. The new framework could also result in tiered charges for web access and alter how companies profit from the network.

* A single trader has reported it owns 80 percent to 90 percent of the copper sitting in London Metal Exchange warehouses, equal to about half of the world's exchange-registered copper stockpile and worth about $3 billion. As commodity prices soar to new records, the ability of a few traders to hold huge swaths of the world's stockpiles is coming under scrutiny.

* In a California showdown over corporate governance, the largest U.S. public pension fund is attacking Apple Inc (AAPL.O) for the way it handles board elections. The California Public Employees' Retirement System wants Apple and other U.S. companies it invests in to adopt rules requiring directors to win a majority of the vote, saying that will make board members more accountable to shareholders.

* Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O), feeling pressure from hit products like Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) iPad, is crafting a new operating system that deviates from the software giant's heavy reliance on chip technology pioneered by Intel Corp (INTC.O), according to people briefed on Microsoft's plans.