PRESS DIGEST - Washington Post - April 3

WASHINGTON, April 2 (Reuters) - Washington Post included the following items on its front page for April 3. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

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Senate Democratic and Republican leaders rushing to address the nation's housing crisis reached agreement yesterday on a package that would provide billions of dollars in tax rebates to the slumping home-building industry while offering little to homeowners threatened with foreclosure.

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Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke acknowledged yesterday for the first time that the United States may be in a recession, projecting that the economy could shrink during the first half of this year.

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The Chinese government, in an enterprise that one senior official likened to an "intellectual vacuum cleaner," has deployed a diverse network of professional spies, students, scientists and others to systematically collect U.S. know-how, according to U.S. intelligence and Justice Department officials.

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