PRESS DIGEST - Washington Post Business - Feb 12

WASHINGTON, Feb 12 (Reuters) - The Washington Post included the following items on the front page of its business section on Feb. 12. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

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William Lerach, a prominent California plaintiff lawyer who won billions of dollars for defrauded investors in class-action cases, was sentenced to two years in prison, for conspiracy in a cash kickback scheme that spanned two decades.

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The U.S. economy may grow slowly the first half of this year but it is not in recession, the Bush administration said on Monday.

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Now that Yahoo has formally rejected Microsoft's unsolicited $44 billion buyout bid, the Internet company has set its sights on its own deal with AOL.

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Millions of BlackBerry users across the country were caught up in an afternoon blackout that lasted for more than three hours. It was the second major failure in less than a year for Research in Motion, which makes the handheld device and operates its e-mail servers.

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