PRESS DIGEST - Washington Post Business - May 9

WASHINGTON, May 9 (Reuters) - The Washington Post included the following items on the front page of its business section on May 9. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

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Thomson Corp.'s TOC.TO $18 billion cash-and-stock bid for Reuters Group RTR.L would create a new market-data company called Thomson-Reuters that would be run by the Reuters chief executive and protect the news service's journalistic independence, the companies said.

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World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz disparaged a bank panel probing his handling of a pay raise for his girlfriend, accusing investigators of poisoning the atmosphere with leaks while depriving him of sufficient time to respond to accusations that he broke ethics rules.

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Former New York Stock Exchange chief executive Dick Grasso won a significant victory when an appeals court dismissed four of six charges against him in a long-running dispute over his outsize compensation package.

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A federal judge froze the assets of a Hong Kong couple suspected of improperly trading on inside information to profit by $8.2 million before last week's Dow Jones DJ.N takeover bid.

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