PRESS DIGEST - Wall Street Journal - March 27

March 27 (Reuters) - The following were the top stories in The Wall Street Journal on Thursday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

* Hedge-fund manager John Meriwether is again scrambling to stem losses and keep investors from jumping ship, 10 years after he oversaw a hedge-fund collapse that buckled the world's financial markets.

* Sen. Hillary Clinton said she fears the United States is slipping into a Japanese-style economic malaise and that Washington should be set to buy troubled mortgages. Housing woes are a particularly powerful issue in Pennsylvania, where she needs a big win to keep her campaign alive.

* The debate over Sen. Barrack Obama's pastor has not changed his close contest against Clinton, with each drawing 45 percent support from Democratic voters in a new WSJ/NBC poll. But both Democrats -- especially Clinton -- are showing wounds from the prolonged nomination contest.

* The U.S. Federal Reserve's efforts have diminished worries about a big financial failure, but wariness about lending remains in bond and loan markets. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said the Fed should exert greater scrutiny over securities firms.

* The dispute over Clear Channel Communications Inc (CCU.N: Quote, Profile, Research) escalated as private-equity firms filed suit, seeking to force lenders to fund the $19 billion buyout. A failed deal could cost Bain Capital Partners LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners nearly $1 billion combined.

* A court investigator found that KPMG LLP [KPMG.UL] devised some of the accounting strategies that let New Century Financial Corp NEWCQ.PK hide its financial problems for years and recommended suing the accounting firm for professional negligence.

* This week's spike in violence in Baghdad and the southern Iraqi city of Basra raises the prospect that the factors that suppressed Iraq's bloodshed in recent months could be evaporating simultaneously.

* Oracle Corp's (ORCL.O: Quote, Profile, Research) quarterly profit rose 30 percent for its fiscal third quarter, but its 21 percent revenue increase fell short of expectations. Investors are watching Oracle for clues on how an economic slowdown might impact the technology sector.