2013 02 20 cmyk NA 04online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/pageone02202012.pdf ·...
1
YELLOW ****** WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2013 ~ VOL. CCLXI NO. 41 WSJ.com HHHH $2.00 BRUSSELS—As 29 passengers sat aboard a Zurich-bound flight here Monday evening waiting for the last bags to be loaded, gun- men wearing police uniforms raced up to the plane and stole more than 120 packages of dia- monds worth at least $50 mil- lion, and possibly much more. Some of the eight masked robbers stood in front of the Helvetic Airways jet plane with machine guns, pointing laser sights at the pilots, while others forced ground workers to open the plane’s cargo doors, accord- ing to Belgian prosecutors and CONTENTS Corporate News B2-6,9 Global Finance........... C3 Heard on Street...... C14 Home & Digital .... D1-3 In the Markets.......... C4 Leisure & Arts............ D5 Market Data................ C5 Opinion.................. A13-15 Property Report... C6-9 Sports.............................. D6 U.S. News ................ A2-6 Weather Watch...... B10 World News.......... A7-11 DJIA 14035.67 À 53.91 0.4% NASDAQ 3213.59 À 0.7% NIKKEI 11372.34 g 0.3% STOXX 600 290.01 À 1.1% 10-YR. TREAS. g 5/32 , yield 2.026% OIL $96.66 À $0.80 GOLD $1,603.60 g $5.20 EURO $1.3389 YEN 93.57 s Copyright 2013 Dow Jones & Company. All Rights Reserved Vital Signs The U.S. gets less power from coal. Coal-fired power plants generated 37% of U.S. electricity in the 12 months through November, down from 43% a year earlier and 50% a decade ago. A surge in domestic natural-gas pro- duction has pushed down prices, leading utilities to burn more gas. But coal’s market share has stabilized in recent months amid higher natural-gas prices. Coal’s share of power generation, 12-month rolling average Source: Energy Information Administration 2011 2012 30 35 40 45% > A pple said that some of its employees’ Mac comput- ers were attacked by hackers, a rare admission for a com- pany that has long touted its security over PCs running Windows. The malicious code in the attack is believed to be the same discovered by Face- book after a recent breach. B1 n BHP Billiton’s Marius Kloppers is stepping down as CEO, in the latest leadership change at a giant miner. He will be succeeded by BHP ex- ecutive Andrew Mackenzie. B2 n Dell posted steep profit and revenue declines, but the re- sults were strong enough to bolster investors who say the founder’s buyout plan undervalues the company. B2 n The FBI has begun a crim- inal probe into a big options trade made the day before the announcement of the $23 bil- lion buyout of H.J. Heinz. C1 n Deal news helped lift ma- jor benchmarks to five-year highs, with the Dow adding 53.91 points. Google topped $800 for the first time. C4 n Novartis abandoned a $78 million exit package for its chairman, bowing to pressure from shareholders and Swiss politicians. B1 n BofA awarded CEO Brian Moynihan $12 million in sal- ary and bonus for 2012, re- flecting a rebound year at the second-largest U.S. lender. C3 n Nestlé is withdrawing some of its beef pasta meals from sale in Italy, Spain and France after finding traces of horse DNA in the products. B4 n Banks are increasing lend- ing to businesses, but the cheap rates and flexible terms being offered are raising worries about the risks. C1 n Japan’s merchandise trade balance reached a record monthly deficit of $17.5 bil- lion in January, but exports showed improvement. A11 n Revel AC, the owner of the struggling Revel casino in Atlantic City, N.J., is pre- paring to file for bankruptcy protection in coming weeks. B3 n KKR is the only private- equity firm that remains in the bidding for Gardner Denver, as buyer interest in the firm has waned in recent weeks. B2 n Spain’s Reyal Urbis said it would file for bankruptcy pro- tection in what could become the second-largest default in Spanish corporate history. C9 n A Senate panel probing J.P. Morgan’s “London whale” trading losses is wrap- ping up its report and con- sidering public hearings. C2 n Negotiations are breaking down between creditors of ResCap and its parent, Ally Financial, over a settlement for potential liability claims. C3 n McKinsey is reaching out to female employees who left the firm, presumably to start families, to see whether they are ready to return. B1 n Allen said he is retiring and won’t take NATO’s top job. The Marine general, who spent 19 months in Afghani- stan overseeing efforts to end the war, said he was leaving the military to spend more time with his ailing wife. Al- len’s nomination for the NATO post was put on hold last fall when he became ensnared in a scandal involving Petraeus, who quit due to an affair. A4 Allen was investigated over emails exchanged with a Florida socialite but was cleared of any wrongdoing. n Democrats and Republicans traded fire over the $85 billion in federal spending cuts due to start next month in a late effort to shape public opinion. A1 n The Supreme Court said it would review whether to scrap limits on individuals’ political contributions. A6 n The justices threw out a lower court’s standards im- posed on drug-sniffing dogs to justify a vehicle search. A6 n The court curbed police authority to detain people who left a residence detec- tives had come to search. A6 n A Georgia hospital merger isn’t immune from antitrust scrutiny, the court said. B3 n France’s campaign against Islamist rebels in Mali is com- plicated by internecine Tuareg feuds. A French soldier died af- ter clashes with insurgents. A7 n A French family was kid- napped in Cameroon. France said a Nigerian Islamist group was likely behind the raid. A7 n Gunmen at Brussels Airport stole at least $50 million in dia- monds from a jet as passengers waited for bags to be loaded. A1 n Tunisia’s premier quit after his party refused to back his call for a new government of independent technocrats. A8 n Civilian deaths in the Af- ghan conflict fell 12% in 2012 from the year before, the first decrease in six years. A8 n The EU’s bid to fight global warming with an emissions- trading system is faltering as the price for polluting falls. A10 n A study questioned the value of robotic surgery for hysterectomies over other minimally invasive surgery. A2 n Detroit is in a state of finan- cial emergency with no realis- tic plan to resolve the crisis, a Michigan review team said. A6 n Israel identified the Austra- lian-Israeli man at the heart of a spy saga after disclosing that he hanged himself in jail. A9 n A lobbyist said Armstrong hired his firm in 2010 to raise concerns about an agent lead- ing a federal doping probe. A2 n Pistorius thought there was a burglar in his bathroom when he fired at the door, killing his girlfriend, his lawyer said. A9 n A gas explosion triggered a large fire near a shopping dis- trict in Kansas City, Mo. A2 n Died: Martin Zweig, 70, in- vestor predicted 1987 crash. C3 Business & Finance World-Wide Follow the news all day at WSJ.com T. Jeffery Clarke Architect TODAY IN PERSONAL JOURNAL Island Living...InYour Kitchen PLUS Cellphone Service for $19 a Month What’s News– i i i i i i MANAMA, Bahrain—A widen- ing split between rival bloodlines within Bahrain’s royal family is empowering anti-American hard- liners in this strategically impor- tant island-state, palace insiders say, stoking U.S. concerns about its primary naval base at the heart of the Persian Gulf. The split, largely hidden from view until recently, involves two branches of the Khalifa royal family, both descended from brothers installed by the British in 1869. In an unusual breach of royal-family discipline, palace figures described the divisions in interviews with The Wall Street Journal. Last week marked the two-year anniver- sary of historic Arab Spring protests here that continue to echo daily in Bahrain’s streets. The royal rivalry within tiny Bahrain, nestled in the Persian Gulf between Saudi Arabia and Iran, has geopolitical signifi- cance. It is empowering Sunni Is- lamists and eroding American in- fluence here, according to Western diplomats, U.S. officials, ruling-family rivals, opposition leaders and political analysts. The feud pits the king, whose predecessors nurtured Western ties for decades, against a hered- itary line within the royal family known as the Khawalids. The Khawalids, whose power base in- cludes the hard-line Islamist movement, were long marginalized within the family. But in recent years, the Khawalids gained control of important institutions including Bah- rain’s security and intelligence forces, the judiciary Please turn to page A12 BY DANIEL MICHAELS Gunmen Waylay Jet, Swipe Diamond Trove BY CHARLES LEVINSON other people familiar with the events. The thieves snatched the par- cels of jewels and sped off in minutes without firing a shot, said Belgian prosecutor Ine Van Wymersch. Many travelers on the plane and inside the terminal didn’t know what was happen- ing. “It was well-prepared and very professional,” she said. The theft rattled Antwerp, a world hub for trading in gems and precious metals. Nearly all of those valuables pass through Brussels Airport. The thieves appeared to have detailed information about both the cargo and operations at the airport, and likely had help from people at the airport, according to an aviation-security specialist knowledgeable about the inci- dent. Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, international law-enforcement officials have been concerned about security threats posed by people working inside airports and other sensi- tive facilities. The brazen heist is Europe’s highest-value airport-tarmac holdup in a decade, aviation-se- curity exports said. Authorities on Tuesday didn’t detail exactly what was stolen, so estimates of the value of the goods varied. Please turn to page A10 A Palace Rift in Persian Gulf Bedevils Key U.S. Navy Base SMOKING RUIN: In a photo provided by Syrian rebels, residents of the northern city of Aleppo inspect the devastation of what insurgents said was a government missile strike that killed at least 33. Meanwhile, mortars exploded near a palace of President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus. A11 Shaam News/AFP/Getty Images As Bikes of Burden Rise, One Company Peddles Slowly to the Revolution i i i The Latest Thing With the Hyper Hip, But Worksman Isn’t ‘Very Trendoid’ NEW YORK—The cargo bike— a bicycle built to move stuff—is a “life-changing wonder,” ac- cording to Liz Canning’s website. Ms. Canning, a digital animator in California, is making a crowd- sourced video about the coming cargo- bike “cultural revolu- tion.” Cargo bikes can cost $3,000 apiece— $5,000 with electric assist. They have boxes or trailers for carbon-free carting— a hyper-hip answer to the pickup truck. Small workshops build cargo bikes in the U.S., or have them built in Taiwan. Many are Dutch or Dan- ish imports. Oh, and there’s a New York company that makes them, in the Ozone Park section of Queens. Except it doesn’t call them cargo bikes. They are called freight bikes. They come with “massive, machined steer- ing spindles,” “Kevlar-belted tires” and such. One model, the Super Heavy-Duty Mover, han- dles a 500-pound load and sells for $869. The company is Worksman Trading Corp., named not for what it does but for Morris Worksman. He founded it, in 1898, in the belief that bicycle carts could outsell horse carts. Horseless carriages outsold both, divert- ing Worksman to Good Humor carts (with jingle bells) and pizza-delivery bikes, but mainly to bikes for navigating the floors of gigantic factories. As the oldest bicycle and tri- Please turn to page A12 Worksman bike BY BARRY NEWMAN Government Missile Lays Waste to a Syrian Rebel Enclave SAUDI ARABIA U.A.E. U.A.E. IRAN IRAQ KUWAIT YEMEN JOR. OMAN QATAR SOMALIA SYR. ISR. TURKEY SUDAN ETHIOPIA EGYPT 500 miles 500 km BAHRAIN Red Sea Persian Gulf Arabian Sea With less than two weeks to go before the latest fiscal face-off, rhetoric heated up Tuesday as the political parties exchanged fire over whom to blame if looming spending cuts take effect. With Congress in recess this week, Republican and Democratic leaders sent lawmakers home armed with fact sheets about the $85 billion in across-the-board federal spending cuts due to start March 1, and talking points on how to blame the other side. Meantime, the White House and lawmakers are making no prog- ress toward forging a compromise to avoid the reductions, which are known in Washington as the se- quester. President Barack Obama, who has proposed a deficit-reduction strategy that includes curbs on tax breaks for upper-income people, held a media event with firefight- ers, police officers and emergency medical technicians to ratchet up political pressure on Republicans to agree to delay the cuts. “Are you willing to see a bunch of first responders lose their job because you want to protect some special interest tax loophole?” he said. Mr. Obama tried to infuse a greater sense of urgency into the debate at a time when many peo- ple outside Washington are just beginning to focus on the impend- ing budget cuts. “These cuts are not smart, they are not fair, they will hurt our economy, they will add hundreds of thousands of Americans to the unemployment rolls,’’ he said. Please turn to page A6 BY JANET HOOK AND COLLEEN MCCAIN NELSON Rhetoric Turns Harsh As Budget Cuts Loom Visit iShares.com for a prospectus, which includes investment objectives, risks, expenses and other information you should read and consider carefully before investing. Risk includes principal loss. Trading shares of ETFs may cause commissions and taxes. iShares ETFs must distribute gains to shareholders. 1. Morningstar, 12/12. 2. Greenwich Associates: 89% of 62 institutions using ETFs 2/12 – 4/12 use iShares, among other ETFs. Distributed by BlackRock Investments, LLC. ©2013 BlackRock, Inc. iS-8880-0113 Are your investments tax efficient? 98% of iShares ETFs did not distribute capital gains last year, extending a decade of leadership in tax efficiency. 1 iShares ETFs are managed to help minimize year-end tax surprises. So you keep more of what you earn. 9 out of 10 large professional investors choose iShares for their ETFs. 2 Ask your financial advisor. Call1-800-iShares. Visit iShares.com C M Y K Composite Composite MAGENTA CYAN BLACK P2JW051000-6-A00100-1--------XA CL,CN,CX,DL,DM,DX,EE,EU,FL,HO,KC,MW,NC,NE,NY,PH,PN,RM,SA,SC,SL,SW,TU,WB,WE BGN,BMT,BRX,CCA,CHR,CKP,CPD,CXT,DNV,DRG,HAW,HLD,KCS,LAG,LAT,LKD,MIA,MLJ,NMX,PAL,PHI,PVN,SEA,TDM,TUS,UTA,WOK P2JW051000-6-A00100-1--------XA
Transcript of 2013 02 20 cmyk NA 04online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/pageone02202012.pdf ·...
YELLOW
* * * * * * WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2013 ~ VOL. CCLXI NO. 41 WSJ.com HHHH $2 .00
BRUSSELS—As 29 passengerssat aboard a Zurich-bound flighthere Monday evening waiting forthe last bags to be loaded, gun-men wearing police uniformsraced up to the plane and stolemore than 120 packages of dia-monds worth at least $50 mil-lion, and possibly much more.
Some of the eight maskedrobbers stood in front of theHelvetic Airways jet plane withmachine guns, pointing lasersights at the pilots, while othersforced ground workers to openthe plane’s cargo doors, accord-ing to Belgian prosecutors and
CONTENTSCorporate News B2-6,9Global Finance........... C3Heard on Street...... C14Home & Digital .... D1-3In the Markets.......... C4Leisure & Arts............ D5
Market Data................ C5Opinion.................. A13-15Property Report... C6-9Sports.............................. D6U.S. News................ A2-6Weather Watch...... B10World News.......... A7-11
DJIA 14035.67 À 53.91 0.4% NASDAQ 3213.59 À 0.7% NIKKEI 11372.34 g 0.3% STOXX600 290.01 À 1.1% 10-YR. TREAS. g 5/32 , yield 2.026% OIL $96.66 À $0.80 GOLD $1,603.60 g $5.20 EURO $1.3389 YEN 93.57
s Copyright 2013 Dow Jones & Company. All Rights Reserved
Vital Signs
The U.S. gets less powerfrom coal. Coal-fired powerplants generated 37% of U.S.electricity in the 12 monthsthrough November, downfrom 43% a year earlier and50% a decade ago. A surgein domestic natural-gas pro-duction has pushed downprices, leading utilities toburn more gas. But coal’smarket share has stabilizedin recent months amidhigher natural-gas prices.
Coal’s share of powergeneration, 12-monthrolling average
Source: Energy InformationAdministration
2011 201230
35
40
45%
>
Apple said that some of itsemployees’ Mac comput-
ers were attacked by hackers,a rare admission for a com-pany that has long touted itssecurity over PCs runningWindows. The malicious codein the attack is believed to bethe same discovered by Face-book after a recent breach. B1n BHP Billiton’s MariusKloppers is stepping down asCEO, in the latest leadershipchange at a giant miner. Hewill be succeeded by BHP ex-ecutive AndrewMackenzie. B2nDell posted steep profit andrevenue declines, but the re-sults were strong enough tobolster investors who saythe founder’s buyout planundervalues the company. B2n The FBI has begun a crim-inal probe into a big optionstrade made the day before theannouncement of the $23 bil-lion buyout of H.J. Heinz. C1n Deal news helped lift ma-jor benchmarks to five-yearhighs, with the Dow adding53.91 points. Google topped$800 for the first time. C4n Novartis abandoned a$78 million exit package forits chairman, bowing topressure from shareholdersand Swiss politicians. B1n BofA awarded CEO BrianMoynihan $12 million in sal-ary and bonus for 2012, re-flecting a rebound year at thesecond-largest U.S. lender. C3n Nestlé is withdrawingsome of its beef pasta mealsfrom sale in Italy, Spain andFrance after finding traces ofhorse DNA in the products. B4n Banks are increasing lend-ing to businesses, but thecheap rates and flexible termsbeing offered are raisingworries about the risks. C1n Japan’s merchandise tradebalance reached a recordmonthly deficit of $17.5 bil-lion in January, but exportsshowed improvement. A11n Revel AC, the owner ofthe struggling Revel casinoin Atlantic City, N.J., is pre-paring to file for bankruptcyprotection in coming weeks. B3n KKR is the only private-equity firm that remains inthe bidding for Gardner Denver,as buyer interest in the firmhas waned in recent weeks. B2n Spain’s Reyal Urbis said itwould file for bankruptcy pro-tection in what could becomethe second-largest default inSpanish corporate history. C9n A Senate panel probingJ.P. Morgan’s “Londonwhale” trading losses is wrap-ping up its report and con-sidering public hearings. C2n Negotiations are breakingdown between creditors ofResCap and its parent, AllyFinancial, over a settlementfor potential liability claims. C3nMcKinsey is reaching outto female employees who leftthe firm, presumably to startfamilies, to see whether theyare ready to return. B1
nAllen said he is retiring andwon’t takeNATO’s top job.The Marine general, whospent 19 months in Afghani-stan overseeing efforts to endthe war, said he was leavingthe military to spend moretime with his ailing wife. Al-len’s nomination for the NATOpost was put on hold last fallwhen he became ensnared in ascandal involving Petraeus,who quit due to an affair. A4Allen was investigated overemails exchanged with aFlorida socialite but wascleared of any wrongdoing.nDemocrats andRepublicanstraded fire over the $85 billionin federal spending cuts due tostart nextmonth in a late effortto shape public opinion.A1n The Supreme Court saidit would review whether toscrap limits on individuals’political contributions. A6n The justices threw out alower court’s standards im-posed on drug-sniffing dogsto justify a vehicle search. A6n The court curbed policeauthority to detain peoplewho left a residence detec-tives had come to search. A6nA Georgia hospital mergerisn’t immune from antitrustscrutiny, the court said. B3nFrance’s campaign againstIslamist rebels inMali is com-plicated by internecine Tuaregfeuds. A French soldier died af-ter clashes with insurgents.A7n A French family was kid-napped in Cameroon. Francesaid a Nigerian Islamist groupwas likely behind the raid. A7nGunmen at Brussels Airportstole at least $50million in dia-monds from a jet as passengerswaited for bags to be loaded.A1n Tunisia’s premier quit afterhis party refused to back hiscall for a new government ofindependent technocrats. A8n Civilian deaths in the Af-ghan conflict fell 12% in 2012from the year before, thefirst decrease in six years. A8nThe EU’s bid to fight globalwarming with an emissions-trading system is faltering asthe price for polluting falls. A10nA study questioned thevalue of robotic surgery forhysterectomies over otherminimally invasive surgery. A2nDetroit is in a state of finan-cial emergency with no realis-tic plan to resolve the crisis, aMichigan review team said. A6n Israel identified the Austra-lian-Israeli man at the heart ofa spy saga after disclosing thathe hanged himself in jail. A9nA lobbyist saidArmstronghired his firm in 2010 to raiseconcerns about an agent lead-ing a federal doping probe. A2nPistorius thought there wasa burglar in his bathroomwhenhe fired at the door, killing hisgirlfriend, his lawyer said. A9nA gas explosion triggered alarge fire near a shopping dis-trict in Kansas City, Mo. A2nDied:Martin Zweig, 70, in-vestor predicted 1987 crash. C3
Business&Finance World-Wide
Follow the news all day at WSJ.com
T.JefferyClarke
Architect
TODAY IN PERSONAL JOURNAL
Island Living...InYour KitchenPLUS Cellphone Service for $19 a Month
What’s News–i i i i i i
MANAMA, Bahrain—A widen-ing split between rival bloodlineswithin Bahrain’s royal family isempowering anti-American hard-liners in this strategically impor-tant island-state, palace insiderssay, stoking U.S. concerns aboutits primary naval base at theheart of the Persian Gulf.
The split, largely hidden fromview until recently, involves twobranches of the Khalifa royalfamily, both descended frombrothers installed by the Britishin 1869. In an unusual breach ofroyal-family discipline, palace figures describedthe divisions in interviews with The Wall StreetJournal. Last week marked the two-year anniver-sary of historic Arab Spring protests here thatcontinue to echo daily in Bahrain’s streets.
The royal rivalry within tinyBahrain, nestled in the PersianGulf between Saudi Arabia andIran, has geopolitical signifi-cance. It is empowering Sunni Is-lamists and eroding American in-fluence here, according toWestern diplomats, U.S. officials,ruling-family rivals, oppositionleaders and political analysts.
The feud pits the king, whosepredecessors nurtured Westernties for decades, against a hered-itary line within the royal familyknown as the Khawalids. TheKhawalids, whose power base in-cludes the hard-line Islamist
movement, were long marginalized within thefamily. But in recent years, the Khawalids gainedcontrol of important institutions including Bah-rain’s security and intelligence forces, the judiciary
PleaseturntopageA12
BY DANIEL MICHAELS
Gunmen Waylay Jet,Swipe Diamond Trove
BY CHARLES LEVINSON
other people familiar with theevents.
The thieves snatched the par-cels of jewels and sped off inminutes without firing a shot,said Belgian prosecutor Ine VanWymersch. Many travelers onthe plane and inside the terminaldidn’t know what was happen-ing. “It was well-prepared andvery professional,” she said.
The theft rattled Antwerp, aworld hub for trading in gemsand precious metals. Nearly allof those valuables pass throughBrussels Airport.
The thieves appeared to havedetailed information about boththe cargo and operations at the
airport, and likely had help frompeople at the airport, accordingto an aviation-security specialistknowledgeable about the inci-dent. Since the terrorist attacksof Sept. 11, 2001, internationallaw-enforcement officials havebeen concerned about securitythreats posed by people workinginside airports and other sensi-tive facilities.
The brazen heist is Europe’shighest-value airport-tarmacholdup in a decade, aviation-se-curity exports said. Authoritieson Tuesday didn’t detail exactlywhat was stolen, so estimates ofthe value of the goods varied.
PleaseturntopageA10
A Palace Rift in Persian GulfBedevils Key U.S. Navy Base
SMOKING RUIN: In a photo provided by Syrian rebels, residents of the northern city of Aleppo inspect the devastation of what insurgents saidwas a government missile strike that killed at least 33. Meanwhile, mortars exploded near a palace of President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus. A11
Shaam
New
s/AFP
/Getty
Images
As Bikes of Burden Rise, One CompanyPeddles Slowly to the Revolution
i i i
The Latest Thing With the Hyper Hip,But Worksman Isn’t ‘Very Trendoid’
NEW YORK—The cargo bike—a bicycle built to move stuff—isa “life-changing wonder,” ac-cording to Liz Canning’s website.Ms. Canning, a digital animatorin California, is making a crowd-sourced video aboutthe coming cargo-bike “cultural revolu-tion.”
Cargo bikes cancost $3,000 apiece—$5,000 with electricassist. They haveboxes or trailers forcarbon-free carting—a hyper-hip answerto the pickup truck.Small workshopsbuild cargo bikes inthe U.S., or have them built inTaiwan. Many are Dutch or Dan-ish imports.
Oh, and there’s a New Yorkcompany that makes them, inthe Ozone Park section of
Queens. Except it doesn’t callthem cargo bikes. They arecalled freight bikes. They comewith “massive, machined steer-ing spindles,” “Kevlar-beltedtires” and such. One model, theSuper Heavy-Duty Mover, han-dles a 500-pound load and sells
for $869.The company is
Worksman TradingCorp., named not forwhat it does but forMorris Worksman.He founded it, in1898, in the beliefthat bicycle cartscould outsell horsecarts.
Horseless carriagesoutsold both, divert-ing Worksman to
Good Humor carts (with jinglebells) and pizza-delivery bikes,but mainly to bikes for navigatingthe floors of gigantic factories.
As the oldest bicycle and tri-PleaseturntopageA12
Worksman bike
BY BARRY NEWMAN
Government Missile Lays Waste to a Syrian Rebel Enclave
SAUDIARABIA
U .A .E .U .A .E .
IRANIRAQ
KUWAIT
YEMEN
JOR .
OMAN
QATAR
SOMALIA
SYR .
ISR .
TURKEY
SUDAN
ETHIOPIA
EGYPT
500 miles
500 km
BAHRAIN
RedSea
Persian Gulf
ArabianSea
With less than two weeks to gobefore the latest fiscal face-off,rhetoric heated up Tuesday as thepolitical parties exchanged fireover whom to blame if loomingspending cuts take effect.
With Congress in recess thisweek, Republican and Democraticleaders sent lawmakers homearmed with fact sheets about the$85 billion in across-the-boardfederal spending cuts due to startMarch 1, and talking points onhow to blame the other side.Meantime, the White House andlawmakers are making no prog-ress toward forging a compromiseto avoid the reductions, which areknown in Washington as the se-quester.
President Barack Obama, whohas proposed a deficit-reductionstrategy that includes curbs on taxbreaks for upper-income people,held a media event with firefight-ers, police officers and emergencymedical technicians to ratchet uppolitical pressure on Republicansto agree to delay the cuts. “Areyou willing to see a bunch of firstresponders lose their job becauseyou want to protect some specialinterest tax loophole?” he said.
Mr. Obama tried to infuse agreater sense of urgency into thedebate at a time when many peo-ple outside Washington are justbeginning to focus on the impend-ing budget cuts.
“These cuts are not smart, theyare not fair, they will hurt oureconomy, they will add hundredsof thousands of Americans to theunemployment rolls,’’ he said.
PleaseturntopageA6
BY JANET HOOKAND COLLEEN MCCAIN NELSON
RhetoricTurnsHarshAs BudgetCuts Loom
Visit iShares.com for a prospectus, which includes investment objectives,risks, expenses and other information you should read and considercarefully before investing. Risk includes principal loss. Trading shares ofETFsmay cause commissions and taxes. iShares ETFs must distribute gainsto shareholders. 1. Morningstar, 12/12. 2. Greenwich Associates: 89% of 62institutions using ETFs 2/12 – 4/12 use iShares, among other ETFs. Distributedby BlackRock Investments, LLC. ©2013 BlackRock, Inc. iS-8880-0113
Are yourinvestmentstax efficient?98% of iShares ETFs did notdistribute capital gains last year,extending a decade of leadershipin tax efficiency.1 iShares ETFs aremanaged to helpminimize year-endtax surprises. So you keepmore ofwhat you earn.
9 out of 10 large professionalinvestors choose iShares fortheir ETFs.2
Ask your financial advisor.Call1-800-iShares.Visit iShares.com
CM Y K CompositeCompositeMAGENTA CYAN BLACK
P2JW051000-6-A00100-1--------XA CL,CN,CX,DL,DM,DX,EE,EU,FL,HO,KC,MW,NC,NE,NY,PH,PN,RM,SA,SC,SL,SW,TU,WB,WEBGN,BMT,BRX,CCA,CHR,CKP,CPD,CXT,DNV,DRG,HAW,HLD,KCS,LAG,LAT,LKD,MIA,MLJ,NMX,PAL,PHI,PVN,SEA,TDM,TUS,UTA,WOK
P2JW051000-6-A00100-1--------XA
