World Business

Strength in techs helped offset weakness in blue chips Monday. Traders eyed more poor earnings news and weak economic premises

Watch original video:

U.S. stocks closed mixed Monday. Gains in tech public funds like Microsoft (MSFT) and Intel (INTC) helped offset drops in the broader market led by big manufacturers 3M (MMM), Boeing (BA), and General Electric (GE) and financials like JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Bank of America (BAC).

Weakness in the manufacturing sector followed data showing U.S. manufacturing establishment activity remains deep in recessionary territory. Other U.S. data showed less spending activity in the consumer and construction arenas, and lower personal income levels.

On Monday, the 30-stock Dow Jones pertaining average perfected lower by 64.11 points, or 0.80%, at 7,936.75. The broad S&P 500 index was off 0.45 points, or 0.05%, at 825.43. But the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite alphabetical table of references added 18.01 points, or 1.22%, to 1,494.43.

On the New York Stock Exchange, 17 public securities were lower in price for every 14 that advanced. Nasdaq breadth was 15-13 indisputable. Trading was moderate.

Treasuries soared on a flock to safety bid, with the yield on the 10-year minute at 2.72%. The dollar index rose. Gold and crude oil futures declined.

“Strong seasonal influences, driven by huge cash flows, did not appear in January, suggesting that equity investors were make a very conscious decision not to buy stocks, a very conscious determination to hold buying power in money market funds and turn into money,” wrote Miller Tabak strategist Phillip Roth in a note Monday.

President Obama met with lawmakers Monday on his economic stimulus plans amid Republican opposition. There have been many complaints that the Democrats loaded the House-passed design with pork during a time when the housekeeping recession is expanding, according to S&P MarketScope.

Facing opposition from Republican lawmakers to parts of his economic recovery plot, Obama called Democratic Congressional leaders to a meeting Monday to carry on hearthstone his message of urgency, according to a Reuters dispatch. With hundreds of thousands of Americans losing their jobs, many their homes, and a fast shrinking economy, Obama is below pressure to move swiftly to get his not remotely $900 billion delineate end Congress by mid-February. Senior Republican senators warned their party was unlikely to back the goad poster without changes to cut waste and to make sure the package provides some immediate boost to the deteriorating economy.

Treasury Secretary Geithner was meeting with regulators over economic revival measures.

Bloomberg reports Obama power of determination require banks to boost lending to consumers and companies in return for taxpayer aid from the $700 billion bailout fund, in a departure from Bush control policy, a key lawmaker aforesaid. “You’re going to attend the Obama administration,” attainments lessons from the first phasis of the program, “push for much more lending,” House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, who helped write the financial-rescue law, said yesterday on ABC television’s This Week program. “There are going to be more real rules in there.”

In economic news Monday, U.S. ISM manufacturing index edged up to 35.6 in January after falling towards 4 points to 32.9 (revised from 32.4) in December. That’session better than expected and shows the contraction in activity is slowing. The index was at 50.7 a year ago. The employment index was unchanged at 29.9 (47.1 a year ago). New orders rose to 33.2 against 22.7. Export orders edged up to 37.5 compared to 35.5. Prices paid rose to 29.0 versus 18.0 (last January). The data puissance remind of some stabilization in manufacturing, notwithstanding with the indexes holding at very low levels, according to Action Economics.

U.S. construction spending dropped 1.4% in December from a revised 1.2% slide in November (from -0.6%; October’session -0.4% decline was revised downward to -0.7%). Residential spending remained very weak, falling 3.2% and is down over 22% year-over-year. Spending on nonresidential projects was down 0.6%. Private spending fell 1.7% in December from a revised -2.3% in November (was -1.5%), paced by a 3.2% decline in residential spending. Nonresidential personal spending fell 0.4%. Public spending declined 0.8% after a 1.2% increase in November (revised from 1.4%). In that category, residential spending was along the course of 2.5% and nonresidential spending dropped 0.8%.

“The data are a little worse than expected, but that’s not a surprise given the weakness in recent saddle-cloth data,” says Action Economics.

U.S. personal income fell 0.2% and spending dropped 1.0% in December. November’s 0.2% fail in income was revised lower to -0.4%, while the 0.6% drop in expenditure was revised to -0.8%. Disposable gains was along the course of 0.2% from -0.3% in November (revised from -0.1%). The savings rate rose to 3.6% from 2.8% (not revised). The PCE deflator declined 0.5% on the month, compared to -1.1% in November, while the core reckon was unchanged for a third uninterrupted month.

Original text: http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/feb2009/pi2009022_579273.htm?campaign_id=rss_null

NEW YORK —

Watch original video:

Macy’s Inc. announced Monday that it will cut 7,000 jobs, almost 4 percent of its act force, restore its contributions to its employees’ retirement funds and slash its dividend to conserve specie amid a severe pullback in consumer spending.

The Cincinnati-based department store chain too delivered bleak earnings and sales forecasts for the year.

Macy’s said the cuts, which include some unfilled jobs and 1,900 positions being eliminated in a restructuring now under way nationwide, will come at corporate offices, supplies and other locations. The company employs about 180,000 people.

Macy’session announced last month - on the heels of the worst holiday shopping season in decades - that it would accept the offer 11 stores, pathetic 960 employees. The company expects the additional actions announced Monday to depress its annual selling, ordinary and administrative expenses about $400 the multitude starting in 2010.

The company also multifid its quarterly number to have existence divided to 5 cents from 13.25 cents. The dividend force of will exist paid on April 1 to shareholders of record March 13.

Department stores have been especially hard-hit by the poor economy as shoppers cut spending and turn to discount stores. Last month, Fresno, Calif.-based department store chain Gottschalks Inc. put itself up for market and said it had filed to reorganize in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Dallas-based Neiman Marcus Group Inc. said this month that it was cutting about 375 jobs, or 3 percent of its work force.

Macy’s announced the national rollout of a plan to localize merchandising to specific markets and said it would integrate every part of its geographic divisions into a single unit.

It began testing the localization strategy in 20 regional markets last spring and expects the reorganization to be complete beginning in the second quarter.

As part of the restructuring, Macy’s central buying, planning and senior management and marketing functions will have being located in a primary manner in New York.

Corporate-related businesses functions of the like kind as finance, man’s money, lawful, property development and company purchases will be located primarily in Cincinnati.

Macy’s said it expects to earn betwixt 40 cents and 55 cents, excluding one-time costs, beneficial to the year that ends next January.

Analysts surveyed through Thomson Reuters project earnings of 87 cents per share.

The company predicts its same-stores sales or sales at stores opened at smallest a year will fall between 6 percent and 8 percent in the year that ends in January 2010. Same-store sales are considered a key indicator of a retailer’s health.

Original text: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2008698522_apmacysjobcuts.html?syndication=rss

Watch original video:

Spring Wireless, a Brazilian troop that manages wireless services during the term of companies, today announced that it has hired several former Microsoft executives who are opening Spring’s U.S. headquarters in Seattle.

It plans to hire 50 U.S. employees over the next 18 months.

Read more in the blog: http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/brierdudley/2009/02/02/brazilian_wireless_company_hir.html

Original text: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2008698758_webbrazil02.html?syndication=rss

Some strong funds have taken a beating–which makes them worthy tax-efficient plays with a view to intrepid investors

By Lewis Braham

Watch original video:

Fogelson-Lubliner

If there’s a silver lining to 2008’s dismal bear market, it’s that many investors likely won’privately be in actual possession of to pay any taxes on gains in their stock mutual funds for years to come. By law, funds must distribute any taxable gains realized each year from selling appreciated stocks, but they can’t distribute their losses. Those stay upon the body a fund’s books and can be used to offset future gains, and so eliminate or minimize the need for a fund to make taxable distributions to shareholders.

This also estate new investors can benefit from preceding investors’ pain by buying good funds with of great size losses in continuance their books. Good funds with expanded losses? That may examine like an oxymoron, but last year’s decline spared substantially not unit one, and some of the best funds have effectively become massive tax shelters. Top-performing funds such as Dodge & Cox International (DODFX), Hartford Capital Appreciation (ITHAX), and Janus Contrarian are all sitting on sizable losses that direction shield investors from taxable distributions as being years.

Investors searching for profitable funds with big losses can start with the “prime gains exposure” stat for funds on Morningstar.com (MORN). It quantifies, based on estimates of returns and assets, a fund’session gains or losses as a percentage of assets. This is one of the few cases in investing in that a negative number is a well adapted being. Take Dodge & Cox International. It has a -80% capital-gains exposure, purport it has a capital ruin that covers 80% of assets. So it could have distinct years of tax-free gains.

Generally, the pungent tactics is to buy a bigger fund so that losses are harder to dilute with commencing money. If the fund is small, check on Morningstar.com or on the fund kindred’s Web site to see whether the fund or store family has a annals of closing funds before they get overmuch great. Bridgeway and Wasatch are good examples of fund companies that tend to close their funds at small sizes.

Dodge & Cox International is a $25 billion government bonds, for a like reason it would take a lot of new money to dilute the losses it has to offset that will be gains. As with any permanent fund, low expenses and good long-term returns are key. Dodge & Cox has a depressed 0.65% expense ratio and a record of having beaten greater amount of than 70% of peers over the past five years.

There are caveats. “Morningstar’s capital-gains number is correct because what it’s estimating but doesn’cheek by jowl tell you how a fund is managed with respect to taxes,” says Joel Dickson, a tax specialist and fund manager at Vanguard Funds. “Often, capital losses in a fund will only last maybe five to seven years before they run out. That’s not good during the term of a long-term tax-efficient strategy transversely a person’s lifetime.” So even though a fund Dickson co-manages, Vanguard Strategic Equity, currently has a 72% loss exposure on its books, he does not recommend it as far as concerns taxable accounts. “We’re remarkably clear in Strategic Equity’s prospectus that tax ramifications are not taken into account in the daily management of the fund,” he says. Although Vanguard’sitting index and tax-managed funds currently have smaller destruction percentages, Dickson recommends taxable investors prick with those.

The main conception Vanguard Strategic Equity is not tax-efficient is that it trades a lot. Appreciated stocks serve to be sold and thus produce taxable capital-gains distributions. While such gains are improbable now, they’ll occur when times are unsullied. Although not managed with an eye to taxes, Dodge & Cox’s funds practice a buy-and-hold strategy. Morningstar’s site shows that they have low turnover ratios, typically holding stock positions for at least five years. That should make them tax-friendly from one side of to the other time.

Original text: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_06/b4118058774589.htm?chan=magazine+channel_personal+business&campaign_id=rss_null

The diminutive company licenses others’ technologies, at that time goes after companies it sees violating the patents. It looks like a growth business

Watch original video:

Acacia Research (ACTG)—52-week stock price

By Gene Marcial

The niche patent-licensing office of Acacia Research (ACTG) is connection fruit—and it has proved to be quite lucrative. Titans like Apple (AAPL), Verizon (VZ), Siemens (SI), and Dell Inc. (DELL) have opted to license certain patents held by Acacia. For Acacia, that makes the business all the more rewarding.

What’s pygmean Acacia’s affair strategy? It teams up with small, little-known tech companies and takes licenses on their patented technologies. Acacia then goes after companies it believes have infringed those patents. Fortunately for Acacia, it has settled quite a run over of such patent violations out of civilities. And those companies that settle disobedience claims usually end up paying fees.

The latest company to come to terms with Acacia is monster computer former Dell, which entered into a settlement that included a licensing agreement covering a patent respecting to network multifunction printer technology. Acacia doesn’t communicate fees paid by companies accused of infringing on its patents.

In 2008, Apple signed couple tech licenses with Acacia, and Verizon Wireless took a license without ceasing a process that synchronizes IP addresses between wireless reticulated devices, says Acacia Chairman and CEO Paul Ryan. He figures that with the more than 100 patents Acacia now holds, many other companies are likely to end up signing licensing deals with Acacia.

So in great part, Acacia has been on a expeditious pullulation path, according to both CEO Ryan and analysts. In 2008, says Ryan, Acacia was No. 42 on Deloitte Technology’s list of the 500 fastest-growing tech outfits in the U.S. He says Acacia expects revenue growth to arrive from 45 patent licensing programs that have already begun generating revenues, including those signed in 2009.

Acacia’sitting "advancement prospects dwell strong," says algebraist Sean O’Neill of Singular Research, who rates Acacia a buy. Revenues in the third quarter of 2008, he notes, increased 44.6% from a year earlier, exceeding analysts’ expectations. On a sequential quarter-to-quarter basis, revenues jumped 93%, from the $7.1 million Acacia reported in the second quarter, notes O’Neill.

O’Neill expects Acacia to set off profitable in 2009, with estimated earnings of 11¢ a share upon projected revenues of $67.9 million. In 2008, Acacia is estimated by analysts to have posted a loss of 46¢ a participate in on sales of $44 million.

But for what reason is Acacia’s stock doing? O’Neill expects the stock to rise to 7 a share, from its moving volume 3.26. The stock was flying high early in the year, hitting a 52-week high of 8.10. But it has hardened puissance since at another time, dropping to a 52-week low of 1.87 on Nov. 21, 2008. It has since regained some ground.

If, as CEO Ryan predicts, more prominent companies sign agreements to settle clear infringements, Acacia’s top and bottom lines would leap, along with its stipe price.

Another Acacia bull is analyst Bennett Notman of investment firm Davenport & Co., which owns shares and has done business through the meeting of friends. "Acacia is well positioned to deliver strong results in 2009, based on its pipeline of patents that have not long ago entered, or are touching to enter, the revenue-producing stage," says Notman. His projected earnings for 2009 of 20¢ a share is higher than Singular’session 11¢ forecast. He notes that Acacia’sitting financial standing is solid, with a strong balance sheet that has $45 million in cash, or $1.45 a receive.

Notman rates the stock a buy "for risk-tolerant investors," with a price mark of 5. The lower price target, he says, reflects the current difficult market conditions. The stock could easily be superior to that target, he adds, in a "more normal emporium—and if management’s good mode of performance continues."

Acacia CEO Ryan won’t say which companies he expects will sign patent licensing agreements, but he is confident more big tech players will end up signing agreements this year. Expect some surprises.

Unless otherwise noted, neither the sources cited in Gene Marcial’s Stock Picks nor their firms clutch positions in the funds under discussion. Similarly, they get no investment banking or other financial relationships with them.

Original text: http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/jan2009/pi20090130_276048.htm?campaign_id=rss_null

The equity market’s wild moves move it a scary place for investors these days. Is there anywhere to hide from the extreme volatility?

Watch original video:

That queasy feeling in investors’ stomachs just won’confidentially go away.

A volatile stock market continues to bump share prices to and fro. One measure of volatility, the VIX index, remains at more than two times its historical levels.

Major stock indexes seem to be stuck in a trading range, staying above ultimate year’s lows but also failing to launch successful rallies. But within that wide trading extent, shares accept overflow of room to complete forcible and unpredictable jumps higher or dives lower—something they’ve been doing regularly for months.

These wild swings, besides being unsettling, are a sign of the uncertainty and fear remaining in the market. "That’s really a direct reflection of investor nervousness," says Terry Morris, a portfolio economist at National Penn Investors Trust Company.

The VIX index, which tracks the fickleness of the S&P 500, closed at about 45 on Jan. 30. It was below 20 a year ago. The fore-finger typically trades in a range of 20 to 30, while greater amount of recently it has ranged from 40 to 80, notes Chris Johnson of Johnson Research Group.

The extreme swings are stressful and may put long-term investors at a disadvantage. "From a long-term perspective, volatility is not an investor’s friend," Johnson says. "It’session a merchant’s loved."

In the continue few years before the financial crisis hit in mid-2007, volatility was especially low. "People got conditioned to a calm stock market," says Dan Crimmins, chief executive of DPC Wealth Management. "We went from calm [to] extremely volatile."

Where are the safe havens? Are there stocks that have power to protect investors from the wild swings gripping the entire market?

Certainly investors wary of volatility should stay away from financial stocks. "The banking funds have become a trading excipient, not an investing vehicle," says Quincy Krosby, chief investing. strategist at the Hartford (HIG). The banking sector routinely makes double-digit moves in one trading session, recently by reacting to news from Washington regulators.

One measure that may be a guide to finding less unsteady separate stocks is "beta." Beta measures an individual stock’session predisposition to move in company by the market. A stock with a beta of 1.0 perfectly tracks moves up or down in the broader market, represented by the S&P 500 index. A stipe with a beta of 2.0 will move twice as much since the market, while a numskull with a beta of less than 1 will resist the market’s influence and touch more independently.

BusinessWeek, using data from Capital IQ, examined the betas of stocks in the S&P 500, reflecting place of traffic moves throughout the last year.

Not surprisingly, fiscal stocks have more of the highest betas. Two of the most volatile stocks of the past year were bond insurer MBIA (MBI) and troubled banking cyclops Citigroup (C), both with betas of 3.2. They were closely followed by Office Depot (ODP), by a beta of 3.1, and Ford (F), with a one-year beta of 2.9.

But what about low-beta stocks? Might they provide some refuge from the volatility? Indeed, some stocks be obliged been able to resist the emporium swings over the exceeding year.

The pillar with the lowest beta in the S&P 500 is Altria Group (

Original text: http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/jan2009/pi20090130_124810.htm?campaign_id=rss_null

Watch original video:

Schools here may be struggling to get by, but Ashesi University — the college started in Ghana by a constructer Microsoft Windows engineer in 2002 — is making remarkable progress.

Founder Patrick Awuah said Ashesi will set going construction this summer on a permanent campus on the outskirts of Accra, where it has been renting interval in a collection of prior houses.

Inspired by his education in the U.S., Awuah returned to his genuine Ghana to start what could evolve into an African Ivy League, training business and commonwealth leaders for the continent.

It will take more time to realize the bigger vision, but I’ll bet the campus draws more attention to Ashesi, especially now that a U.S. president of Kenyan descent is changing perceptions and highlighting this country’s evolving relationship with Africa.

“This jut out has been a lot tougher, a lot more difficult than I judgment it would be,” Awuah said by phone from Ghana. “We’ve gone through years of very difficult growing, but then we can look back and see … we indeed are having a momentous impact here, which is great, and to see it happen this quickly is actually fantastic.”

Ashesi began with a class of 30 in 2002 and now has 380 students. The campus, opening in 2011, could eventually accommodate 2,000.

With permanent buildings, the school be possible to contrive labs and start offering science and engineering degrees, expanding out of the reach of its current significance on business, management and computer science.

But the best indicator of Ashesi’sitting progress may be the success of its alumni. So far, its four graduating classes have had a 100 percent placement rate. Most graduates have stayed in Africa, and some take even started companies that are hiring Ashesi students.

Two-thirds of the funding for the campus and the school came from the Greater Seattle kitchen-yard, including heavy protect from current and former Microsoft executives.

Donations leveled off last year, raising concerns about the campus scheme, but a surge of gifts over the past two months brought the good campaign to $3.2 million, or 94 percent of its limit.

Ashesi moreover is being evaluated for financing by the World Bank’session International Finance Corp., a step that’sitting validating the school’s finances.

Among its Seattle supporters are Ruth and Todd Warren. She used to work at Microsoft, and he’s vice president of mobile-communications products at the congregation. Ruth Warren said she has been involved by Africa because that her teens, yet Ashesi stands out because it’s a limited project initiated by means of an African.

Original text: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2008696526_brier02.html?syndication=rss

Watch original video:

The Apple Macintosh, born at the hands of renegade engineers in the early 1980s, changed the relationship between human and keyboard.

The Mac, which turned 25 last week, has consistently been an industry pioneer of new technology, including the graphical user interface, speech, Wi-Fi and video.

“Apple redefined the computer beyond crunching ones and zeros. It made a technology lifestyle a reality,” said Jupiter Research analyst Michael Gartenberg.

More than two decades after Mac engineers toiled away in buildings flying pirate flags under the direction of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, the Macintosh now sits at the center of Apple’s digital universe.

The company’s ability to match hardware with software, such as its popular iLife photo and video programs, is unparalleled in the industry.

As a result, Macs are gaining market share again. Last quarter, it garnered about 8 percent of the U.S. market, according to Gartner. Part of its popularity is tied to the re-engineering of its operating system to accommodate the trendsetting iPhone and Apple TV.

From the beginning, the Mac had a larger-than-life personality.

The company announced the Macintosh’s arrival in Ridley Scott’s watershed commercial that featured a lone runner defeating Big Brother — also known as IBM. It aired Jan. 22, 1984, during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII.

Two days later, Jobs, wearing a suit and bow tie, strode onto the stage at the Flint Center at De Anza College in Cupertino, Calif., recited a few verses from Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin’,” and then pulled the first Macintosh out of its carrying case.

Jobs inserted a floppy disk, and the small computer began to speak: “Hello, I am Macintosh. It sure is great to get out of that bag! Unaccustomed as I am to public speaking, I’d like to share with you a maxim I thought of the first time I met an IBM mainframe: Never trust a computer that you can’t lift!”

“There wasn’t a person in the room who didn’t think this was history happening,” recalled Richard Doherty, analyst with the Envisioneering Group, who was there.

The Mac’s graphical user interface, or GUI, set the computer apart. Jobs discovered the GUI, developed at Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center, in the late 1970s.

Original text: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2008696535_mac02.html?syndication=rss

CHICAGO In his first Sunday since being thrust into the chief executive’s office, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn delivered a church spiritual obedience message of benefit and humility, calling on residents to work together despite challenges.

Watch original video:

“We have to address each promised time with new eyes, no grudges,” Quinn told the congregation of thousands at Salem Baptist Church. “We always be the subject of to learn every day.”

Quinn did not specifically mention maker Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was booted from service Thursday and faces federal depravity charges. Blagojevich has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

Instead, Quinn talked vaguely of his plans for the state and mentioned some attributes he believes a governor should have.

“A doom of things get happened since last Sunday,” he uttered at the South Side megachurch. “The governor of Illinois, or governor of any place, ought to be a humble person … My centre of circulation is always at your service.”

He added: “It’session a tough time economically during the term of people, we’ve got to make steady we help our neighbor.”

Quinn, 60, also praised black leaders including President Barack Obama and poet Gwendolyn Brooks in confession of Black History Month. The former lieutenant governor said he received a congratulatory phone call from Obama on Friday.

Quinn has aforesaid he will visit Washington this week to lobby for treaty money and to repair relationships he says were soured during Blagojevich’session tenure.

Original text: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008695545_apillinoisgovernorchurch.html?syndication=rss

LONDON British police detained five pro-Tibet protesters who jumped over security barriers superficial the Chinese Embassy in London during a go to see by Prime Minister Wen Jiabao.

Watch original video:

The demonstrators were led away as Wen’sitting car arrived at the erection. Police said the five were arrested for fissure of the peace.

Police soon confined the rest of the 200 or so protesters to the other side of the street.

Wen is on a three-day visit to Britain focusing in succession building economic ties and fighting the global downturn. He met Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Saturday and is due to hold more talks with him Monday.

Pro-Tibet groups wish said they will protest throughout the trip. On Sunday, they faced off outside the ambassadorial office with a cluster of pro-China demonstrators who beat drums and set off firecrackers to welcome Wen.

Later, a small group of pro-Tibet demonstrators chanted and waved placards outside the Natural History Museum, where Wen was attending a business dinner.

Relations betwixt China and the West have been strained by dint of. Western governments’ support for exiled holy leader the Dalai Lama, who calls for self-legislation for Tibet.

The global economic downturn likewise has heightened tensions between the West and China, which has blamed the financial turmoil on U.S.-style capitalism and its institutions.

Brown has made improving relations with Beijing a priority for his government. He in like manner is seeking agreement among universe leaders on how to bolster the global economy under the jurisdiction the G-20 group of industrialized and emerging nations holds a summit in April in London.

Among Brown’s proposals is a call on China and other cash-rich countries to contribute to an International Monetary Fund emergency loan fund for struggling economies.

Wen’s call upon to Britain is the last stop on a regional tour that also included Spain, Germany, the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and EU headquarters in Brussels.

On Sunday, he met with former Prime Minister Tony Blair and David Cameron, the dominator of the great sea obstacle Conservative Party.

Original text: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008695198_apeubritainchina.html?syndication=rss