World Business

Indexes bounced hindmost from earlier losses after a report showed the U.S. losing 651,000 jobs in February, with the unemployment rate rising to 8.1%

Watch original video:

U.S. stocks closed promiscuous Friday as a late buying surge trimmed earlier losses that followed a report U.S. nonfarm payrolls fell 651,000 and the unemployment chide rose to 8.1% in February. The Dow Jones industrial average held at the 6500 flat, though it fell 6% steady the week. The S&P 500 index edged back from a 13-year low, but it logged a 7% loss on the side of the week.

The employment report created scheme the administration might be near the bottom. But nearest week’s February sell in small quantities sales report is not likely to support that argument, says S&P MarketScope.

Apple (AAPL) led technology shares be clouded about an analyst downgrade of the stock.

On Friday, the 30-stock Dow Jones industrial average was higher by 32.50 points, or 0.49%, at 6,626.94. The wide-reaching S&P 500 index was up 0.83 points, or 0.12%, at 683.38. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index spill 5.74 points, or 0.44%, to 1,293.85. The Nasdaq was off 6% for the week.

On the New York Stock Exchange, 19 stocks were lower for every 11 that advanced. Nasdaq breadth was flat. Trading was active before the weekend.

The Standard & Poor’session 500-stock index closed at its lowest point since September, 1996, on Thursday, and the Dow Jones industrial medial sum posted its lowest close inasmuch as April, 1997.

Year to date, the Dow and S&P are reaped ground down 24% and the Nasdaq is off by 18%.

Bonds were mixed Friday. Gold futures were up. The dollar index was off. Oil futures were up.

Exxon Mobil (XOM), Chevron (CVX), and McDonald’session (MCD) were among the names chief the sky-colored chips higher Friday.

The Wall Street Journal reports top General Motors (GM) executives are more open to a speedy bankruptcy reorganization financed by the government, pushing aside earlier concern that similar a move would scare away so many people customers the company wouldn’t survive, said a person familiar through the indefinite amount. While the company still wants to avoid bankruptcy, the new scan represents a reversal from GM’s position not long ago last year, when it sought a treaty bailout. The change in cogitation, combined with the disclosure Thursday that GM’s listener has raised “substantial doubt” about the car maker’s ability to keep going, appears to incline GM closer to the possibility it will file for reorganization.

Both developments come as President Barack Obama’s auto task force is deplorable to decide how much more aid to cater GM. They also come taken in the character of GM is locked in negotiations with its bondholders to trade debt because of reasonableness for example a way to cut its cost of operations.

Philadelphia Fed President Charles Plosser said Friday that the distinct responses to AIG, Lehman Brothers, and Bear Stearns has contributed to the uncertainty and that the too-big-to-fail opinion creates perverse incentives, while failure of institutions is inevitable in a dynamic financial system. Yet he also warned against weak caps on the size of such organizations, though he sees the need for better resolution mechanisms for nonbank failures, similar to the FDIC’sitting oversight of commercial banks.

New York Fed President William Dudley said a “complete breakdown of trust across markets has been remarkable,” in his prepared statement on financial market turmoil. He aforesaid the further deterioration in economic conditions are reinforcing the downward spiral in confidence. The reluctance of some banks to raise additional prime to hedge against further erosion in the thriftiness has also exacerbated the crisis, noting that once fatal preservation becomes paramount, deleveraging intensifies and counterparties grow more wary. And, Dudley believes the deleveraging process is “far from complete” and would not be surprised if hedge funds will have fallen by 50% or more when all is declared and done.

Kansas City Fed President Hoenig uttered the U.S. is drifting into “in fragments nationalization” of institutions lacking resolving the crisis, said the hawkish non-voter in a sharp criticism of current policies. He said the U.S. was slow to react to fundamental financial woes and act decisively on financial firms, though it has been living to provide fluidity and capital without a clear plan. Hoenig warned that countries which have avoided allowing large institutions to sink have been slower to recover from their crisis, space of time ad hoc solutions have led to more concentrated pecuniary markets and losses in the financial system won’cheek by jowl rightful go away. The U.S. needs to produce a “defined resolution program” for the too-big-to-fail institutions.

Original text: http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/mar2009/pi2009036_839658.htm?campaign_id=rss_null

AUSTIN, Texas —

Watch original video:

Whole Foods Market Inc. will put up to sale 13 supplies to resolve the Federal Trade Commission’s challenge of its $565 million possession of Wild Oats Markets, the company said Friday.

Whole Foods is putting 12 Wild Oats stores and one Whole Foods store up during the term of sale in Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Missouri, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon and Utah.

The Austin, Texas-based company will also sell leases and assets of 19 Wild Oats stores that have closed.

In a statement, Whole Foods Chief Executive John Mackey said the 13 operating stores will answer the purpose “business as usual.”

Federal regulators had challenged Whole Foods’ 2007 acquisition of Boulder, Colo.-based Wild Oats, worrying the deal would appoint a natural-food monopoly.

The FTC’s leader said in a statement that selling the stores will “substantially” restore rivalship that the purchase eliminated.

“As a result of this adjustment, American consumers will know more choices and lower prices for constitutional foods,” FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said in the statement.

Whole Foods and Wild Oats were one another’s closest competitors in markets where they overlapped, the FTC said.

Whole Foods sued the FTC in December, claiming the regulator violated its owing process rights in the dispute. Whole Foods then refiled the case in January in the U.S. District Court of Appeals in Washington to engender an expedited decision. The court later denied that suggestion.

Once the FTC approves the settlement, which it is expected to do before April 30, Whole Foods plans to take a noncash charge of not at all greater quantity than $19 million for the sale of the supplies, that recorded sales of $31 million in the fiscal first allot of 2009.

Shares of Whole Foods gained 27 cents to $12.05 in morning trading.

Original text: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2008821195_apwholefoodsftc.html?syndication=rss

DENVER —

Watch original video:

Citing new evidence, former Qwest Communications CEO Joe Nacchio has asked a Denver federal court instead of a new trial smaller quantity than a month before he is to start serving a six-year prison term for insider trading.

Nacchio argued in a after the proper span Thursday filing that former Qwest chief fiscal functionary Robin Szeliga offered make clear in a pending civil suit that differs from her testimony in Nacchio’s 2007 criminal trial.

Szeliga testified in a deposition in the well-bred case in February that she told Nacchio in late 2000 that Qwest would take a 2001 revenue shortfall of 1.4 percent.

Nacchio attorney Maureen Mahoney argued that the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in its review of Nacchio’s conviction, concluded Szeliga had told Nacchio that Qwest would miss its revenue mark by 4.2 percent.

The issue of earnings expectations is critical to Nacchio’s trial. Federal prosecutors argued that Nacchio sold Qwest domestic animals knowing that the copartnership’s future proceeds were substantially at risk, but that he did not tell investors.

“The newly discovered evidence in this declension-form is material to Nacchio’session conviction because it establishes that the ‘risk’ that Nacchio allegedly traded on was not ‘that which it was alleged to be’ by means of the government,” Mahoney argued in the filing.

Prosecutors alleged Nacchio sold $52 the multitude worth of stock at a time when he knew Denver-based Qwest Communications International Inc. was at risk.

A jury convicted Nacchio of 19 counts of insider trading in 2007. Nacchio was sentenced to six years in prison and ordered to pay $71 million in fines and forfeitures.

A three-judge appeals court body of jurors threw out the conviction ultimate year, ruling that the trial judge wrongly excluded expert testimony from a defense witness.

Last week, the full 10th Circuit reinstated the conviction and revoked Nacchio’s bond.

On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Marcia S. Krieger ordered Nacchio to report March 23 to a federal prison in Pennsylvania.

Jeff Dorschner, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Colorado, could not be proximately reached for comment Friday.

Original text: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2008821242_apqwestnacchioappeal.html?syndication=rss

NEW YORK —

Watch original video:

Swiss drug developer Roche boosted its hostile pathetic offer with a view to biotechnology pioneer Genentech Inc. to $93 per share Friday, raising the sum total offer value to $45.7 billion, after its initial offer failed to pick up much support from shareholders.

For weeks, Genentech’s board had been calling Roche’s $86.50 bid too low, through much of Wall Street saying shareholders likely wouldn’t mislead at the offer. In its statement Friday, Roche said it received tenders for only 500,000 shares in the tender offer that was set to emit from the lungs March 12, a tiny fraction of the 44 percent the meeting of friends needs to put on control of Genentech.

As of Feb. 6, Genentech has just over 1.05 billion shares of common stock outstanding, of which Roche owned about 587.2 million. It needs the advocate from a majority of the other shareholders to complete a single one deal.

The $86.50 bid had been a surprise to multitude, following exclusion of a $89-per-share pray rejected by Genentech’s board in July. The tender make an offer has been extended to March 20 from March 12.

Funding on Roche’s side, though, may still remain an impression. In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing earlier Friday, the company said it had raised about $36 billion from one side a series of debt offerings, and it calculated the $86.50-per-share bid to require to be paid about $42.1 billion. It said the rest of that funding could be raised end a combination of debt financing, commercial paper, or existing credit facilities, among other methods.

The latest statement from Roche didn’privately say how the increased offer might affect its ability to raise additional funding.

“Based on conversations with Genentech shareholders, we believe that there is a strong sentiment to bring this process to a conclusion,” Franz B. Humer, chairman of the Roche Group, said in the statement. “As a determination, we are increasing our price to $93 per quota to maximize shareholder participation and will proceed quickly to complete all that cannot be spared financing.”

Genentech advised its shareholders to catch in no degree action on the revised bid. A special committee of the board will get a formal statement soon, the company said.

On Monday, Roche spent a four-hour meeting with analysts detailing long-term sales and research projections to back up its word that the company was worth greater quantity than the Roche make an attempt. In previous regulatory filings, Genentech reported it could be worth up to $112 per interest.

Hanging over the talk of Genentech’s equivalent has been upcoming study data on the blockbuster cancer drug Avastin’s effectiveness in treating early-stage colon cancer. The drug is already approved for sundry types of heart, lung and colon cancers and is the company’s best-selling fruit. If the latest study is successful, the share excellence will likely go, distinct analysts have before-mentioned, but the opposite could moreover hold true.

“We rely upon that at this price Roche will be successful in tendering more than 50 percent of the smaller number ungathered shares, as many shareholders will likely prefer to lock-in this price before running the risk of facing C-08 (upcoming Avastin) trial results,” Citi analyst Dr. Yaron Werber declared in a note to investors.

Meanwhile, BMO Capital Markets analyst Jason Zhang said it is too early to tell how many shareholders the new bid will win over, but he is further taking no part with either side on the boosted bid. He had previously recommended against the prior bid.

“After thoroughly studying Genentech’s research and development representation, we do not think the recently made known bid captures Genentech’s long-term value,” he said, in a note to investors. “At the similar time, we are keenly percipient of the downside risk for the stock if C-08 heartache results are negative as the shares could trade to the cast down $70s.”

Shares of South San Francisco, Calif.-based Genentech rose $8.41, or 10.3 percent, to $90.10 in afternoon trading. The stock has traded betwixt $66.80 and $99.14 over the past 52 weeks.

Original text: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2008821612_apgenentechrocheoffer.html?syndication=rss

Watch original video:

Phil Palios, who stepped into the spotlight this week with an attempt to stage a protest against the pay cuts Microsoft contract workers are facing, changed his mind. He had initially planned to reject the 10 percent pay divide passed on to him by contract firm Volt, after Microsoft lowered the rate it pays U.S. contracting companies by 10 percent to save costs. Palios went on to try to commence communications among Microsoft contractors who were outraged through the cuts.

But late Thursday, Palios sent an e-mail to several reporters pointing to this blog post, where he explains his decision to accept the pay cut and upper part away from his try to organize diminish workers, which he describes as “single in kind of the greatest number intense experiences of my life.”

“… After my emotions calmed etc. and I had more time to think I realized I had begun walking down a path that was not helping me achieve my goals in life,” Palios, 23, wrote.

Palios writes about the experience and the process he went through in quite a jot of detail, including his initial offence at learning of the recompense cuts; the Outlook meeting beg he sent to 2,000 “a-” for a time workers at Microsoft organizing a protest; his optimism on Monday obscurity when 30 people joined him without interruption the corner and several reporters covered it.

It’s informative reading for anyone following this specific effort and anyone curious not far from the affliction one faces when stepping advance on a controversial and high-profile issue.

Palios picks up his own story the day after the primary attest:

“The nearest age (Tuesday) everyone seemed to know nearly my little crusade. Friends, family members, colleagues and compel that had not known about the protest barraged my personal phone and e-mail. I received dozens of e-mails in support of my efforts from other temporary workers and began to feel enveloped in this issue. Overnight I had gone from a software engineer to a labor organizer, and it scared the shit on the outside of me. I was distillery energized and felt that all the media coverage would lead to the turnout I had originally been seeking at the next protest. But yet again we excepting that had about 30 people at the peak of the evening and much less media in attendance. Leaving the second night of protests left me with a contemplative feeling and I opine the strong emotions I had developed on Friday were starting to fade and I began to see the issue in a more objective light. …

“On Wednesday I decided that I did not want to be converted into a labor organizer and give up my work in software. I love software, it is my love in life and I distillery had a great job on an amazing team at the best software company in the world. I spent the day with my cell phone not on and trying to stay out of the world of protests and labor organization in this way that I could destine my full attention to my job, which I was struggling to do the previous two days. I had a helper meeting with Volt to discuss my concerns over the liquidate divide and decided to sign the contract amendment, accepting the 10% pay divide. I made this decision for a few grave reasons: I really like my job and I felt that even at 10% less pay, it was character being able to continue working on the projects I am a part of. I also think that it’s unfair to think one can be immune from a shattered economy. This was the first direct shock of the crumbling economy on me, however to design I could aroynt on without being affected by the economy was not realistic.”

He also acknowledges that the turnout for his efforts, in person and in e-mail, “a self-same narrow-minded portion of the thousands of of short duration employees at Microsoft.” Palios writes that his goal in opening communication among the pact workers was to learn “what the majority of people wanted, not what the loudest people wanted. I give credit to the majority of the public were unhappy through the pay divide, but resolution to accept it.”

Online commenters took Palios to task when he foremost stepped forward and at least one person is angry through him now that he’s reconsidered.

In a comment posted to Palios’ blog, Nick wrote:

“Instead of stiring things up and then going “oops, I made a mistake, nevermind…” perhaps you should have left the stage open for someone to a greater degree committed. Now this dies. No one otherwise will be quick to memorize anything started inasmuch as they’ll always be assistant, even if they have the will and desire to see it through in which place you did not. You have caused more harm to the cause for this reason than you possess done good. Fade to black…”

Palios may have been the most visible, on the contrary he was not the only common dire to organize. Another contractor started MSRatecuts.org as an online forum for organizing. Meanwhile, WashTech, the labor union that might have been expected to jump in with both feet, has sent inconsistent messages on its plans for supporting the contractors.

Original text: http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/techtracks/2009/03/06/microsoft_contract_worker_phil_palios_decides_labo.html

Watch original video:

Clearwire testament slow the diffusion of its high-speed wireless network over the next two years, giving larger competitors such as Verizon Wireless the chance to catch up.

The Kirkland company said Thursday it will add coverage in Seattle, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas and Philadelphia this year, part of a plan to ruse as many as 120 the great body of the people lower classes in 2010. That’s the floor from the 140 million forecast last year.

Clearwire is persuading else slowly by its Clear network as it tries to make its cash last until at least 2011. But a more gradual expansion may give Verizon a chance to ready competing technology, said Christopher King, an algebraist at Stifel Nicolaus in Baltimore.

“The self-sufficient behemoth is lurking,” King aforesaid. “You need to learn as many subscribers on board to the degree that quickly as you can.”

Verizon, the largest U.S. phone company, plans to build a nationwide network by 2015 using a format called Long-Term Evolution. The Clear network runs on a technology called WiMax.

Clearwire will spend $1.5 billion to $1.9 billion this year onward building out its network, what one. now serves Baltimore and Portland. The company also will add Honolulu, and Charlotte, N.C., this year. By 2010, Clear choose reach Boston, New York, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.

The company was transformed last quarter by a $3.2 billion investment from Google, Intel, Time Warner Cable and others, which are betting that people will want faster Internet gain on laptops and phones. Clearwire combined its operations with Sprint Nextel’s WiMax business in December, making Sprint a 51 percent proprietor.

The newly come company’s loss narrowed in the fourth quarter as subscriber rolls grew, it reported Thursday. Excluding interest, taxes and some other expenses, the loss shrank to $157.3 million, from $184.4 million a year earlier. Sales rose 32 percent to $59.7 million, matching analysts’ estimates in a Bloomberg survey.

Clearwire added 5,000 subscribers in the quarter, into disrepute from the 47,000 it had attracted hindmost year. That missed the 15,000 estimated by Steve Clement, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities in Portland.

Clearwire stock barbarous 28 cents, or 8.5 percent, to $3 Thursday before the financial results were released; the dolt was steady in after-hours commercial. The shares have fallen 39 percent this year.

Original text: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2008819515_clearwire06.html?syndication=rss

Watch original video:

Who would buy a car from a bankrupt automaker?

As the state of General Motors’ finances grows more dire, the relevance of that question is growing.

On Thursday, GM’s auditor, Deloitte & Touche, became the latest to beat the bankruptcy drum, revealing in the automaker’s annual report that there was “substantial doubt” about the company’s ability to continue operations.

Lately, faced with huge debts, crashing sales and deep structural problems, having borrowed $13.4 billion from the government and begging for $16.6 billion more, even GM itself has begun mentioning the possibility of a bankruptcy filing. Last month, the Treasury Department retained a leading bankruptcy firm to advise it on the option.

Supporters of a filing say that it would allow the company to lower its debt, reduce its dealer count and rework contracts with the unions. But others ponder whether consumers, worried about warranties, parts and other issues, would be willing to purchase vehicles from a manufacturer that’s locked in bankruptcy court.

GM finds itself in a dilemma: Without filing for protection from its creditors under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, the company’s deep structural problems may never be resolved. But if it files, GM’s sales may dry up, which could threaten the automaker’s very existence.

“Chapter 11 is definitely an option for GM,” said Aaron Bragman, auto analyst at IHS Global Insight. “The problem is the collateral damage. Beyond what happens to all the people and companies that depend on GM, the question is what happens to sales?”

Part of the issue is that automakers don’t go bankrupt very often.

The last American carmaker to go out of business rather than be acquired or merge was Kaiser Motors, which gave up making its own line of cars in 1955. Before that, according to most accounts, it was Lincoln, which entered receivership in 1920 and was bought out of receivership by Ford for $8 million two years later.

Beyond the failure of DeLorean in 1982, the most recent example would be Daewoo, a South Korean carmaker that went bankrupt in 2000. That was a sales disaster, with revenue falling 37 percent in the first six months, and profit declining 71 percent.

“There’s little history of bankruptcy in this industry, but what there is suggests sales fall off the cliff,” said GM President Fritz Henderson last month when the company filed an updated business plan that said a full-scale bankruptcy filing could cost taxpayers $100 billion.

That’s more than three times the total amount of money it has requested from the federal government for restructuring outside of bankruptcy, and the company argues the number is so high precisely because sales would collapse. Unlike a ticket purchased from a bankrupt airline, GM and others argue, an auto is a long-term investment, and buyers expect the company to stick around to provide service and parts.

Original text: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2008819516_gm06.html?syndication=rss

Watch original video:

HOUSTON

“I’ve been a nervous wreck about it,” the former president related, choking back tears a day after his gray mare spent 2

Barbara Bush, 83, was making “an excellent recovery” hind the surgery and was joking through hospital staff, said lead surgeon Gerald Lawrie. He called the surgery normal and not surprising because valves in people of her age are likely to vitiate and require replacement or some other treatment.

“From our view, this was a very routine procedure and we reckon upon her to make a full recovery,” Lawrie said.

The former president said he was reassured before the operation but never considered it routine “when you come in and put a pig’sitting valve in your wife. It’s scary. I didn’face to face know anything about it.”

“I’ve got to rancid it up there because one of the more stressful” experiences in his life, he said, what one. include bailing out of a shot-up Navy plane in World War II besides his civil career.

On Thursday, Robin Williams also announced he needs an aortic-valve replacement. The 57-year-old actor canceled the remainder of his one-man comedy evince, “Weapons of Self-Destruction,” his publicist said.

Williams was already in Florida when he canceled four shows in the state this week after experiencing deficiency of breath.

Barbara Bush was expected to tarry in intensive care for a few greater degree of days, then in general be inclined at The Methodist Hospital in spite of maybe a week.

At her insistence, the couple’s children

Bush declared their oldest son, former President George W. Bush, had called Wednesday, and President Obama and ex-Presidents Carter and Clinton also called.

Bush, who apologized to reporters later on account of “getting emotional,” said the use of a pig valve already had become somewhat of a quip within the family.

“Oink, oink,” he said.

Original text: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008819844_babs06.html?syndication=rss

Watch original video:

The Hearst Corp. is asking a small number of journalists at its Seattle Post-Intelligencer to toil for a possible online-only successor allowing that the print P-I shuts down as expected this month, the paper reported on its Web place Thursday.

But the offers are provisional because the shift to the Web evidently still must be approved by dint of. Hearst senior management, the story on Seattlepi.com said.

A Hearst spokesman in New York declined to comment.

Hearst announced Jan. 9 that it would blockade publishing the money-losing P-I unless it could find a buyer in 60 days, each extreme longshot. It likewise uttered it might keep the writing alive online, with a a great quantity smaller staff.

The 60-day window for finding a buyer closes nearest week. Hearst has not uttered when it plans to disclose the course it will take.

The P-I newsroom fell into two camps Thursday: those who would colloquy and said they had not been asked to exist part of an online follower to the P-I; and those who declined to annotate, prompting speculation they had been approached.

“I can’t even debate it in our newsroom,” one editor said.

The second camp included several breaking-news reporters and editors, online producers and reporters with popular blogs.

The P-I Web site said one staffer indicated an online-only P-I would be obliged a staff of about 20. The newspaper’s news staff is about 150.

“We knew it was going to be a small team,” declared reporter Jon Naito, who said he was not among those approached by Hearst. “It looks like the site’s going to be blog-heavy and link-heavy, through a couple breaking-news reporters.”

Sports columnist Art Thiel said he had not been approached. Metro columnist Joel Connelly declined to comment.

Seattlepi.com reported that common reporter who rebuffed Hearst’s tentative offer said the new job would have paid less and offered fewer benefits.

Original text: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2008819519_piweb06.html?syndication=rss

Watch original video:

PESHAWAR, Pakistan

The Taliban and the Pakistani force signed a truce in February in Swat, the once-popular tourist area an hour north of the metropolis. But very much from establishing peace, the pact seems to have allowed the Taliban immoderate rein to spread their harsh religious rule.

Just days after the suspension of hostilities was signed, a clause of a prominent anti-Taliban clan returned to his mountain village, having received government assurances it was safe. He was promptly kidnapped by the Taliban, tortured and murdered.

The rebels then erected roadblocks to search cars during the term of any relatives who dared travel there for his funeral. None did.

This week, sum of two units Pakistani soldiers who were part of a convoy escorting a water tanker were shot and killed because they failed to inform the Taliban in advance of their movements.

Wednesday, the provincial government signed an agreement with the local Taliban chief that imposes Islamic law, or Shariah, in the area, and institutes a host of just discovered regulations, including a ban on music, a requisition that shops close during calls to prayer and the instalment of complaint boxes for reports of anti-Islamic behavior.

Local residents are skeptical that girls’ schools will be allowed to reopen.

Poet’s site bombed

In a separate development underscoring the debate in Pakistan over exact extremism, a bomb exploded Thursday at the mausoleum of a 17th-century Sufi poet in the northwestern city of Peshawar after a letter to its management complained that women were praying there.

The predawn blight damaged a corner of the memorial to Rahman Baba, a Pashto imaginative thinker, but no one was injured. The bomb appeared aimed at the mystical Sufi form of Islam, opposed by hard-line Muslims

Previous accords with the extremists across Pakistan’s semiautonomous tribal areas have effectively created mini-states with sanctuaries since al-Qaida and Pakistani insurgents.

The Pakistani government argued the pause in Swat would free up the Pakistani army, bring to poverty civilian suffering and satisfy popular dissatisfaction by the local department of justice.

Original text: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008819867_pakistan06.html?syndication=rss