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* * * * * MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2013 ~ VOL. CCLXI NO. 57 WSJ.com HHHH $2 .00

CONTENTSCorporate News.... B2,3Global Finance........... C3Health & Tech............ B6Heard on the Street C6Law Journal................. B5Letters to the Editor A16

Media............................... B4Moving the Market C2Opinion.................. A15-17Sports.............................. B8U.S. News............. A2-4,6Weather Watch........ B7World...... A8,10,11,13,18

Lastweek: DJIA 14397.07 À 307.41 2.2% NASDAQ 3244.37 À 2.4% NIKKEI 12283.62 À 5.8% STOXX600 295.55 À 2.3% 10-YR. TREASURY g 1 26/32 , yield 2.056% OIL $91.95 À $1.27 EURO $1.3003 YEN 96.03

s Copyright 2013 Dow Jones & Company. All Rights Reserved

Vital Signs

The dollar is soaringagainst the yen. One U.S.dollar buys 96.03 yen, thehighest level since August2009. The dollar is up about11% against the Japanesecurrency this year. Theyen is falling because manyinvestors expect Japan’scentral bank to loosenmonetary policy, whilethe Federal Reserve is ex-pected to stand pat until ithas more evidence of sus-tained growth.

Japanese yen one dollar buys

Source: ICAP

70

80

90

100

¥110

'09 '10 '11 '12 '13’08

>

China’s economy showedsigns of weakness in the

first two months of the year,falling short of expectationsit would resume the kind ofstrong growth with low infla-tion that has helped drive aglobal economic recovery.Disappointing statistics re-leased over the past few daysleave analysts divided aboutChina’s growth prospects. A8n U.S. companies are keep-ing more of their profits off-shore, a Journal analysis of60 big firms found. Themoves shielded more than40% of the companies’ annualprofits from U.S. taxes. B1n Banks’ profits from com-modities trading have beenhard hit by tough new rulesand subdued markets. C1n Some bond investors arepreparing for the day whenthe Federal Reserve won’t beable to keep a lid on rates. C1n Amazon’s application toown dozens of domain names,including “.book,” “.app” and“.movie,” has prompted objec-tions from two publishing in-dustry groups as well as fromrival Barnes & Noble. B1n Dell’s proposed $24.4 bil-lion buyout by its founder iscausing anxiety among thecomputer maker’s corporatecustomers and others. B3nNBCUniversal’s cable enter-tainment channels face a slow-down as Comcast nears com-pletion of its buyout of GE’sstake in the media giant. B1n Boston Scientific’s experi-mental stroke-prevention de-vice for patients with irregularheartbeats showed mixed re-sults in a late-stage study. B6n AMedicine Co. anticlottingdrug outperformed the widelyused clopidogrel in heart pa-tients getting stents. B6n Rhythm & Hues Studios,the bankrupt movie-effectsfirm behind “Life of Pi,” re-ceived a $17 million bid froma South Korean company. B4nWalt Disney’s prequel to“The Wizard of Oz” toppedthe North American box officeon its opening weekend. B4

nTwo lawmakers are set tounveil dueling budget plans.GOP Rep. Ryan’s budget will in-clude no new tax increases orPentagon cuts while advancingbig changes toMedicare andMedicaid, in a bid to erase thedeficit in 10 years. DemocraticSen.Murray’s plan is expectedto raise taxes on upper-incomehouseholds and corporationsandmakemodest spendingcuts to domestic programs.A1The blueprints from the par-ties’ budget chiefs highlighthow far apart the sides areon tax and spending policy.nKarzai said the Taliban werekilling Afghan civilians “in ser-vice to America,” a remark thatdealt a blow to already fraughtU.S.-Kabul relations. A1n One of five men accusedin the gang rape of a 23-year-old Indian woman killed him-self in jail, his lawyer said. A8nANigerianmilitant sectsaid it killed seven foreign hos-tages, a claim that Greece, Italyand the U.K. confirmed. A8nPakistani Christians clashedwith police after a mob burnedChristian homes to retaliatefor alleged blasphemy. A13n Venezuela’s Capriles, theopposition leader, announcedhis candidacy in next month’svote to succeed Chávez. A11n The top rival to Kenya’spresident-elect vowed tochallenge polling results, al-leging vote manipulation. A10n Jordan’s king named a pre-mier for the sixth time sinceArab Spring and asked him toform a new government. A10n Islamist-led rebels appear tobe fast consolidating their con-trol in northeast and easternSyria along the Iraq border.A11nChina plans to strip powerfrom the agency that overseesits one-child policy, a move thathints at a shift in the effort. A8nBeijing is shaking up its dip-lomatic leadership at a time ofrising tensions with Japan. A8nU.S. nuclear plants are saferthan ever, the top regulatorsaid, an assessment a watch-dog called overly rosy. A2

Business&Finance World-Wide

Follow the news all day at WSJ.com

What’s News–i i i i i i

What’s Ahead—MONDAY, MARCH 11 Japan’s upper house be-gan hearings to confirm thenext Bank of Japan governor. Germany publishes Janu-ary import and export data.TUESDAY, MARCH 12 The Treasury releases thefederal budget for February. The papal conclave meetsin the Vatican to choose anew pope.WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13 Data on February retailsales and January businessinventories are on tap.THURSDAY, MARCH 14 The Labor Department re-ports on weekly jobless

claims and the FebruaryProducer Price Index. The Conservative PoliticalAction Conference begins. EU heads of state gatherfor a two-day summit.FRIDAY, MARCH 15 Syria marks the secondanniversary of the uprisingagainst President Assad. The consumer price indexand the industrial-produc-tion report are due.SUNDAY, MARCH 17 The NCAA announces the68 teams for its men’s bas-ketball tournament.

For the week ahead in corporatenews, see page B2.

Three decades after Manville Corp. collapsed un-der an avalanche of asbestos litigation, personal-in-jury claims continue to pile up at a rate of 85 perday.

They find their way to a small office building insuburban Virginia, where processors evaluate the

paperwork of pipe fitters and weld-ers and shipbuilders who say theycontracted debilitating lung diseasesfrom the company’s insulation prod-ucts. By last March, a Manville bank-ruptcy trust had already paid outnearly $4.3 billion.

So when a beneficiary of one David E. Knightcame to the trust saying the former seaman hadsuccumbed to the deadly cancer mesothelioma, theadministrators didn’t blink. Within five weeks, theclaimant received a check for $26,250.

The only problem: There was no such Mr.Knight. Police say the claim was phony, filed by anemployee of a law office specializing in extractingpayouts from asbestos bankruptcy trusts. Californiaprosecutors are investigating.

The apparently bogus claim is a footnote in thehistory of the multibillion-dollar asbestos-litigationindustry, but it illustrates a troubling underside ofthe nation’s longest-running tort. With dozens ofasbestos-related manufacturers forced into bank-ruptcy, a burgeoning swath of the legal action hasshifted out of the courtroom and into a nebulousworld of trusts that evaluate claims and authorizepayouts with little outside scrutiny.

By design, many are guided by teams of plain-tiffs’ lawyers—the very group that seeks money forclients and has earned billions of dollars in fees onpayouts through the years. Fraud allegations haveperiodically dogged the trusts. And, even though

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KABUL—America’s fraughtties with Afghanistan suffered ajarring blow Sunday, when Af-ghan President Hamid Karzaisaid during a visit by the newU.S. defense secretary that theTaliban were killing Afghan civil-ians “in service to America.”

The remarks, in a televisedspeech hours before Mr. Karzai’smeeting with U.S. Defense Secre-tary Chuck Hagel, capped a se-

ries of confrontations betweenthe Afghan president and theU.S. over his demands to assertAfghan sovereignty and curtailAmerican military operations.

Mr. Karzai met Mr. Hagel aday after suspected Taliban sui-cide bombers killed at least 18people at the Ministry of De-fense in Kabul and in the easternprovince of Khost.

In his address, Mr. Karzai saidthe U.S. doesn’t want to leave thecountry after the NATO coali-tion’s mandate expires at the end

of 2014 because it covets Afghanresources and is talking with Tal-iban leaders behind his back.

“Taliban are every day in talkswith America, but in Kabul andKhost they set off bombs to showstrength to America,” Mr. Karzaisaid. “The bombs that went off inKabul and Khost yesterday werenot a show of power to America,but were in service to America…Itwas in the service of foreigners notwithdrawing from Afghanistan.”

U.S. Marine Gen. Joseph Dun-ford, who took command of co-

alition forces last month, calledMr. Karzai’s charges “categori-cally false.”

“We have fought too hardover the past 12 years, we haveshed too much blood over thelast 12 years, we have done toomuch to help the Afghan secu-rity forces grow over the last 12years to ever think that violenceor instability would ever be toour advantage,” he said.

Mr. Karzai’s remarks blind-sided American officials who had

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BY DION NISSENBAUMAND YAROSLAV TROFIMOV

Karzai Inflames U.S.TensionsAfghan President’s Claim Taliban Kill ‘in Service to America’ Clouds Hagel Visit

Congress opens a new chapterin the budget debate this weekwith the introduction of duelingblueprints from two lawmakerswho illustrate their parties’vastly different approaches tothe role of government.

Sen. Patty Murray (D., Wash.)and Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wis.),heads of the Senate and Housebudget committees, will proposebudget resolutions that set taxand spending targets for the en-tire federal government startingOct. 1. Their work marks an at-tempt to steer Congress back to-ward its traditional role of pass-ing a budget each year, ratherthan the stopgap funding mea-sures used to keep governmentrunning in recent years.

The blueprints, from the par-ties’ budget chiefs, cement howfar apart Democrats and Repub-licans are on tax and spendingpolicy. Mr. Ryan’s budget will in-clude no new tax increases orPentagon cuts while advancingbig changes to Medicare andMedicaid, all with the goal oferasing the annual federal deficitin 10 years. Ms. Murray’s plan isexpected to increase taxes onupper-income households andcorporations and make modestspending cuts to domestic pro-grams; it wouldn’t balance thebudget anytime soon.

Lawmakers are hoping thathaving members of both partiesspell out budget priorities awayfrom Congress’s recent constant-crisis mode could help foster thekind of deficit-reduction planthat has eluded Washington.While the House has regularlypassed partisan blueprints, Sen-ate Democrats haven’t drawn upa budget since 2009.

Ms. Murray, a relatively low-profile 62-year-old, is a dedi-

PleaseturntopageA4

BY JANET HOOKAND KRISTINA PETERSON

OpeningBudget BidsSet Parties’Battle Lines

BY DIONNE SEARCEY AND ROB BARRY

As Asbestos Claims Rise,So Do Worries About Fraud

FOOD PYRAMID: Researchers prepare an Egyptian mummy for a CT scan to look for atherosclerosis. A studyreleased Sunday suggested cardiovascular disease was more common than suspected in ancient cultures. A6

Dr.Michael

Miyam

oto

In Estonia, a ‘Scavenger Hunt’For People Who Love Saunas

i i i

Racing in Groups of Four, Dressed or Not,They Try to Win More Time in the Hot Seat

OTEPAA, Estonia—Winter is abusy time here for sports ascompetitors come to this usuallysleepy town on Estonia’s south-ern tip. Sometimes, the scene isexactly what you wouldexpect, like 8,500 bun-dled-up skiers slidingthrough town on across-country ski trekone weekend lastmonth.

Other times, though,you might see a differ-ent breed of competi-tors, one decked out inskimpy bathing suits—or simply in theirbirthday suits. That’sbecause Otepaa is home to theEuropean Sauna Marathon.

“It is a real Estonian smokesauna with a sweet and juicysteam,” boasted local business-man Tarmo Tamm, who ownsone of the sweltering saunas

that dot the unusual competitionand are a source of nationalpride.

For the past four years,Otepaa has played host to thesauna marathon, where hun-dreds of competitors sweat to

visit as many of theoutposts as possible inthe shortest time.

The contest hasbeen good for businessat Mr. Tamm’s SokkaHoliday Resort, with itscavernous sauna aboutfive miles out of town.He was beaming withpride on a recent Sun-day afternoon whenthe marathon tookplace. “We finished

taking a steam in this sauna lastnight at half past midnight tohave a proper warm-up for to-day,” he said.

The outdoor temperature hadfallen below freezing, but Mr.

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Tarmo Tamm

BY LIIS KANGSEPP

4,000 Years Later, a Second Opinion

THE LONGTRIALFIRST INA SERIES

ASBESTOS

TODAY IN MARKETPLACE

A Toy Maker Comes HomeJOURNAL REPORT The Promise of Big Data

K’NEX

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