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* * * * * TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2014 ~ VOL. CCLXIII NO. 34 WSJ.com HHHH $2 .00

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What’sNews

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World-Widen The Obama administrationsaidmost employers won’t facea fine next year if they fail tooffer health insurance, the lat-est delay in the law’s rollout. A1n The U.S. military revisedplans to withdraw troops fromAfghanistan, giving the WhiteHouse the option of waitinguntil Karzai leaves office. A1n The Afghan militant groupHezb-e-Islami said it carriedout a car-bomb suicide attackin Kabul that killed two. A8n The Obama administrationis considering a drone attackagainst an American believedto have ties to al Qaeda. A8nSyrian loyalists voiced furyover aid to a rebel-held area inHoms, accusing the U.N. of biasagainst the Alawite sect.A7nThe regime and oppositiondidn’t meet face-to-face in Ge-neva, as talks were overshad-owed by violence at home. A7nTurkey and Israel are near-ing a deal to repair ties thatbroke down after a 2010 Israeliraid killed Turkish activists. A8nHouse GOP leaders soughtbacking for a rise in the debtlimit by linking it to a reversalof a military-pension cut. A4n California was given twomore years to reduce itsprison overcrowding. A2n An accidental blast at amilitant training camp inIraq killed 21 insurgents. A9nThe River Thames burst itsbanks amid England’s wettestwinter in over 200 years. A9

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Icahn ended his fight forApple to boost its share buy-

back by $50 billion, but theinvestor has made a paperprofit of over $400 million. A1nNokia plans to launch aphone run by Google’s An-droid, marking a turn by Mi-crosoft toward its archrival. B1n Corporate pension planssurged to their highest year-end funding levels since 2007,freeing up firms’ cash. B1n A bitcoin exchange blameda technical issue for a halt towithdrawals, which sent thecurrency’s price reeling. C1n U.S. stocks edged higheras investors awaited Yellen’stestimony this week. TheDow rose 7.71 to 15801.79. C4n GM said CEO Barra will beeligible for $14.4 million inpay this year, 60% more thanher predecessor received. B1n UBS suspended two execu-tives as the bank probes thehiring of the daughter of aChinese company’s head. C3n The CFTC is preparing toease curbs on swaps tradingoverseas, a move that couldshift some trading abroad. C5n The FBI said hackers be-hind attacks on retailers ex-ploited software used to mon-itor and manage networks. B3n Barclays reported full-year results a day early, aftera newspaper and analystspublished profit numbers. C3nAxel Springer is biddingfor Forbes and eyeing the U.S.digital-publishing market. B6

Business&Finance

WASHINGTON—The U.S. mili-tary has revised plans to with-draw troops from Afghanistan toallow the White House to waituntil President Hamid Karzaileaves office before completing asecurity pact and settling on apost-2014 U.S. troop presence,officials said.

The option for waiting reflectsa growing belief in Washingtonthat there is little chance of re-pairing relations with Mr. Karzaiand getting him to sign the bilat-eral security agreement beforeelections scheduled for thespring.

“If he’s not going to be part ofthe solution, we have to have away to get past him,” said a se-nior U.S. official. “It’s a prag-matic recognition that clearlyKarzai may not sign the BSA andthat he doesn’t represent thevoice of the Afghan people.”

The military plan is the mostsignificant example to date ofhow the U.S. has sought to mini-mize its reliance on Mr. Karzai,whose refusal to sign the secu-rity agreement amid a flurry ofanti-American statements hasupset Washington policy makers.The White House has said Mr.Karzai’s refusal has raised pros-pects that President BarackObama will order a complete U.S.troop withdrawal this year. Af-ghan officials had no immediatecomment.

Mr. Obama and Defense Secre-tary Chuck Hagel have signaledtheir displeasure with Mr. Karzaiby limiting their contacts withhim. The U.S. and Afghan leadershaven’t held a videoconferencecall to discuss the war effortsince the summer, officials said.Mr. Hagel visited Afghanistan inDecember but didn’t meet Mr.

PleaseturntopageA8

BY ADAM ENTOUSAND JULIAN E. BARNES

FrustratedBy Karzai,U.S. ShiftsExit Plans

Most employers won’t face afine next year if they fail to offerworkers health insurance, theObama administration said Mon-day, in the latest big delay of thehealth-law rollout.

The Treasury Department, inregulations outlining the Afford-able Care Act, said employerswith 50 to 99 full-time workers

won’t have to comply with thelaw’s requirement to provide in-surance or pay a fee until 2016.Companies with more workerscould avoid some penalties in2015 if they showed they wereoffering coverage to at least 70%of full-time workers.

The move came after employ-ers pressured the Obama admin-istration to peel back the law’sinsurance requirements. Somefirms had trimmed workers’

hours to below 30 hours a weekto avoid paying a penalty if theydidn’t offer insurance.

A senior administration offi-cial said the shift was a responseto businesses’ concerns, thoughthe official said no one reasonwas behind the change.

Under the original 2010 healthlaw, employers with the equiva-lent of at least 50 full-time work-ers had to offer coverage or paya penalty starting at $2,000 a

worker beginning in 2014. Lastyear, the administration delayedthe requirement for the firsttime by moving it to 2015.

The new rules for companieswith 50 to 99 workers wouldcover about 2% of all U.S. busi-nesses, which include 7% ofworkers, or 7.9 million people,according to 2011 Census figurescompiled by the Small BusinessAdministration. The rules forcompanies with 100 or more

workers affect another 2% ofbusinesses, which employ morethan 74 million people.

Monday’s announcement offresh changes comes as the ad-ministration weighs how much ofthe law to adjust in the wake ofits troubled rollout. Health careis expected to be a central issuein the November midterm elec-tions.

Many employers have beenPleaseturntopageA4

BY LOUISE RADNOFSKYAND THEO FRANCIS

Health-Law Mandate Put Off AgainNo Fines for Most Employers Until 2016 as Firms Pressure White House in Wake of Troubled Rollout

POCATELLO, Idaho—For years, H.J. Heinz Co.managers considered their frozen-food plant inthe heart of potato country a model factory, rank-ing it the best in the U.S. in 2009 and 2011 forsafety, cleanliness and efficiency.

So workers here figured it was good news whenthey heard last February that a Brazilian firm,backed by billionaire investor Warren Buffett, wasbuying the venerable ketchup maker for $23 bil-lion—one of the food industry’s biggest deals ever.Workers say plant managers told them to expectexpansion.

Instead, the 400 workers here have become ca-sualties in a cost-cutting campaign that is the talkof the food industry. Although Heinz had been

considered one of the industry’s leanest organiza-tions, the Brazilian lead investors, private-equityfirm 3G Capital, believe they have identifiedplenty of fat.

In November, Heinz said it would close theIdaho plant in the first half of this year. It mayhave been a model factory, but it also was an ex-ample of the kind of dubious logistics that werecosting Heinz money. Frozen enchiladas, for in-stance, were trucked nearly 1,000 miles from afactory in San Diego, packaged with rice and sauceby workers in Pocatello, then shipped across thecountry to distribution centers on the East Coast.

Heinz also will close factories in South Carolinaand Ontario, Canada. There have been two majorshake-ups in the executive ranks, and its core

PleaseturntopageA12

BY ANNIE GASPARRO

BRAZILIAN STYLE

Tightfisted New OwnersPut Heinz on a Diet

Carl Icahn has proved onceagain that even in defeat he canturn a tidy profit.

The billionaire investor gaveup his fight Monday to force Ap-ple Inc. to boost its share repur-chase program by $50 billion.Before that, he had retreatedfrom a demand that the con-sumer-technology giant load upon debt to fund a buyback threetimes that size.

But the 77-year-old shareholderactivist has mademore than $400million on paper from his Applestake, which has grown to roughly$4 billion since he began buildingit over the summer, according to aperson familiar with the matter. Itis unclear whether Mr. Icahn hassold any shares.

Last week, Apple Chief Execu-tive Tim Cook said in an inter-view that the company repur-chased some $14 billion in twoweeks. That brings to more than$40 billion the value of sharesthe Cupertino, Calif., companyhas repurchased over the past 12months, a record for any com-

PleaseturntopageA6

BY DAVID BENOIT

Icahn EndsApple PushWith HeftyPaperProfit

U.S., France Look for Common Ground on a Presidential Field Trip

HISTORIC TIES: President Barack Obama, right, and French President François Hollande toured Monticello, the Virginia home of devoted Francophileand founding father Thomas Jefferson, Monday to highlight the two countries’ long friendship as Mr. Hollande kicks off a state visit to the U.S. A9

LarryDow

ning

/Reuters

In William Forstchen’s newscience fiction novel, “Pillar tothe Sky,” there are no evil cy-borgs, alien invasions or timetravel calamities. The threat tohumanity is farmore pedestrian:tightfisted bureau-crats who haveslashed NASA’sbudget.

The novel is thefirst in a new seriesof “NASA-InspiredWorks of Fiction,”which grew out of acollaboration be-tween the NationalAeronautics and Space Adminis-tration and science fiction pub-lisher Tor. The partnership pairsup novelists with NASA scientistsand engineers, who help writersdevelop scientifically plausiblestory lines and spot-check manu-scripts for technical errors.

The plot of Mr. Forstchen’snovel hinges on a multibillion-dollar effort to build a 23,000-mile-high space elevator—aquest threatened by budget cutsand stingy congressmen. Forth-coming novels in the series will

explore asteroidmining, wormholesand astrobiology.

Fact-based sci-ence fiction maysound like a contra-diction, or a poormarketing strategy,in a literary genrethat typically cele-brates flights offantasy. But Torand NASA say both

stand to gain. Novelists get ac-cess to cutting-edge researchand experts in obscure fields. ANASA official says that shapingscience fiction offers “an innova-tive way to reach out to the pub-lic to raise awareness of what

PleaseturntopageA12

BY ALEXANDRA ALTER

NASA Tries to RewriteThe Book on Science Fiction

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Agency Links Experts, Novelists in PR Push;The Alien Quarterback and the Wormhole

Science fiction’sspace elevator

Journal ReportCIOs redefine their role—and take aim at the corneroffice. CIO Network, R1-6

Apple JuiceApple's share price

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Icahndisclosesstake

Suicide car bomb in Kabul killstwo military contractors.......... A8

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