华尔街日报亚洲版.020511

VOL. XXXV NO. 169 * * Monday, May 2, 2011 OPINION: Asia’s answer to global imbalances Page 13 India’s economic boom bypasses the rural poor INDEPTH Pages 14–15 ASIA As of 4 p.m. ET DJIA 12810.54 À 0.37% FTSE 100 6069.90 Closed Nikkei 225 9849.74 Closed Shanghai Comp. 2911.51 À 0.85% Hang Seng 23720.81 g 0.36% Sensex 19135.96 g 0.81% S&P/ASX 200 4823.24 g 1.02% asia.WSJ.com (India facsimile Vol. 2 No. 230) Australia:A$6.00(InclGST),Brunei:B$7.00,China:RM B25.00,Hong Kong:HK$18.00,India:Rs25.00,Indonesia:Rp18,000(InclPPN),Japan:Yen500(InclJCT),Korea:W on2,500, M alaysia:RM 6.00,Pakistan:Rs140.00,Philippines:Peso80.00,Singapore:S$4.00(InclGST),SriLanka:Slrs180(InclVAT),Taiw an:NT$60.00,Thailand:Baht50.00,Vietnam :US$2.50 KKDN PP 9315/10/2011 (026992) M ICA (P) NO.164/10/2010 SK.M ENPEN R.I.NO:01/SK/M ENPEN/SCJJ/1998 TGL.4 SEPT 1998 Libyan leader survives hit that kills son A missile fired by the North Atlantic Treaty Organi- zation struck a house where Col. Moammar Gadhafi was staying Saturday, missing the Libyan leader but killing his youngest son and three young grandchildren, a government spokesman said Sunday. Col. Gadhafi and his wife were in the home of their 29- year-old son, Saif al-Arab Gadhafi, when the missile crashed through the one-story house in a Tripoli residential neighborhood, according to the spokesman, Moussa Ibra- him. The younger Mr. Gadhafi, who was reported killed, was the seventh son of the Libyan leader. “The leader himself is in good health; he wasn’t harmed,” Mr. Ibrahim told a news conference early Sun- day. “His wife is also in good health; she wasn’t harmed, [but] other people were in- jured.” “This was a direct opera- tion to assassinate the leader of this country,” the spokes- man added. “It seems intelli- gence was leaked. They knew about him being there, or they expected him. But the target was very clear.” The attack could mark a volatile turning point in Col. Gadhafi’s 10-week-old battle against an armed popular up- rising based in eastern Libya and the NATO bombing cam- paign that began in March. His regime is expected to use his son’s death to rally Liby- ans against foreign interven- tion in the conflict. His Libyan foes, based mainly in eastern Libya, hope the threat of similar NATO strikes will erode support for the leader within his inner circle. In a statement early Sun- day morning, NATO said it struck “a known command- and-control building in the Bab al-Azizya neighborhood” Please turn to page 8 By Richard Boudreaux in Tripoli and Charles Levinson in Benghazi Buffett, Sokol camps trade barbs OMAHA, Neb.—Warren Buffett on Saturday called the recent actions of his former top aide “inexplicable and in- excusable,” even as the bil- lionaire investor took some responsibility for the stock- purchase controversy sur- rounding Berkshire Hatha- way Inc. Mr. Buffett said David Sokol violated Berkshire’s in- sider-trading rules and code of ethics in buying shares of a chemicals maker after dis- cussing the company, Lubri- zol Corp., with investment bankers and then recommend- ing that Berkshire buy it. The chairman and chief ex- ecutive of Berkshire also said he himself had erred in not pushing Mr. Sokol for details about his personal stake in Lubrizol when Mr. Sokol in January pitched it as a poten- tial acquisition and mentioned owning its shares. “I obviously made a big mistake not saying, ‘Well, when did you buy it?’” Mr. Buffett said, speaking in front of tens of thousands of Berk- shire shareholders at the con- glomerate’s annual meeting. After Berkshire agreed to acquire Lubrizol in March, Mr. Buffett learned that Mr. Sokol had purchased about $10 mil- lion worth of Lubrizol shares about a week before the con- versation, a stake that rose $3 million in value with the deal. Mr. Sokol, who has re- signed from Berkshire, has said his decision to leave the company was unrelated to his purchase of the shares and that he believes he did noth- ing wrong. The barbs between the two men, for years close col- leagues, intensified further Saturday when Mr. Sokol’s lawyer released a scathing statement after the meeting, calling Mr. Buffett’s stance a “flip-flop and resort to trans- parent scapegoatism.” “David Sokol is deeply sad- dened that Mr. Buffett, whom he considered a friend and Please turn to page 16 By Erik Holm, Shira Ovide and Serena Ng Warren Buffett, above, called Mr. Sokol’s actions ‘inexcusable.’ D an ie lA ck er /B lo om be rg N ew s Pope Benedict XVI beatified the late John Paul II on Sunday as a crowd of 1.5 million people jammed Vatican City to honor one of Roman Catholicism’s most celebrated figures. Above, Pope Benedict drives through St. Peter’s Square as one of the faithful holds up a picture of his predecessor. Page 7 Pope beatifies John Paul II at Vatican ceremonySony issues apology on breach TOKYO—Sony Corp. apolo- gized Sunday for a security breach at its online video- game service, and said it couldn’t rule out the possibil- ity that credit-card informa- tion from 10 million custom- ers might have been compromised. The Japanese electronics company said there is no evi- dence at this time that the encrypted credit-card data were stolen. However Sony has said a hacker obtained other information about its account holders, including names, addresses, email ad- dresses and birth dates. At a hastily called holiday- weekend news conference, three Sony executives—in- cluding Kazuo Hirai, the head of the company’s videogame and consumer-electronics unit—bowed deeply to apolo- gize for the inconvenience caused to its customers when the hacker penetrated its PlayStation network database and stole personal informa- Please turn to page 16 BY DAISUKEWAKABAYASHI Pier Paolo Cito/Associated Press “Salesforce Chatter onmy iPad has givenme the ability to be amore connected CEO.” BobBeauchamp Chairman and CEO, BMC Software Copyright 2011 salesforce.com, inc. Salesforce, salesforce.com, Chatter, and chatter.com are trademarks of salesforce.com, inc. iPad is a trademark of Apple Inc. Othermarks used are property of their respective owners. Do impossible things as a team. 2 * * THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Monday, May 2, 2011 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ASIA Dow Jones Publishing Company (Asia) 25/F, Central Plaza, 18 Harbour Road, Hong Kong Tel 852-2573 7121 Fax 852-2834 5291 www.wsj-asia.com SUBSCRIPTIONS and Address Changes, please telephone our local customer service hotline, Hong Kong/Taiwan: 852-2831 2555; Beijing: 86-10 6581 4090; Shanghai: 86-21 5836 8228; Indonesia: 62-21 527 7592; Japan: 81-3 6269-2760; Korea: 82-2 756 1695; Malaysia: 60-3 2026 4061; Philippines: 63-2 848 5873; Singapore: 65-6415 4000; Thailand: 66-2 690 4222 to 7; India: 91-11 6462 0215. Or email: service@wsj-asia.com ADVERTISING SALES worldwide through Dow Jones International. Hong Kong: 852-2831 2504; Singapore: 65-6415 4300; Tokyo: 81-3 6269-2701; Frankfurt: 49 69 29725390; London: 44 207 842 9600; Paris: 33 1 40 17 17 01; New York: 1-212 659 2176. Or email: wsja.publisher@dowjones.com Trademarks appearing herein are used under license from Dow Jones & Company. USPS 337-350ISSN 0377-9920 PAGE TWO ONLINE TODAY Most read in Asia 1. NATO Bombs Tripoli as Gadhafi Offers Truce 2. Chip Firm Races to Repair 3. Buffett Criticizes Johnson & Johnson Deal 4. Building a Thinking Room Most emailed in Asia 1. Opinion: California Prison Academy—Better Than a Harvard Degree 2. Avoiding the Foreign-Account Penalty 3. The Online World of Female Desire 4. Opinion: It’s Getting Harder to Bring Home the Bacon The Wealth Report blogs.wsj.com/wealth The ultrarich from the BRIC countries (Brazil, China, India and Russia) have a combined net worth of $4.125 trillion, a new report says. Washington Wire President Barack Obama poked fun at himself—and at Republicans—during Saturday’s White House Correspondents Dinner. blogs.wsj.com/washwire Technology The iPad 2 craze hits Hong Kong: The WSJ reports from the city’s Times Square mall, where many camped out to be the first in line to buy the tablet. Video at: wsj.com/HK i i i Business & Finance n Prices for many commodities are falling after a monthslong rally that sparked fears it could ignite inflation. Goods that were highfli- ers last year have turned into lag- gards, with several turning in dou- ble-digit declines in futures markets. 17 n U.S. blue-chips stocks closed out their best month of the year Friday, as first-quarter earnings reports sent indexes to multiyear highs. 19 n Companies that deal in a $2 trillion swath of the currency mar- ket have likely avoided being en- snared in a U.S. regulatory net that they said would have driven up costs for corporations to hedge foreign-exchange transactions. 25 n The dollar weakened to a 2½- year low Friday, but officials aren’t showing signs they are alarmed by the currency’s descent or acting to stem it. 25 n China’s Purchasing Managers Index fell to 52.9 in April from 53.4 in March, likely assuaging concerns somewhat that overheat- ing and inflation pressures will re- quire further tightening measures by Chinese policy makers. 5 n Asset managers are replacing the day traders and hedge funds that profited as Tepco’s stock gyr- rated in the early days of Japan’s nuclear crisis. 4 n Samsung’s net profit fell 30% in the first quarter as its TV-com- ponent business dropped into the red and semiconductors brought a smaller profit. 18 n Infosys named a banking vet- eran as its chairman and one of its founders the new chief executive as India’s bellwether technology company unveiled a management restructuring. 20 n Yuanda China Holdings, the curtain-wall maker, said it may re- launch its IPO but raise less money. 22 i i i World-Wide n Tepco will strengthen defenses at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear-power plant against any future earthquakes and triple the size of the available labor force to limit radiation exposure by indi- vidual workers. 4 n The Thai premier plans to dis- solve the House of Representatives by Friday and call elections. 5 n Chinese authorities released lawyer and rights activist Teng Biao after more than two months, a day after a U.S. State Depart- ment official lambasted China over its crackdown on dissent. 5 n Israel began imposing sanc- tions on the Palestinian Authority for its unity deal with Hamas, sig- naling a nose dive in ties that could eventually threaten security cooperation that has helped limit violence in the West Bank. 8 n Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood will compete for seats in about 45% to 50% of voting districts in this fall’s parliamentary elections, more than the group had origi- nally stated. n Residents of tornado-ravaged towns across the southern U.S. started settling into a slow rhythm of recovery. The death toll for the storms that swept across seven states Wednesday and Thursday was at least 342 people. 3 China’s latest push to ban smoking in indoor public venues came into effect Sunday, but it fails to specify punishments for violators. Nearly 30% of adults in China smoke, and smoking is linked to the deaths of at least one million people in China every year. Above, a ‘No Smoking’ sign is displayed in a restaurant in central Beijing. D av id Gr ay /R eu te rs What’s News— Inside World News: Thai Prime Minister Abhisit to call election. 5 Business & Finance: The mini-boom in Asia hybrid securities. 17 Heard on the Street: Microsoft’s stock merits a fresh look. 30 Managing: Marriott International styles itself Asian. 32 Monday, May 2, 2011 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. * * 3 WORLD NEWS Slow recovery in storm-ravaged U.S. South Days after they were pummeled by the worst storm system in de- cades, the residents of tornado-rav- aged towns across the southern U.S. started settling into a slow rhythm of recovery. The death toll for the tornadoes and storms that swept across seven states Wednesday and Thursday was at least 342 people, authorities said, topping a powerful storm system in 1974, when 310 people were killed. The heaviest toll was in Ala- bama, where the count has reached 250 dead, officials said. The number still missing: “Unfortunately,” said state Sen. Paul Bussman, “right now we don’t know that.” The Red Cross, Salvation Army and other relief groups have opened shelters and distributed food and other supplies to the displaced across Alabama, Mississippi and other states. President Barack Obama, who toured the wreckage in hard-hit Tuscaloosa, Ala., Friday, promised maximum aid. “We are going to help these communities rebuild,” he said. At the White House Correspon- dents’ Association annual dinner Saturday night, Mr. Obama again took note of the South’s losses, the Associated Press reported. “The devastation is unbelievable and it is heartbreaking,” he said. There were a few scattered re- ports of looting in Tuscaloosa and elsewhere: tires stolen from an auto-parts store, suitcases carried away from damaged apartments, a brand-new pair of size 13 basketball sneakers pilfered from the wreckage of a college student’s home. Authorities haven’t yet deter- mined the force of the tornadoes that blasted northern Alabama. “There are a lot of unanswered questions,” said Greg Carbin, a me- teorologist at the federal Storm Pre- diction Center in Norman, Okla. Officials did announce Friday that one of the funnel clouds to claw northeast Mississippi was a cate- gory EF-5, the highest rating for tornado damage and the first twister of this magnitude to hit the state since 1966. Authorities also said at least six category EF-4 tornadoes—which pack winds up to 320 kilometers per hour—touched down in Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and Tennessee. The EF-5 tornado, which raked a three-mile path of destruction through the small town of Smith- ville, packed 330 kilometer-per-hour winds, according to the National Weather Service. It killed 14 people and displaced many more; some 450 evacuees took their meals at the First Baptist Church in nearby Amory, which served as a Red Cross shelter. “We lost everything. We have nothing now,” said James Beeks, 63 years old, a recovering stroke pa- tient who was staying in the shelter and trying to secure help getting a motor scooter so he could move about. “The need right now is massive,” said Michael Sullivan, regional coor- dinator for a nonprofit group that assists individuals with disabilities. “This tornado caused a lot of head and neck injuries. The number of disabled people in northern Missis- sippi just went up.” Authorities were aware of the potential for big storms and torna- does five days before they hit, said Mr. Carbin, of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Storm Prediction Center. About two days before the storms struck, offi- cials roughly knew they could hit between Texas and Georgia. About four hours before, they had nar- rowed it down to primarily Missis- sippi and Alabama. But it’s difficult to predict exactly where a tornado will land, Mr. Carbin said. Major thunderstorms and torna- does are produced by a volatile mix of three ingredients—wind shear, in- stability and lift—and commonly oc- cur in the spring as warm and cold air fronts clash. May typically is the busiest month. —Mike Esterl, Ana Campoy and Miguel Bustillo contributed to this article. By Ryan Dezember, TimothyW. Martin and Douglas Belkin Calvin Elliott stands on what used to be the deck of house Sunday in Alabama. M an de lN ga n/ A ge nc e Fr an ce -P re ss e/ G et ty Im ag es 4 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Monday, May 2, 2011 WORLD NEWS: JAPAN Tepco to strengthen quake defenses TOKYO—Tokyo Electric Power Co. said it will strengthen defenses at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant against any fu- ture earthquakes and triple the size of the available labor force to limit radiation exposure by individual workers. The nuclear crisis, which has en- tered its eighth week, also contin- ued to take a political toll on embat- tled Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who had to defend himself in parliament after a senior adviser quit Friday saying the government is ignoring the law and making ad- hoc decisions as it goes along, pro- longing the emergency. Tokyo Electric said Saturday it was taking a number of steps to guard against a new earthquake of up to an 8-magnitude. The original March 11 quake was calculated at a 9-magnitude, one of the most pow- erful ever recorded. A one-digit in- crease in magnitude on the Richter scale represents a 10-fold increase in intensity. The Japan Meteorological Agency calculated that there is still the possibility of strong aftershocks with magnitude 7 or higher, espe- cially in the regions around the plant in northern Japan. In its plan, the utility will build a two-meter wall on the southeastern side of the Daiichi site, which is 10 meters above sea level. This would block a 10-meter tsunami, which projections suggest would be gener- ated by a magnitude-8 quake. It also plans to seal one of the two ditches near the sea with con- crete to prevent radiation-contami- nated water in the trenches from overflowing into the ocean. Tepco expects to complete the wall by mid-June and sealing by the end of May, a company spokesman said. The utility also said it was pre- paring to triple the size of the avail- able work force to 3,000 people through recruitment of those with experience in the nuclear-power sector. At present, approximately 1,000 employees and subcontractors are working in a dangerous environ- ment to try to bring the damaged reactors to a safe condition. New workers will become in- creasingly necessary as more of the current work force reaches its al- lowable limit of radiation exposure and must be removed from the area. The company said Sunday that a second female worker had been ex- posed to radiation in excess of the legal limit of five millisieverts. The worker, who is in her 40s, had been exposed to 7.49 mil- lisieverts and will go through medi- cal checks Monday, the company said. In the previous case, an- nounced Wednesday, a woman in her 50s was found to have been ex- posed to 17.55 millisieverts from January through March. It also said that among male workers, 21 have surpassed radia- tion exposure of 100 millisieverts, including two who received burns from highly radioactive water while laying cables at one of the units. Male workers are allowed to re- ceive cumulative radiation of up to 250 millisieverts a year in the cur- rent emergency situation, an in- crease from the previous 100 mil- lisievert level. But the rule doesn’t apply to female workers, whose ra- diation limit is set at five mil- lisieverts for three months and 20 millisieverts annually. A senior adviser to the prime minister announced Friday that he was quitting, in part because he dis- agreed with the government’s guide- lines on radiation levels, and for what he called ad-hoc decision mak- ing. The sudden resignation by the adviser, Tokyo University Professor Toshiso Kosako, has created addi- tional problems for the embattled Kan administration. Taking part in an unusual week- end sitting of Japan’s parliament, the Diet, to debate an initial spend- ing plan for quake reconstruction efforts, Mr. Kan said he regretted the resignation but insisted the gov- ernment was acting properly. Opposition lawmakers question- ing Mr. Kan repeated their claims that the prime minister was doing a poor job of handling the crisis. That view appears to be spread- ing to the overall public view. An opinion poll by Kyodo News on Sat- urday showed that 76% of respon- dents said that Mr. Kan isn’t exercis- ing sufficient leadership in dealing with the situation, a rise from 63.7% in a previous poll in late March. The telephone survey, conducted Friday and Saturday, also showed 23.6% of the respondents think Mr. Kan should resign immediately, up from 13.8% in the previous survey. It didn’t disclose the size of