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What’sNews

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World-Widen The White House raced topersuade Congress to autho-rize military action in Syriaand appeared to gain sup-port from two key Republi-can senators. A1, A6, A7, A9n The Assad regime preparedfor a U.S. attack on Damascus.An official said Syria and Hez-bollah would respond by hit-ting American warships. A6n Syrian rebels are still wait-ing for U.S. weapons, threemonths after Obama autho-rized the CIA to arm moder-ate anti-Assad fighters. A1nMexico’s president vowedto press on with plans to re-vamp the education system,energy sector and tax code. A10n Japan unveiled a plan todeal with a spread of radio-active water at the Fuku-shima nuclear plant. A10n Crews made progress onthe wildfire searing the edgesof Yosemite. It was 70% con-tained at nightfall Monday. A2n California’s Supreme Courtis set to consider whether anillegal immigrant is eligibleto practice law in the state. A5nKarzai named a former aideto a top security post, effec-tively removing Umar Daudzaifrom the presidential race. A10n U.N. forces aided Congo-lese troops advancing onrebel positions near the min-eral-trading hub of Goma. A10n Brazil summoned the U.S.envoy after claimsWashingtonmonitored President Rouss-eff’s communications. A10nA new class of diabetes drugdoesn’t appear to increase therisk of heart attack, stroke ordeath, two studies said. B3

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Microsoft struck a $7 bil-lion deal to buy Nokia’s

core cellphone business, a bidto try to catch up in the fast-growing mobile sector. A1nVerizon agreed to pay $130billion for Vodafone’s 45%stake in Verizon Wireless, thelargest U.S. cellphone firm. A1nVodafone plans to turn thebulk of the sale’s proceeds overto shareholders rather thango on a shopping spree. A12n TimeWarner Cable andCBS reached a deal on feesthe cable operator will pay tocarry CBS programs, endinga monthlong blackout. B1n Citigroup has shed over$6 billion in alternative in-vestments in the past monthto comply with new rules. C1nU.S. auto makers, set to re-port a jump in August sales,are dogged by shortages oftheir most popular cars. B1n Some casinos are revamp-ing their anti-money-launder-ing procedures after a JusticeDepartment warning. B3nChina’s housing prices rose8.6% inAugust froma year ago,but construction is sluggish.A10n An economic slowdown inRussia is forcing budget cuts,undermining Putin’s pledge toincrease state spending. A10n Japan said corporate in-vestment turned positive inthe April-June quarter. A10nBox-office returns in the U.S.and Canada for Hollywood’ssummer season set a record. B6n Consumer-products makerJarden is buying YankeeCandle for $1.75 billion. B3

Business&Finance

In June, the White House au-thorized the Central IntelligenceAgency to help arm moderatefighters battling the Assad re-gime, a signal to Syrian rebelsthat the cavalry was coming.Three months later, they are stillwaiting.

The delay, in part, reflects abroader U.S. approach rarely dis-cussed publicly but that under-pins its decision-making, accord-ing to former and current U.S.officials: The Obama administra-tion doesn’t want to tip the bal-ance in favor of the oppositionfor fear the outcome may beeven worse for U.S. intereststhan the current stalemate.

U.S. officials attribute the de-lay in providing small arms andmunitions from the CIA weaponsprogram to the difficulty of es-tablishing secure delivery “pipe-lines” to prevent weapons fromfalling into the wrong hands, inparticular Jihadi militants alsobattling the Assad regime.

Allied rebel commanders inSyria and congressional propo-nents of a more aggressive mili-tary response instead blame aWhite House that wants to beseen as responsive to allies’needs but fundamentally doesn’twant to get pulled any deeperinto the country’s grinding con-flict.

The administration’s view canalso be seen in White Houseplanning for limited airstrikes—now awaiting congressional re-view—to punish Syrian PresidentBashar al-Assad for his allegeduse of chemical weapons.

Pentagon planners were in-structed not to offer strike op-tions that could help drive Mr.Assad from power: “The big con-cern is the wrong groups in theopposition would be able to takeadvantage of it,” a senior mili-tary officer said. The CIA de-clined to comment.

The White House wants tostrengthen the opposition butdoesn’t want it to prevail, ac-cording to people who attendedclosed-door briefings by top ad-ministration officials over thepast week. The administration

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BY ADAM ENTOUSAND NOUR MALAS

Still NoArms toRebelGroups

WASHINGTON—The WhiteHouse raced on Monday to per-suade Congress to authorize mili-tary action in Syria, after Presi-dent Barack Obama, in one of thebiggest gambles of his presi-dency, handed the volatile issueto lawmakers who have givenhim few recent legislative victo-ries.

The president’s surprise rever-sal put on hold a military mobili-

zation that had appeared on theverge of launching missiles andsparked urgent lobbying for aCongressional resolution autho-rizing force. The president mustwin over those Republicans call-ing for a broad U.S. missionagainst Syria, as well as lawmak-ers in both parties who are waryof even limited strikes.

Mr. Obama appeared to gainsupport Monday in a meetingwith two key Republican sena-tors, John McCain of Arizona andLindsey Graham of South Caro-

lina, who could be critical tobuilding a political coalition foraction on Capitol Hill.

Before Monday’s meeting,both men had said the adminis-tration’s call for limited strikeswas inadequate, and said theycouldn’t support isolated militarystrikes without a broader plan tochange the dynamic of the civilwar.

They emerged from the dis-cussion saying Mr. Obama wasconsidering such options, a po-tentially significant shift in

White House thinking.“A vote against that resolution

by Congress, I think, would becatastrophic, because it wouldundermine the credibility of theUnited States of America and thepresident of the United States,’’Mr. McCain said.

Mr. Graham said a consensuswas forming inside the WhiteHouse that the U.S. needs to “de-grade” Syrian President Basharal-Assad’s military capabilitiesand bolster the Syrian opposition.

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BY CAROL E. LEEAND JANET HOOK

Obama Presses Syria GambleReversing Course, White House Races to Get Congressional Backing for Strikes

Verizon Communications Inc.,faced with losing a golden chanceto gain full control of its wirelessjoint venture while financing ischeap, agreed to pay billions morethan it had hoped to buy out itspartner.

On Monday, Verizon said itagreed to pay $130 billion forVodafone Group PLC’s 45% stake inVerizon Wireless, the largest U.S.cellphone company. The cash-and-stock purchase would be the sec-ond-biggest acquisition ever, ac-cording to Dealogic. It wouldrequire an enormous amount ofdebt financing, including as muchas $50 billion in bonds, people fa-miliar with the matter said.

Reaching a deal required Veri-zon to go way beyond the $100 bil-lion or so that it had believedVodafone’s stake was worth earlierthis year, people familiar with thecompany’s thinking said. Chief Ex-

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By Ryan Knutson,Spencer E. Ante

and DanaMattioli

With Clock Ticking,VerizonAddsBillions

Try, Try Again: 64-Year-Old Completes Cuba-to-Florida Swim

ENDURANCE: On her fifth try over 3½ decades, Diana Nyad covered about 110 miles in 53 hours, trailed by boats keeping watch for sharks. A3

FloridaKe

ysNew

sBu

reau/A

ssociatedPress

Source: the companyThe Wall Street Journal

It Adds UpA breakdown of the $130 billionVerizon is paying for Vodafone's45% stake in Verizon Wireless

Stock

$60.2B

Cash

$58.9B

Verizon’s 23%stake in Vodafone’sItalian unit

$3.5B

Notes payableto Vodafone

$5.0B

Assumedobligations

$2.5B

Confronting Syria Assad regime prepares for

strike on the capital............. A6 Syria clouds G20 summit... A6 Capital Journal: Obama’s

road map in Congress......... A7 Kerry’s aggressive stance... A9

Differing bets on the U.S...... A12 Fee bonanza for banks............... C1

Microsoft Corp. struck a $7 bil-lion deal to acquire Nokia Corp.’score cellphone business, a boldmove to try to catch up in a fast-growing mobile business that isnow dominated by Samsung andApple.

The deal comes on the heels ofannouncing the planned retire-ment of Microsoft Chief ExecutiveSteve Ballmer. As part of the dealfor the devices-and-services busi-ness, Microsoft will bring aboardseveral executives who could becontenders for Mr. Ballmer’s job.

The companies said late Mon-day that Microsoft will pay €3.79billion to buy “substantially all” ofthe Nokia business, which includesits smartphone operations. TheRedmond, Wash., company willalso pay €1.65 billion to license

Nokia’s patents, the companiessaid, bringing the deal to €5.44 bil-lion, or $7.18 billion.

Stephen Elop, Nokia’s CEO, andseveral other executives are join-ing Microsoft as part of the deal.Mr. Elop, a former Microsoft exec-utive, is among the names beingcirculated as Mr. Ballmer’s succes-sor. Microsoft recently announcedthat Mr. Ballmer will retire fromhis post within a year, or when thenext CEO is chosen.

Nokia was already Microsoft’sclosest partner in smartphones,with the Finnish company one ofthe biggest supporters of Micro-soft’s phone software.

The deal with Nokia is an ap-parent acknowledgment that Mi-crosoft needs a stronger hand toplay in the mobile-phone business,where it is playing catch-up to Ap-ple Inc. and Google Inc. Micro-

soft’s lagging position in mobile isone of the most serious threatsMr. Ballmer’s successor will needto tackle. The deal also is a recog-nition by Nokia that it is better tosell off its smartphone businessthan take on rivals like Apple onits own.

The Wall Street Journal re-ported in June that Microsoft andNokia had discussed a sale ofNokia’s mobile-phone business butthe talks fell apart over the priceof the transaction.

The companies said Microsoftis expected to use its stockpile ofoverseas cash to pay for the Nokiapurchase and licensing pact. Mi-crosoft and Nokia said the transac-tion is expected to close in thefirst three months of 2014, subjectto approval by Nokia shareholdersand other conditions.

Microsoft’s market share in

smartphones is about 3% world-wide, according to comScore.

“For Microsoft, this is a boldstep into the future,” Mr. Ballmersaid in a note to employees. Mr.Ballmer has been reworking Mi-crosoft around what he calls a “de-vices and services” strategy—a vi-sion of Microsoft not onlyproducing the software underlyingmany computing devices, but be-ing more responsible for the per-sonal-computers, smartphones andhardware gear on which peopleand businesses rely.

Mr. Ballmer’s strategy, however,has been hamstrung byMicrosoft’sweak position in smartphones.

Nokia’smarket share andmarketvalue have tumbled during the ten-ure of Mr. Elop, who took over in2010. Last year, Nokia generatednearlyhalf of its €30.2billion in reve-nue from itsmobile-phone segment.

BY SHIRA OVIDE

Microsoft to Buy Nokia’s Mobile Business

Stressful DayAt the Office?Throw an Ax

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Toronto LeagueLets CorporateCrowd Bury Hatchets

BY JUDY MCKINNON

TORONTO—It didn’t takeJames Watson long to get backinto form after a two-year ab-sence from his regular Tuesdaynight league.

“I’ve got my swing down”again, he says.

He’s not swinging a softballbat or a golf club. Instead, Mr.Watson, owner of an events-plan-ning consulting firm, hurlsfreshly sharpened axes at targetsin a warehouse in an industrialpark here.

Toronto’s Backyard AxeThrowing League, or BATL, wasborn seven years ago in the back-yard of 34-year-old Matt Wilson,after a weekend of throwing axesat trees at a friend’s lakeside cot-tage. It is now a 128-member,

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