2014 08 22 cmyk na 04

1
YELLOW ****** FRIDAY, AUGUST 22, 2014 ~ VOL. CCLXIV NO. 45 WSJ.com HHHH $2.00 DJIA 17039.49 À 60.36 0.4% NASDAQ 4532.10 À 0.1% NIKKEI 15586.20 À 0.9% STOXX 600 337.51 À 0.7% 10-YR. TREAS. À 5/32 , yield 2.408% OIL (new)$93.96 À $0.51 GOLD $1,273.70 g $19.70 EURO $1.3281 YEN 103.85 TODAY IN MANSION Lavish Lodgings for Guests ARENA Hollywood Is Working Hard to Make You Cry CONTENTS Business Tech.............. B4 Corporate News.B2-3,5 Global Finance ............. C3 Heard on Street..........C8 In the Markets.............C4 Mansion................... M1-12 Market Data............. C5-7 Opinion.....................A11-13 Sports................................D7 Television........................ D4 U.S. News...................A2-5 Weather Watch.......... B6 World News............. A6-9 s Copyright 2014 Dow Jones & Company. All Rights Reserved > What’s News i i i World-Wide n The killing of journalist James Foley has prompted American officials to begin working to knit together a broader international cam- paign to combat the extrem- ists of the Islamic State. A1 n Foley’s death has exposed a largely hidden debate about the role of ransom demands in ter- ror-group hostage situations. A6 n Islamic extremists have drawn attention to another captive American reporter they are now threatening to kill. A6 n The decision to release se- cret details of an unsuccessful U.S. mission to rescue hos- tages is raising concerns. A7 n Israel killed three top Hamas commanders in an airstrike, dealing a blow to the Islamist group’s military leadership. A7 n Ukraine suffered heavy losses in a counterattack along a key supply route to the rebel stronghold of Donetsk. A8 n The Obama administration moved to restrict prescrip- tions of the most commonly used narcotic painkillers. A3 n The administration violated the law by not giving Congress adequate notice of the Berg- dahl swap, the GAO said. A2 n Missouri’s governor ordered the National Guard to begin pulling out of Ferguson. A3, A4 n Turkey’s governing party tapped Foreign Minister Da- vutoglu to succeed Erdogan as party leader and premier. A8 n An Indonesian court re- jected a challenge to Widodo’s win in presidential elections. A9 n Died: Jim Miekka, 54, “Hin- denburg Omen” creator. C3 i i i C entral bankers gathering in Jackson Hole, Wyo., con- front a global economy that has again disappointed, leaving them reluctant in some places and unable in others to turn off spigots of easy money. A2 China’s economy faces an uphill battle for the rest of 2014, adding pressure on Beijing. A9 n U.S. prosecutors are probing whether employees inside and outside GM’s legal department concealed evidence about a faulty ignition switch. A1 n BofA closed a legal saga with a $16.65 billion settle- ment of allegations involving crisis-era mortgage deals. C1 n Citigroup faces restrictions that will prevent it from sell- ing investments in hedge funds to wealthy clients. C1 n The U.S. housing recovery gained traction in July as sales of existing homes rose to their highest level in 10 months. A2 n Corporate-bond issuance in the U.S. is on pace to sur- pass the $1 trillion mark at the fastest clip on record. A1 n Sears’s losses mounted in the second quarter and the firm is weighing additional steps to bolster its balance sheet. B1 n Family Dollar rejected a $9 billion offer from Dollar Gen- eral and reaffirmed support for its deal with Dollar Tree. B1 n The S&P 500 rose 5.86 points to a record 1992.37. The Dow industrials gained 60.36 points to close at 17039.49. C4 n Russian authorities boosted pressure on McDonald’s, in- specting more restaurants. B3 Business & Finance The beheading of journalist James Foley has prompted American officials to begin working to knit together a broader international campaign to combat the extremists of the Islamic State, an effort that the Pentagon warned will require taking the fight beyond Iraq and into neighboring Syria. The Obama administration has indicated it is prepared to continue selective airstrikes against the extremists inside Iraq, where they have seized sig- nificant swaths of territory. But Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chair- man of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned that the Islamic State, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, can’t be de- feated without choking off its operations in Syria. “And that will come when we have a coalition in the region that takes on the task of defeat- ing ISIS over time,” he said at a Pentagon press conference, where he appeared with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. When asked specifically whether the U.S. was considering airstrikes in Syria, Mr. Hagel said all options were on the table. Organizing an international response is difficult because even nations that agree they are threatened by the Islamist ex- tremist movement are feuding on other aspects of Middle East policy, but clear options for ac- tion are emerging. European nations have al- ready begun sending limited mil- itary supplies to Kurdish fighters in Iraq, who are engaging ISIS forces in the north of the coun- try. U.S. officials want Arab allies in the Persian Gulf to help per- suade their allies among Sunni tribes in Iraq to support a new central government being formed by the new prime minis- ter, Haider al-Abadi. That, they believe, is crucial to creating an Iraqi government strong enough to counter ISIS. U.S. officials also want Per- sian Gulf states to choke off any financial support their citizens may be providing to Islamic ex- tremist forces. They also hope the new sense of international alarm will convince Turkey to more closely monitor its long border with Syria and Iraq and stop would-be Islamist fighters from Europe and the Middle East Please turn to page A6 BY FELICIA SCHWARTZ AND DION NISSENBAUM U.S. Eyes Wider Action on Militants Killing of Journalist Fuels Push for International Campaign; Officials Say Syria Vital to Defeating Islamic State BERLIN—Dmitry Tulchinskiy, bureau chief here of Russian state news agency Rossiya Segodnya, shares a quiet hallway with a travel company and a chess club. By next year, that office could get cramped. The agency’s Berlin staff is supposed to grow from two to at least 30. Its job, according to a directive signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, will be to “illuminate abroad the state policies” of the Russian Federation. “What is propaganda? Propaganda is the ten- dentious presentation of facts,” Mr. Tulchinskiy said in an interview. “It does not mean lying.” With its image battered by the conflict in Ukraine, Russia is accelerating its push to rebuild, modernize and expand its Soviet-era foreign media apparatus. One country of focus is Germany, the European economic powerhouse that has both close ties to Russia and rising public resentment of the U.S. On Thursday, the scope of the ambitions emerged further, when the government publicly moved toward adopting a $39 million budget in- crease for pro-Kremlin news channel RT to fund its expansion into French. The effort will give the Kremlin new opportuni- ties to feed discontent over the U.S. role in the world and to undermine Western leaders who have closed ranks to oppose Mr. Putin’s policies. In Berlin, RT, formerly known as Russia Today, plans to launch a German-language offering by next year, its editor says. Rossiya Segodnya is building up a bureau to run a German-language website, social-media accounts and a 24-hour radio station. The media offensive represents another arm of Mr. Putin’s increasingly direct confrontation with the West. “We simply want to end the dominance of the so-called Anglo-Saxon media,” said Dmitry Kise- lyov, the television anchor whom Mr. Putin ap- Please turn to page A10 BY ANTON TROIANOVSKI TARGET: GERMANY Russia Ramps Up Information War Bad Reputation Percentage of Germans surveyed who considered Russia and the U.S. trustworthy partners The Wall Street Journal Source: Infratest dimap/ ARD-DeutschlandTREND 100 0 25 50 75 % ’10 ’14 2007 U.S.: 35% Russia: 15% American Doctor Goes Home After Beating Ebola Erik S. Lesser/European Pressphoto Agency AGAINST ODDS: Dr. Kent Brantly, one of two U.S. missionaries who contracted Ebola in Liberia, appeared with his wife Thursday at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. The second, Nancy Writebol, was discharged Tuesday. A3 Federal prosecutors are scru- tinizing whether employees in- side and outside General Motors Co.’s legal department concealed evidence from regulators about a faulty ignition switch, poten- tially delaying a recall of vehi- cles with the fatal problem, ac- cording to people familiar with the matter. The investigation is at an early stage, one of the people said, and it is possible that the probe could end without any charges being brought. The scrutiny of GM’s legal de- partment, which hasn’t been previously reported, follows the release of an internal GM report in June that faulted the com- pany’s lawyers for failing to alert other managers to lawsuits against GM that could have helped resolve a pattern of acci- dents in which air bags failed to deploy. The legal department is just one area prosecutors are looking into for possible criminal liability, one of the people famil- iar with the matter said. A spokesman for the largest U.S. auto maker said the com- pany is cooperating with the in- vestigation. The review of current and for- mer employees is part of a larger criminal investigation into possibly misleading statements the company made to regulators about a faulty ignition switch used in 2.6 million Cobalt and other small cars. The probe cov- ers matters stretching back a de- cade and is being conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investiga- tion and the U.S. attorney’s of- fice in Manhattan, said the peo- ple familiar with the matter. Prosecutors are under pres- sure from lawmakers to hold ex- ecutives at GM responsible for the long-running product defect, which the auto maker has linked to 54 accidents and at least 13 deaths. Criminal cases against in- house lawyers are rare and diffi- cult to prove. They can be com- plicated by issues of attorney- client privilege. GM dismissed 15 employees in- cluding several in its legal depart- ment following an internal probe, citing their failure to take action. The company has said they re- ceived compensation packages. “You would need strong evi- dence,” said Carl Tobias, a pro- fessor at University of Richmond School of Law. “You’d have to show they knew the vehicle was defective, it posed serious risks, and [they] didn’t do anything anyways.” The Manhattan prosecutors’ probe is modeled on one that led Please turn to the next page BY CHRISTOPHER M. MATTHEWS AND JOANN S. LUBLIN Prosecutors Probe Lawyers at GM U.S. corporate-bond issuance is hurtling toward a record for the third consecutive year, as companies take advantage of a surprising interest-rate decline to stock up on cash. Companies around the globe have sold about $994.9 billion of bonds in the U.S. this year as of Thursday morning, according to data provider Dealogic, which has figures dating back to 1995. That is up more than 4% from a year ago, with sales on pace to cross the $1 trillion mark at the fastest clip on record. A $4.5 bil- lion sale Thursday from Bank of America Corp. put the total closer to that milestone. Investors and analysts say companies are raising funds partly with an eye to investing in fresh projects as the U.S. econ- omy gains pace, a move that can further help along economic growth. Acquisitions have about doubled in the U.S. from last year to a recent $1.1 trillion, and U.S. bond sales earmarked for capital spending—purchases or up- grades of long-lived assets such as plant and equipment—have risen 90% from a year earlier to Please turn to page A5 BY MIKE CHERNEY With Rates Low, Firms Near Borrowing Record Clampdown on Pain Meds 2000 ’05 ’10* 0 5,000 10,000 15,000 *Most recent data available Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention The Wall Street Journal Number of deaths related to prescription opioids in the U.S. 16,651 deaths DRUG CONTROL: The Obama administration will toughen prescription regulations for hydrocodone-based medicines, the most commonly used narcotic painkillers, in an effort to curb widespread abuse. A3 Associated Press Can Mealworms Be the New Beetlemania? i i i Celebrity Chefs Tout Bug Cuisine; ‘Natural Nuttiness’ BY VANESSA MOCK BRUSSELS—Celebrity chef Sang Hoon Degeimbre is helping to cre- ate buzz about bugs in Belgium. At a recent evening cooking master class, he provoked gasps among a group of gourmets when he disclosed that the “minced lamb” they had just eaten was re- ally mealworms. The larval beetles had been marinated in ginger, pear and herbs, and sautéed with gar- den vegetables. But once they had digested the trickery, the dozen-or-so diners applauded. “I wouldn’t go eat worms if you paid me,” said Christoph Meule- mans, one of the group. “But there’s no way I would have guessed that’s what I was eating, it all tasted fantastic.” Mr. Degeimbre has done this trick more than once, to encourage Belgians to crunch their way through a variety of insects. He is also lending his name to a range of mealworm-based spreads sold in stores—from chocolate to tomato-tapenade—launched by Green Kow, one of dozens of bug- related businesses that have sprung up in Belgium. Mr. Degeimbre said when he was first approached by the startup two years ago, his gut in- stinct told him no. “But then I Please turn to page A10 Disclosure of rescue attempt raises concerns.. A7 Shiite villages in Iraq under siege from militants.......... A6 Twitter grapples with control of grisly images.... B1 C M Y K Composite Composite MAGENTA CYAN BLACK P2JW234000-6-A00100-1--------XA CL,CN,CX,DL,DM,DX,EE,EU,FL,HO,KC,MW,NC,NE,NY,PH,PN,RM,SA,SC,SL,SW,TU,WB,WE BG,BM,BP,CC,CH,CK,CP,CT,DN,DR,FW,HL,HW,KS,LA,LG,LK,MI,ML,NM,PA,PI,PV,TD,TS,UT,WO P2JW234000-6-A00100-1--------XA

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Page 1: 2014 08 22 cmyk NA 04

YELLOW

* * * * * * FRIDAY, AUGUST 22, 2014 ~ VOL. CCLXIV NO. 45 WSJ.com HHHH $2 .00

DJIA 17039.49 À 60.36 0.4% NASDAQ 4532.10 À 0.1% NIKKEI 15586.20 À 0.9% STOXX600 337.51 À 0.7% 10-YR. TREAS. À 5/32 , yield 2.408% OIL (new)$93.96 À $0.51 GOLD $1,273.70 g $19.70 EURO $1.3281 YEN 103.85

TODAY IN MANSION

Lavish Lodgings for GuestsARENA Hollywood Is Working Hard to Make You Cry

CONTENTSBusiness Tech..............B4Corporate News.B2-3,5Global Finance.............C3Heard on Street..........C8In the Markets.............C4Mansion...................M1-12

Market Data.............C5-7Opinion.....................A11-13Sports................................D7Television........................D4U.S. News...................A2-5Weather Watch..........B6World News.............A6-9

s Copyright 2014 Dow Jones & Company.All Rights Reserved

>

What’sNews

i i i

World-Widen The killing of journalistJames Foley has promptedAmerican officials to beginworking to knit together abroader international cam-paign to combat the extrem-ists of the Islamic State. A1n Foley’s death has exposed alargely hidden debate about therole of ransom demands in ter-ror-group hostage situations.A6n Islamic extremists havedrawn attention to anothercaptive American reporter theyare now threatening to kill. A6n The decision to release se-cret details of an unsuccessfulU.S. mission to rescue hos-tages is raising concerns. A7n Israel killed three top Hamascommanders in an airstrike,dealing a blow to the Islamistgroup’s military leadership. A7n Ukraine suffered heavylosses in a counterattack alonga key supply route to the rebelstronghold of Donetsk. A8n The Obama administrationmoved to restrict prescrip-tions of the most commonlyused narcotic painkillers. A3nThe administration violatedthe law by not giving Congressadequate notice of the Berg-dahl swap, the GAO said. A2nMissouri’s governor orderedthe National Guard to beginpulling out of Ferguson. A3, A4n Turkey’s governing partytapped Foreign Minister Da-vutoglu to succeed Erdoganas party leader and premier. A8n An Indonesian court re-jected a challenge to Widodo’swin in presidential elections.A9nDied: JimMiekka, 54, “Hin-denburg Omen” creator. C3

i i i

Central bankers gatheringin Jackson Hole, Wyo., con-

front a global economy thathas again disappointed, leavingthem reluctant in some placesand unable in others to turnoff spigots of easy money. A2China’s economy faces anuphill battle for the rest of 2014,adding pressure on Beijing. A9nU.S. prosecutors are probingwhether employees inside andoutside GM’s legal departmentconcealed evidence about afaulty ignition switch. A1n BofA closed a legal sagawith a $16.65 billion settle-ment of allegations involvingcrisis-era mortgage deals. C1n Citigroup faces restrictionsthat will prevent it from sell-ing investments in hedgefunds to wealthy clients. C1n The U.S. housing recoverygained traction in July as salesof existing homes rose to theirhighest level in 10 months. A2n Corporate-bond issuancein the U.S. is on pace to sur-pass the $1 trillion mark at thefastest clip on record. A1n Sears’s losses mounted inthe second quarter and the firmis weighing additional steps tobolster its balance sheet. B1n Family Dollar rejected a$9 billion offer fromDollar Gen-eral and reaffirmed supportfor its deal with Dollar Tree. B1n The S&P 500 rose 5.86points to a record 1992.37. TheDow industrials gained 60.36points to close at 17039.49. C4nRussian authorities boostedpressure on McDonald’s, in-specting more restaurants. B3

Business&FinanceThe beheading of journalist

James Foley has promptedAmerican officials to beginworking to knit together abroader international campaignto combat the extremists of theIslamic State, an effort that thePentagon warned will requiretaking the fight beyond Iraq andinto neighboring Syria.

The Obama administrationhas indicated it is prepared tocontinue selective airstrikes

against the extremists insideIraq, where they have seized sig-nificant swaths of territory. ButGen. Martin Dempsey, the chair-man of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,warned that the Islamic State,also known as the Islamic Stateof Iraq and Syria, can’t be de-feated without choking off itsoperations in Syria.

“And that will come when wehave a coalition in the regionthat takes on the task of defeat-ing ISIS over time,” he said at aPentagon press conference,where he appeared with Defense

Secretary Chuck Hagel. Whenasked specifically whether theU.S. was considering airstrikes inSyria, Mr. Hagel said all optionswere on the table.

Organizing an internationalresponse is difficult becauseeven nations that agree they arethreatened by the Islamist ex-tremist movement are feudingon other aspects of Middle Eastpolicy, but clear options for ac-tion are emerging.

European nations have al-ready begun sending limited mil-itary supplies to Kurdish fighters

in Iraq, who are engaging ISISforces in the north of the coun-try. U.S. officials want Arab alliesin the Persian Gulf to help per-suade their allies among Sunnitribes in Iraq to support a newcentral government beingformed by the new prime minis-

ter, Haider al-Abadi. That, theybelieve, is crucial to creating anIraqi government strong enoughto counter ISIS.

U.S. officials also want Per-sian Gulf states to choke off anyfinancial support their citizensmay be providing to Islamic ex-tremist forces. They also hopethe new sense of internationalalarm will convince Turkey tomore closely monitor its longborder with Syria and Iraq andstop would-be Islamist fightersfrom Europe and the Middle East

PleaseturntopageA6

BY FELICIA SCHWARTZAND DION NISSENBAUM

U.S. Eyes Wider Action on MilitantsKilling of Journalist FuelsPush for InternationalCampaign;Officials SaySyriaVital toDefeating IslamicState

BERLIN—Dmitry Tulchinskiy, bureau chief hereof Russian state news agency Rossiya Segodnya,shares a quiet hallway with a travel company anda chess club.

By next year, that office could get cramped. Theagency’s Berlin staff is supposed to grow from twoto at least 30. Its job, according to a directivesigned by Russian President Vladimir Putin, will beto “illuminate abroad the state policies” of theRussian Federation.

“What is propaganda? Propaganda is the ten-dentious presentation of facts,” Mr. Tulchinskiysaid in an interview. “It does not mean lying.”

With its image battered by the conflict inUkraine, Russia is accelerating its push to rebuild,modernize and expand its Soviet-era foreign mediaapparatus. One country of focus is Germany, theEuropean economic powerhouse that has bothclose ties to Russia and rising public resentment of

the U.S. On Thursday, the scope of the ambitionsemerged further, when the government publiclymoved toward adopting a $39 million budget in-crease for pro-Kremlin news channel RT to fund itsexpansion into French.

The effort will give the Kremlin new opportuni-ties to feed discontent over the U.S. role in theworld and to undermine Western leaders who haveclosed ranks to oppose Mr. Putin’s policies.

In Berlin, RT, formerly known as Russia Today,plans to launch a German-language offering bynext year, its editor says. Rossiya Segodnya isbuilding up a bureau to run a German-languagewebsite, social-media accounts and a 24-hour radiostation. The media offensive represents anotherarm of Mr. Putin’s increasingly direct confrontationwith the West.

“We simply want to end the dominance of theso-called Anglo-Saxon media,” said Dmitry Kise-lyov, the television anchor whom Mr. Putin ap-

PleaseturntopageA10

BY ANTON TROIANOVSKI

TARGET: GERMANY

Russia Ramps Up Information WarBad ReputationPercentage of Germans surveyedwho considered Russia and theU.S. trustworthy partners

The Wall Street Journal

Source: Infratest dimap/ARD-DeutschlandTREND

100

0

25

50

75

%

’10 ’142007

U.S.: 35%

Russia: 15%

American Doctor Goes Home After Beating Ebola

Erik

S.Lesser/EuropeanPresspho

toAgency

AGAINST ODDS: Dr. Kent Brantly, one of two U.S. missionaries who contracted Ebola in Liberia, appeared with hiswife Thursday at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. The second, Nancy Writebol, was discharged Tuesday. A3

Federal prosecutors are scru-tinizing whether employees in-side and outside General MotorsCo.’s legal department concealedevidence from regulators about afaulty ignition switch, poten-tially delaying a recall of vehi-cles with the fatal problem, ac-cording to people familiar withthe matter.

The investigation is at anearly stage, one of the peoplesaid, and it is possible that theprobe could end without anycharges being brought.

The scrutiny of GM’s legal de-partment, which hasn’t beenpreviously reported, follows therelease of an internal GM reportin June that faulted the com-pany’s lawyers for failing to alertother managers to lawsuitsagainst GM that could havehelped resolve a pattern of acci-dents in which air bags failed todeploy. The legal department isjust one area prosecutors arelooking into for possible criminalliability, one of the people famil-iar with the matter said.

A spokesman for the largestU.S. auto maker said the com-pany is cooperating with the in-vestigation.

The review of current and for-mer employees is part of alarger criminal investigation into

possibly misleading statementsthe company made to regulatorsabout a faulty ignition switchused in 2.6 million Cobalt andother small cars. The probe cov-ers matters stretching back a de-cade and is being conducted bythe Federal Bureau of Investiga-tion and the U.S. attorney’s of-fice in Manhattan, said the peo-ple familiar with the matter.

Prosecutors are under pres-sure from lawmakers to hold ex-ecutives at GM responsible forthe long-running product defect,which the auto maker has linkedto 54 accidents and at least 13deaths.

Criminal cases against in-house lawyers are rare and diffi-cult to prove. They can be com-plicated by issues of attorney-client privilege.

GM dismissed 15 employees in-cluding several in its legal depart-ment following an internal probe,citing their failure to take action.The company has said they re-ceived compensation packages.

“You would need strong evi-dence,” said Carl Tobias, a pro-fessor at University of RichmondSchool of Law. “You’d have toshow they knew the vehicle wasdefective, it posed serious risks,and [they] didn’t do anythinganyways.”

The Manhattan prosecutors’probe is modeled on one that led

Pleaseturntothenextpage

BY CHRISTOPHER M. MATTHEWSAND JOANN S. LUBLIN

Prosecutors ProbeLawyers at GM

U.S. corporate-bond issuanceis hurtling toward a record forthe third consecutive year, ascompanies take advantage of asurprising interest-rate declineto stock up on cash.

Companies around the globehave sold about $994.9 billion ofbonds in the U.S. this year as ofThursday morning, according todata provider Dealogic, whichhas figures dating back to 1995.That is up more than 4% from ayear ago, with sales on pace tocross the $1 trillion mark at thefastest clip on record. A $4.5 bil-

lion sale Thursday from Bank ofAmerica Corp. put the totalcloser to that milestone.

Investors and analysts saycompanies are raising fundspartly with an eye to investing infresh projects as the U.S. econ-omy gains pace, a move that canfurther help along economicgrowth. Acquisitions have aboutdoubled in the U.S. from last yearto a recent $1.1 trillion, and U.S.bond sales earmarked for capitalspending—purchases or up-grades of long-lived assets suchas plant and equipment—haverisen 90% from a year earlier to

PleaseturntopageA5

BY MIKE CHERNEY

With Rates Low, FirmsNear Borrowing Record

Clampdown on Pain Meds

2000 ’05 ’10*0

5,000

10,000

15,000

*Most recent data availableSource: Centers for Disease Controland Prevention

The Wall Street Journal

Number of deathsrelated toprescriptionopioids inthe U.S.

16,651deaths

DRUG CONTROL: The Obama administration will toughen prescriptionregulations for hydrocodone-based medicines, the most commonlyused narcotic painkillers, in an effort to curb widespread abuse. A3

AssociatedPress

CanMealwormsBe the NewBeetlemania?

i i i

Celebrity ChefsTout Bug Cuisine;

‘Natural Nuttiness’BY VANESSA MOCK

BRUSSELS—Celebrity chef SangHoon Degeimbre is helping to cre-ate buzz about bugs in Belgium.

At a recent evening cookingmaster class, he provoked gaspsamong a group of gourmets whenhe disclosed that the “mincedlamb” they had just eaten was re-ally mealworms. The larval beetleshad beenmarinated in ginger, pearand herbs, and sautéed with gar-den vegetables.

But once they had digested thetrickery, the dozen-or-so dinersapplauded.

“I wouldn’t go eat worms if youpaid me,” said Christoph Meule-mans, one of the group. “Butthere’s no way I would haveguessed that’s what I was eating, itall tasted fantastic.”

Mr. Degeimbre has done thistrick more than once, to encourageBelgians to crunch their waythrough a variety of insects.

He is also lending his name to arange of mealworm-based spreadssold in stores—from chocolate totomato-tapenade—launched byGreen Kow, one of dozens of bug-related businesses that havesprung up in Belgium.

Mr. Degeimbre said when hewas first approached by thestartup two years ago, his gut in-stinct told him no. “But then I

PleaseturntopageA10

Disclosure of rescueattempt raises concerns.. A7

Shiite villages in Iraq undersiege from militants.......... A6

Twitter grapples withcontrol of grisly images.... B1

CM Y K CompositeCompositeMAGENTA CYAN BLACK

P2JW234000-6-A00100-1--------XA CL,CN,CX,DL,DM,DX,EE,EU,FL,HO,KC,MW,NC,NE,NY,PH,PN,RM,SA,SC,SL,SW,TU,WB,WEBG,BM,BP,CC,CH,CK,CP,CT,DN,DR,FW,HL,HW,KS,LA,LG,LK,MI,ML,NM,PA,PI,PV,TD,TS,UT,WO

P2JW234000-6-A00100-1--------XA