Authorities have rounded up hundreds of supporters of two-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his politician brother, Shahbaz, apparently in the hope of thwarting big welcome rallies if and when the two end seven years of exile on Monday.

The return of the prime minister he ousted in 1999 is a serious challenge for Musharraf, whose popularity has been sliding as he prepares to try to get re-elected by the national and provincial assemblies between September 15 and October 15.

He aims to hold a general election around the year-end.

"There's complete panic in government ranks," said a spokesman for Sharif, Ahsan Iqbal.

With political tension rising, a senior U.S. official arrived to prepare for a scheduled "strategic dialogue" session next week. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher is likely to meet Musharraf for talks.

The United States is keen to ensure nuclear-armed Pakistan sustain efforts in the global war on terrorism and has been encouraging army chief Musharraf to work with liberal-minded former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

Musharraf has been negotiating with Bhutto on a package of proposals that would likely see Musharraf quitting his post as army chief to become a civilian president, and Bhutto being cleared of corruption charges and coming back for elections.

"This one is a complex case," said Kevin Madonna, "We do a lot of cases involving communities where industry has done harm to drinking water supplies. This case is a chance to protect the community before damage is incurred."

Madonna said the large landfill proposed for the rural community in Conecuh is "a classic case of an out-of-state corporate interest bringing garbage in from out of state and dumping it on the people there, taking the money and running. It is a fundamentally unfair situation for the people there."

Phillip Kinney, who works for the public relations firm Matrix in Montgomery, is a spokesman for Conecuh Woods whose principals are based in the Tampa Bay, Fla., area. He disagreed with Madonna's characterization of the project.

"Conecuh Woods is not an out-of-state corporation," Kinney said, "it is an Alabama LLC, which was incorporated by Jimmy Stone and David Kirby. No other corporation or individuals have any interest in Conecuh Woods."

Kinney said that Conecuh Woods will be a "state-of-the-art economic development project" generating construction jobs, permanent jobs and revenue for Conecuh County. The money could be used to pave roads and help provide emergency services and programs for children and seniors, he said.

Developers have said the project could bring more than $250 million over more than 60 years and would provide about 15 jobs.

Controversy began in Conecuh and surrounding counties even before the landfill developers made a proposal. Several municipal governments and the Monroe and Escambia county commissions passed resolutions urging the Conecuh commission to refuse the landfill.

Though the commission voted in January against the project, that vote was not binding.

Once the developers make formal application, the County Commission can vote yes or no after a public hearing. If the commission takes no action, the landfill is automatically approved after 90 days.

Commissioners said the outcome of the referendum would not be binding.

Johnny Andrews, president of the citizen's group, said he was satisfied that the majority of Conecuh people oppose the landfill.

"I was startled the commissioners would ask for this to be on the ballot," Andrews said. "Why waste taxpayers' money when it is clear to everyone most people are against it?"

Madonna said his firm was "evaluating our options with respect to the commission's decision to place the issue on the ballot."

Kinney said Conecuh Woods considered the request for a vote to be good news. "Conecuh Woods applauds the county commissioners' decision to let the voters have a voice in their future and we look forward to the opportunity to speak directly to the citizens of Conecuh County."

But the ruling could also revive a long-held debate on South Korea's powerful and controversial "chaebol" -- the family-run conglomerates which opponents say have been given special treatment owing to their importance to Asia's fourth-largest economy.

"Hyundai Motor is the top enterprise because of its ripple effect on the whole economy. The accused, Chung Mong-koo, is a symbol of Hyundai Motor and our country's automobile industry," Lee Jae-hong, the presiding judge at the Seoul High Court, said while handing down the sentence.

"I did ask many people, including restaurant waiters, taxi drivers and reporters. The ordinary people leaned toward a suspended sentence," he said. "That means the accused should work hard."

Hyundai Motor shares rose as much as 2.2 percent on the ruling and closed 0.6 percent higher. The broader KOSPI (.KS11: Quote, Profile, Research) ended up 1.2 percent.

Instead of a jail term, Chung was asked to pay an 840 billion won ($894.9 million) donation, previously pledged by the family, to deliver speeches about transparent management and to write essays about governance to be published in domestic media.

"We do not know where he is at this moment," said James Brosnahan, Mr. Hsu’s lawyer. "We hope he will be court today."

Mr. Hsu’s absence seemed to be a repeat of his disappearing act in 1992, when he skipped out on a sentencing hearing related to his conviction in a fraud case, only to re-emerge years later as a major Democratic fund-raiser in New York. Since 2003, he personally contributed $600,000 to Democrats around the country and raised hundreds of thousands more, frequently hosting fund-raising parties and getting his picture taken with prominent politicians.

He was a designated "Hillraiser" for Mrs. Clinton’s presidential campaign, meaning he had bundled over $100,000 in contributions from others. Last week, the Clinton campaign said it was given to charity $23,000 Mr. Hsu had donated, and was reviewing other contributions he helped raised for any evidence of illegality.

Also last week, Mr. Hsu resigned from the board of the New School in New York, where he had served as a trustee and a member of the board of governors of the Eugene Lang College there.

Mr. Brosnahan told reporters outside the courthouse in Redwood City that he had sent an assistant to Mr. Hsu’s apartment in New York on Tuesday to retrieve Mr. Hsu’s passport, but it could not be found.

Ralph Sivilla, an assistant California attorney general, said the government had believed that the $2 million bail and Mr. Hsu’s agreement to remain in the country were sufficient to ensure that he would not flee.

"Those circumstances seemed to suggest he was not a flight risk," Mr. Sivilla said. "I don’t know at this point what our next step will be."

Asked whether Mr. Hsu could have left the country, Mr. Sivilla said "I would imagine he has the capability," although he added that he had no reason to believe that Mr. Hsu had done so.

Mr. Hsu’s latest disappearance deepens the mystery surrounding much of his life since he vanished 15 years ago. He apparently spent part of the 1990s in his native Hong Kong, where he managed a garment company, before returning to the United States and taking up residences in California and New York.

On campaign finance reports, he has listed his occupation as an executive at an assortment of companies that appear to be connected to the apparel trade, although efforts to verify his involvement with them have proven fruitless. An address he has given as his office in New York’s garment district seems to be little more than a mail drop, and people who work nearby have said they rarely see him.

Had the class action been allowed to proceed, it also would have been a major setback to the company's strategy of fighting the thousands of Vioxx lawsuits one by one. Merck shares rose 95 cents, or 1.9 percent, to $50.35 in early trading Thursday.

The Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based company said it was pleased with Thursday's ruling.

Merck pulled Vioxx from the market three years ago after research showed it doubled risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Chris Seeger, lead lawyer for the West Caldwell, N.J.-based union that sued, International Union of Operating Engineers Local 68, said that given the ruling, he will now pursue separate claims on behalf of individual unions.

"Merck temporarily dodged a bullet. Merck didn't totally dodge the bullet," he said.

Mr. Seeger sued the drug maker on behalf of the union in October 2003, arguing that if Merck had disclosed those risks earlier, prescription plans would have favored other painkillers. A state judge and then an appeals court approved the class action, but Merck appealed to the New Jersey Supreme Court.

The high court reversed the appellate court's decision on multiple grounds. It wrote that it would be inappropriate to apply New Jersey's consumer fraud law to claims by third-party payers around the country and that while Merck ran a uniform marketing campaign for Vioxx, insurance plans made individual decisions about covering the drug.

The judges also wrote that the engineers' union and the other third-party payers "are well-organized institutional entities with considerable resources," and that it was unlikely their claims were too small to pursue individually.

Five judges had heard oral arguments on a case in March, and all five sided with Merck on the ruling.

"The Supreme Court recognized that a class action was improper because each insurance company and HMO considered different types of information in deciding whether to reimburse patients for Vioxx, and they all went through varied processes with different experts in making those decisions," said Merck attorney Ted Mayer.

Starting today, Thompson will spend the next week in the key early primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida.

He's betting he can make up for lost time and convince skeptics in his party that he's neither lazy nor underprepared, but instead methodical and getting in just as voters are ready to pay attention. All of his major competitors have spent months courting voters, raising money and refining their stances.

"He could catch fire and take off," said Cary Covington, an associate professor of political science at the University of Iowa. "But, historically, candidates who rely in Iowa on television ads and commercials don't do well. It takes organizing at the grassroots level and that takes time, and Thompson just doesn't have much of that time left now. He can't afford any mistakes. He has to hit hard and charge hard and really be running full blast."

Thompson has strengths going in. He's got celebrity and a homespun appeal as well as experience in national politics. He's also got a socially conservative message and reputation that could appeal to his party's base.

So far, Republicans have yet to solidify around any single competitor, be it former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney or any of the others.

Recent polls in early primary states show Thompson in second or third place among GOP candidates, in some combination with Giuliani and Romney.

Yet with his announcement, Thompson is off to mixed reviews.

Thompson's timing allowed him to avoid participating, literally by a few hours, in a televised Wednesday night candidate debate in New Hampshire. But his campaign bought time on Fox to air a 30-second Thompson spot during the debate.

That prompted New Hampshire's Republican Party chairman to accuse Thompson of wanting it both ways.

"I think New Hampshire voters and voters elsewhere would be forgiven for thinking he's skipping the debate because he isn't ready to have a substantive debate on the issues," chairman Fergus Cullen said. "And voters also could be forgiven for thinking, 'Well, what the heck was he doing all summer if he wasn't preparing?' There's a genuine interest here in Sen. Thompson and curiosity. But he seems to be getting off on the wrong foot."

Thompson's communications director Todd Harris defended the strategy. "We're not skipping debates," Harris said. "We're going to be present at a number of debates" in New Hampshire and other states in the weeks and months ahead.

"It's a question of how we've decided to roll out our campaign. And this is how we've decided to do it.

"Jay Leno is one of the highest-rated shows on television, and Sen. Thompson's message is going to be about bringing the country together under a banner of mainstream conservative change," Harris said. "You can't talk about unifying the country without talking to the entire country."

Harris describes Thompson as "the best communicator of the mainstream conservative message" in the GOP. "And our party needs a good communicator at a time when many in the public are not as high on the Republican Party as they used to be," he said.