1.   Business ground to a halt throughout much of the Northeast, South and Midwest.

2.   Faced with a backlog, some small businesses have simply ground to a halt.

3.   On days when the general who died last month was unreceptive, business ground to a halt.

4.   At the moment, international business has almost ground to a halt because of the volatility of the baht on a day-to-day basis.

5.   Traffic backed up for miles behind blinking stoplights and businesses ground to a halt Thursday as a massive power blackout crippled most of Israel and the Palestinian territories.