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As Japan welcomes the first Boeing 787, the soon-to-be world’s largest carrier is patiently and anxiously waiting for its order.

Jeff Smisek, head of the parent company for United and Continental airlines, on Thursday said he was last told by Boeing that the first of the 50 aircraft ordered by the company will be delivered to have in service in the second half of 2012.

“We ordered that aircraft in December 2004. So I’ve been a very patient person,” said Smisek, the president and CEO of United Continental Holdings Inc.

The first Boeing 787 Dreamliner took off from Everett, Wash., on Tuesday morning and landed Wednesday in Tokyo, where All Nippon Airways is preparing the long-delayed aircraft for its inaugural commercial flight.

Chicago-based Boeing missed the initial May 2008 delivery target and had repeatedly delayed its introduction because of problems in development.

Despite the delays, Smisek called the wide-body jetliner “a spectacular and game-changing aircraft.”

The new jet is the first commercial airliner built using carbon fiber _ a strong, lightweight, high-tech plastic _ rather than the typical aluminum skin. It is quieter and uses about 20 percent less fuel than a comparably sized aluminum aircraft.

“That’s staggering,” Smisek said about the fuel savings. “If you substitute them for an existing aircraft, your profits will improve like that. It will also permit us to fly routes we couldn’t otherwise profitably fly. So it’s really a homerun.”

The 787s have an extended range and its cabin have bigger windows and larger overhead compartments. For improved passenger comfort, the humidity can be controlled and the air pressure during flights will be equivalent to an altitude of 6,000 feet instead of the conventional 8,000 feet.

“Customers will love flying in them,” he said. “So it’s good for us and great for the customer.”

United Continental will be the first North American carrier to receive the 787s. The only route the company has announced for the 787 is non-stop service between Houston and Auckland, New Zealand _ a route that the carrier had hoped to begin in November.

Smisek said 787s will mostly replace existing aircraft instead of adding capacity because, “I don’t see us growing our mainline fleet in any significant way under these current conditions.”

Airlines have ordered more than 800 of the planes that will compete with the Airbus A350. United Continental has ordered 25 of the Airbus aircraft.

Smisek is in Honolulu this week meeting with company employees. He spoke with reporters after delivering a keynote speech at the 2011 Hawaii Business Magazine Top 250 luncheon, recognizing the state’s leading companies.

The company, which brings in about 4 million visitors to Hawaii every year, continues to merge United and Continental airlines into what will be the world’s largest carrier. He said the company has reduced its net debt by $1.4 billion.

“I think we’re at the cusp of having an airline business in the United States that actually makes money (and) makes it consistently, sustainably, sufficiently.”

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Gunmen wearing military-style uniforms broke into the house of a pro-government Sunni militiaman early on Wednesday and killed five members of his family, including three children, Iraqi officials said.

A police official said the gunmen shot the women and children as they were sleeping in their home in Abu Ghraib, a Sunni-dominated area that used to be a haven for al-Qaida in Iraq.

Seven other family members were wounded in the attack. The militiaman, Hameed al-Zobaie, was not in the house at the time of the attack, the police official said.

A medical official in a nearby hospital confirmed the casualties. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.

Police said the gunmen likely were targeting al-Zobaie, who is a member of the Iraqi Sahwa, or Awakening Councils personal loans for bad credit. The group joined forces with U.S. troops at the height of the Iraq war to fight al-Qaida. Ever since then, it has been a target for Sunni insurgents who call its members traitors.

Insurgents have stepped up attacks in Iraq recently as the U.S. military prepares to withdraw from the country by the end of the year.

In an earlier attack, a car bomb exploded near a popular restaurant in a Shiite neighborhood in southwestern Baghdad late on Tuesday night, killing three people and wounding 10 others, police said Wednesday.

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U.S. stock futures are rising on hopes that European leaders will come up with a new strategy to resolve the region’s debt crisis.

Finance officials met in Washington this past weekend and pledged to take bolder steps to fight the problems. German leaders, for example, want banks and private institutions that hold Greek bonds to take a bigger loss on those holdings to slash Athens’ debt.

Investors have been on edge about Europe’s debt problems for months. Last week, the Dow Jones industrial average fell by 6.4 percent, its biggest drop since October 2008.

Ahead of the opening Monday, Dow futures are up 134 points, or 1.3 percent, at 10,833. S&P 500 futures are up 17, or 1.5 percent, at 1,147. Nasdaq 100 futures are up 23, or 1.1 percent, at 2,225.

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Many smart people have applied their brainpower to the question of how to pull the nation out of the ongoing jobs crisis. The answers have not come easily cash advance loan. We put the question to three experts in St. Louis: What should government and policymakers do

Target is a victim of its own success.

The discounter drummed up so much hype around its exclusive, limited-time line by upscale Italian designer Missoni that its website crashed and was down most of the day on Sept. 13 when the collection was launched, angering customers. More than a week later, some shoppers who bought the Missoni for Target line are posting on social media websites Facebook and Twitter that they won’t shop at Target again because their online orders are being delayed

The departing chief economist of the European Central Bank is saying that heavy levels of government debt are threatening the existence of the euro currency.

Juergen Stark’s statements in a paper with three other economists on the ECB’s website are unusual because they come from a high-ranking central banker.

The paper also dismisses new measures to strengthen EU controls over national government spending as insufficient.

It says Europe needs far tougher measures, such as appointing administrators to oversee finances in countries that need bailouts, as Greece, Ireland and Portugal have.

Stark is resigning almost three years before the end of his term amid talk that he is unhappy with the bank’s crisis measure of propping up weak governments by buying their bonds.

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In a boost to the region’s moribund auto industry, General Motors will inject $380 million into its Wentzville assembly plant, adding 1,850 jobs and a new pickup line as part of a proposed new labor contract, the United Auto Workers announced Tuesday.

The announcement is part of GM’s commitment to invest a total of $2.5 billion in facilities nationwide and create or retain 6,400 jobs over the life of the four-year contract, according to the UAW.

The union and GM reached an agreement Friday, but did not reveal details of expansion plans until Tuesday. The 48,500 union members working for GM nationwide must still ratify the contract next week.

UAW Local 2250 Chairman Mike Bullock said the contract called initially for the Wentzville plant to add a second production shift of between 400 and 700 people in the first quarter of 2012. Local 2250 represents hourly workers at the Wentzville plant, which produces Chevrolet Express and GMC Savana full-size vans. About 1,300 people in one production shift currently work at the Wentzville facility.

“This will be a real shot in the arm for Wentzville and the St. Louis area,” Bullock said in a phone interview. “This really is a tribute to the men and women who work at the Wentzville assembly center and produce the best quality product at the best cost.”

The local automotive industry has been devastated in recent years. Closures included the Ford plant in Hazelwood five years ago and Chrysler’s two Fenton plants in 2008 and 2009. Multiple local automobile suppliers that feed those plants with parts also closed. In 2009, GM eliminated a shift at the Wentzville plant, affecting more than 800 workers.

Some were laid off, and some took voluntary transfers to GM facilities elsewhere.

Some of those transferred and laid-off employees could be eligible for rehiring, according to UAW officials. Sixteen former Wentzville GM employees were transferred to GM’s Fairfax assembly plant in Kansas City, Kan., and 27 laid-off employees remain on Local 2250’s recall list.

GM also will be offering openings to unemployed GM union workers nationally who have recall rights. The number of such workers was unavailable.

Additionally, there are 350 people on a local referral list who could be tapped for the new jobs, Bullock said.

The investment by GM would pay for a 500,000-square-foot addition to the Wentzville’s current 3.7 million-square-foot facility, improvements to its paint department and other upgrades. The new contract also details plans for a midsize pickup to be produced in Wentzville. More than 1,000 workers would start working on that new line in 2013 for a 2014 model pickup, Bullock said.

“We’ve been waiting patiently a long time to hear this news,” said Tom Brune, UAW communications coordinator for Local 2250.

As Joe Gurrieri, 31, of O’Fallon, Mo., used a mechanical arm to swing dash panels into place on a steady stream of Chevy Express vans Tuesday, he said he was hopeful current workers would have more job security. Gurrieri, a 12-year employee, said he had returned to work in November after being laid off. “It’s good to be back, and it’s good to know we’ll be here for a while,” he said.

Some analysts have speculated that GM will shift production of its Chevrolet Colorado or GMC Canyon pickups, which currently are made in Shreveport, La., to Wentzville. The Shreveport assembly facility, which employs more than 900 people, is not owned by GM and had previously been slated to close as part of GM’s emergence from bankruptcy in 2009. A GM spokesman declined to comment on the pending contract or expansion details.

Last week, plant manager John Dansby told the Post-Dispatch that he believed Wentzville had been selected for expansion because of the plant’s emphasis on producing high quality vehicles at low costs.

“We’ve been working really hard at the plant to try to position ourselves to be very competitive,” Dansby said.

Last year, the plant forecast production of 80,000 vehicles and ended the year producing nearly 100,000.

“Our volumes are increasing, and the buying public has done a great job supporting our product,” he said.

TAX BREAKS

To help finance the expansion, Wentzville’s board of aldermen approved last week partial tax abatement for GM if it expands. As part of the deal, GM would make “payments in lieu of taxes” to local school districts, and have 75 percent of its property taxes for the new development abated for 10 years.

Wentzville Mayor Paul Lambi said he was hopeful the new jobs would bring back what was lost when the GM plant downsized in 2009. “There was an unbelievable ripple effect,” Lambi said, describing the closure of nearby restaurants and retailers two years ago. “Every business that relies on retail sales was affected. Bringing back a second shift is extremely good news.”

A couple of miles from the plant, Dan Strantz, owner of Mama’s Grill, also welcomed the news. The diner’s location near the intersection of Highway 40 and Interstate 70 opened about a month and half ago, he said, but his family has been in the restaurant business since 1972. “It’ll be good that there will actually be people with money to go out and spend,” he said.

If the expansion proceeds, GM is likely to pursue state incentives. The automaker has been in talks with Gov. Jay Nixon’s office and Department of Economic Development officials for a year, according to the governor’s spokesman, Sam Murphey. The automaker has not yet applied for any state incentives.

“We are strongly encouraged by the recent steps GM has taken, and we look forward to continuing to work closely with GM throughout this process,” Murphey said in a statement Tuesday.

The UAW outlined investments proposed by GM at several other plants nationwide, including plans to invest $925 million at three Michigan factories that will generate 900 jobs during the life of the contract. GM also plans to invest in plants in Spring Hill, Tenn., which had been idled, and Fort Wayne, Ind., that will generate or preserve a combined 3,700 jobs.

Gerrion Grim, 53, of O’Fallon, Mo., has worked at the Wentzville plant for about 18 months. He said he was laid off for a while and returned to work in April. Now, he said, he would like to see job security. “I’m definitely hoping for some longevity,” he said. “I just hope it all goes well.”

Shane Anthony of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.

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St. Louis-based Ralcorp Holdings has rejected ConAgra Foods’ offer to buy the company.

Ralcorp issued a statement Monday morning saying the company intends to move forward with its plans to spin off its branded food business, Post Foods, as a separate public company rather than sell the entire company to Omaha, Neb.-based ConAgra. ConAgra’s earlier offers to buy Ralcorp this year so far have been rejected.

Last week, ConAgra issued a statement saying it would retract its offer to buy Ralcorp for $94 a share, or nearly $5.2 billion, by today unless Ralcorp entered into negotiations for a sale. So far, Ralcorp’s board of directors has refused to meet with ConAgra executives about a sale fast payday loans.

“Post Foods is on track to be spun off to Ralcorp shareholders, at which time I will become chairman of the board of the new Post Foods,” Ralcorp Chairman Bill Stiritz said in a statement today. “Post Foods’ main asset is its great brand name — it has untapped potential. Looking forward, the management of this valuable asset will not be a combination of the past, but rather it will be creative, imaginative and adaptive in pursuit of shareholder value creation — nothing is off the table.”

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Revolutionary fighters struggled to make gains in an assault into Gadhafi’s hometown Saturday with bloody street-by-street battles against loyalist forces fiercely defending the most symbolic of the shattered regime’s remaining strongholds.

The fresh attack into the Mediterranean coastal city of Sirte contrasted with a stalemate in the mountain enclave of Bani Walid where demoralized anti-Gadhafi forces tried to regroup after being beaten back by loyalist snipers and gunners holding strategic high ground.

Intense resistance has stalled forces of Libya’s new leadership trying to crush the dug-in fighters loyal to Gadhafi, weeks after the former rebels swept into Tripoli on Aug. 21 and pushed the country’s leader out of power and into hiding. Sirte and Bani Walid are the main bastions of backers of the old regime in Libya’s coastal plain, but smaller holdouts remain in the deserts of the center of the country _ and another major stronghold, Sabha, lies in the deep south.

The resistance has raised fears of a protracted insurgency of the sort that has played out in Iraq and Afghanistan, even as the transitional government tries to establish its authority and move toward eventual elections.

A military spokesman for the transitional government said revolutionaries do not know Gadhafi’s location.

Col. Ahmed Omar Bani pointed to the still uncollected bounty of nearly $2 million that the new leadership has put on the fugitive leader’s head, saying, “Up to now we don’t have any certain information or intelligence about his whereabouts.”

Columns of black smoke rose over Sirte, as revolutionary fighters backed by heavy machine guns and rockets tried to push through crowded residential areas in the city. They claimed to have gained less than a mile into the city, along the main coastal highway leading in from the west.

The forces were met by a rain of gunfire , rockets and mortars. A field hospital set up outside Sirte at a gas station filled with wounded fighters, including some from a convoy hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. Twenty-four anti-Gadhafi fighters were killed and 54 wouneed in the day’s battles, the military council from the nearby city of Misrata reported.

The pro-regime radio station in Sirte repeatedly aired a recorded message it said was from Gadhafi, urging the city’s defenders to fight on. “You must resist fiercely. You must kick them out of Sirte,” the voice said. “If they get inside Sirte, they are going to rape the women.” The voice resembled Gadhafi’s but its authenticity could not be confirmed.

Gadhafi’s spokesman, Moussa Ibrahim, vowed, “We have the ability to continue this resistance for months,” in a phone call Friday to Syrian-based Al-Rai TV, which has become the mouthpiece for the former regime.

The conditions inside Sirte were reportedly growing increasingly dire for those caught in the crossfire. Nouri Abu Bakr, a 42-year-old teacher fleeing the city, said there is no electricity or medicine and food supplies are nearly exhausted.

“Gadhafi gave all the people weapons, but those fighting are the Gadhafi brigade of loyalists,” he said.

Hassan Dourai, Sirte representative in the new government’s interim government, said fighters reported seeing one of Gadhafi’s son, Muatassim, shortly before the offensives began Friday, but he has not been spotted since the battles intensified. The whereabouts of Gadhafi and several of his sons remain unknown. Other family members have fled to neighboring Algeria and Niger.

Most of the hundreds of fighters assaulting Sirte are from Misrata, a city to the northwest along the coast that held out for weeks against a brutal Gadhafi siege during the civil war. Revolutionary commanders were trying to open a second front into Sirte, from the east. They said they were trying to reach a surrender deal with elders in most of the Harawa region, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of Sirte, to open a possible new pathway _ but fighting was reported in the area Saturday, suggesting efforts were stalled.

The other stronghold of Bani Walid, 150 miles (250 kilometers) east of Sirte, has proven even more difficult for the forces of the new regime. The fighters withdrew Friday after facing withering sniper fire and shelling from loyalist units.

The loyalists hold the strategic high ground along the ridges overlooking a desert valley called Wadi Zeitoun that divides the city between northern and southern sections. From there, they could bloody the fighters trying to move down through the northern half of the city and into the valley, which is irrigated with olive groves. The terrain has made the city a historical hold-out: In the early 20th century, Italian forces occupying Libya struggled to take Bani Walid.

“This may be the worst front Libya will see,” said fighter Osama Al-Fassi, who joined other former rebels gathered at a feed factory outside the city’s northern edge, where they drank coffee and took target practice at plastic bottles.

On Saturday evening, Gadhafi forces blasted fighters at the northern entrance with snipers and mortar fire, prompting the revolutionary forces to battle their way in once again in an unplanned advance, said Bilqassim el-Imami, one of the fighters. They made their way back to the edge of Wadi Zeitoun amid heavy fire with anti-aircraft machine guns.

A 50-year-old civil servant fleeing Bani Walild with his family, Ismail Mohammed, described the pro-Gadhafi forces as “too strong” inside Bani Walid and suggested a generational divide between young people strongly behind the uprising and older Libyans often more cautious about whether the revolutionary forces can bring stability.

“The youth wanted this revolution and sometimes you can’t control your own son,” he said.

In Libya’s southern desert, hundreds of revolutionary fighters were negotiating with villagers in the still pro-Gadhafi region to surrender peacefully. The fighters left the captured Bani Jalloud air base and rolled through villages where they reached truces. Along the route, crowds cheered their arrival and flashed V-for-victory signs. But in one village, Ayoun, they came under fire, prompting a heavy gunbattle in which one fighter was killed.

Col. Bashir Awidat said they seek to secure the surrounding hinterlands before moving against Sabha, the main southern urban center about 400 miles (650 kilometers) south of Tripoli. He said the villagers had been isolated and believed Gadhafi’s propaganda.

“They think that we’ll raid their houses and rob them. The media coverage here has been bad for 42 years and it has trained people to think a certain way, and that will take time to change,” he told The Associated Press at the captured air base.

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It slowly began to dawn on Esther and Bruce Huffman that perhaps they were being filmed.

“Warning,” the gray-haired, bespectacled grandmother reads off the screen. “You must stop recording before trying to close cyber link.”

Pause. “Maybe this recorded us,” says the neatly coiffed, rosy-cheeked man next to her.

“Aw, gee,” Esther replies.

The realization came toward the end of a nearly three-minute video that has launched the retired Oregon couple to YouTube stardom. They had unwittingly captured their first attempt at learning how to work the webcam on a new laptop.

The Huffmans met a couple of years after Bruce’s first wife died, at the retirement complex in which they both lived. She liked his vivacity; he thought she would be a sturdy rudder to his boundless energy.

In the video, she plays the straight man as she tries to make a serious attempt at the request of their children and grandchildren. He’s bouncing in his seat next to her, making monkey faces.

Esther had bought a laptop late this summer. Already a Facebook user, she was asked by her family to try recording videos for the amusement of the grandchildren.

In mid-August, the couple sat in front of their laptop, fiddling with the controls of a video recording program. Somehow, they got the program running. Somehow, they pressed “record.”

It was filming as Bruce jokingly fretted about his appearance. “I’m so sad, Esther, I’m so sad,” Bruce says with a sad-clown expression. “Look at all the wrinkles up there and the cracks in my head.”

There is singing.

“Hello my darling, hello my baby, hello my ga-doh-go,” Bruce intones, sliding from Looney Tunes into gibberish. “Lala-te-ki-ka.”

Bruce makes faces, leaning close to the laptop screen and blowing out his cheeks: “Now look at the monkey. That’s a pretty good monkey!”

When the couple realizes the webcam might have been recording their antics, they stiffen. But their 21-year-old granddaughter, Mindy, saw the video’s potential. With their permission, she uploaded the file, dubbing it “Webcam 101 for Seniors.” By Thursday, it was nearing 3 million views on YouTube.

In the crush of media that has descended on them, the Huffmans struggle to explain what made the video so compelling. After all, it was just a couple minutes of two Oregonians in a retirement community doing … well, not much.

Perhaps, Esther said, people were attracted to its joy. We’re under such a negative news barrage daily, she said. War, crime, natural disasters _ wouldn’t people rather watch an 86-year-old man singing Looney Tunes?

Lynette Paulson, Esther’s daughter, ventured that the unmitigated happiness in the video resonates with viewers.

“They want to see that joy,” Paulson said. “It just brings you up.”

Or maybe, said 27-year-old grandson Luke Erickson, it shows the possibility that age doesn’t mean infirmness or discontent, but that two spectacularly unself-conscious people eight decades on are capable of happiness and supporting and loving each other.

“I don’t know how to do this,” Esther complains in the video.

Bruce leans in to her.

“Whatever you do,” he says, “you do fine.”

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