My finance view

Finance ministers from the 17 euro countries agreed Friday to pay Greece its next batch of bailout loans, avoiding a potentially disastrous default, and moved closer to reducing the country’s massive debt burden.

But Greece’s debts are only one piece of Europe’s economic puzzle. The ministers meeting in Brussels were also struggling with two more complicated _ and arguably more important _ issues: boosting the firepower of the eurozone’s euro440 billion ($607 billion) bailout fund to keep the crisis from spreading and forcing weak banks to increase their capital buffers as a defense against market turmoil.

A European Union official said ministers had made progress on strengthening the banks, and that a plan should be ready for a summit of EU leaders Sunday. He spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential negotiations.

However, more work remained to be done on Greece and the bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Facility. Decisions on those two fronts were not expected until a second summit on Wednesday.

Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos welcomed the news that Athens would get the next euro8 billion ($11 billion) installment, calling it a “positive step.” A day earlier, Greek lawmakers had approved new, deeply contentious austerity measures to get the money.

The loans, which still need the approval of the International Monetary Fund, should be delivered during the first half of November. The money will keep Greece afloat for a little longer, but most economists agree that the country also needs a substantial cut to its debt load.

The findings of a report from Greece’s international debt inspectors piled more pressure on European finance chiefs to find a solution for the country, whose troubles kicked off the crisis almost two years ago.

According to the report, Athens won’t be able to raise money on financial markets until 2021 unless it is allowed to write off more of its debt load. If that doesn’t happen, the country would need hundreds of billions of euros in new bailout loans.

A person familiar with the report said a tentative deal reached with banks in July to give Greece easier terms on its bonds would still leave it with a huge debt load of 152 percent of economic output in 2020. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the report is confidential.

Germany is pushing for a revision of the July deal to have Greece’s private creditors take bigger losses of 50 percent to 60 percent and reduce its debt to some 120 percent of GDP by 2020.

The EU official said ministers had moved closer to Germany’s position on steeper cuts to Greece’s debt, but some financially weaker countries were still worried that could destabilize their markets and push their borrowing rates higher. “I wouldn’t say there’s a consensus but something close to that,” he said.

The eurozone needs to find a way to ensure that larger countries like Spain and Italy don’t get engulfed in the debt crisis, as they would be too expensive to bail out.

Increasing the firepower of the bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Facility, is meant to offer that protection, but Germany and France still disagree over how to do that.

Ministers failed to make much progress on that front Friday night and broke up the meeting shortly after starting discussions on the EFSF.

A German official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that a combination of two options had crystallized as the most likely solution to giving the fund more leverage.

The first would involve the bailout fund acting as an insurer for bond issues from wobbly countries like Italy. That would essentially compensate investors against a first round of potential losses and keep governments’ borrowing costs in check.

In addition, the International Monetary Fund _ which has already provided about a third of the bailout cash for Greece, Ireland and Portugal _ would supply other stragglers with precautionary credit lines to make sure they have ready access to cheap money.

Last weekend, at a meeting in Paris, the finance chiefs from the Group of 20 leading economies opened the door for a larger role by the IMF, but only if the eurozone first does its part.

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Young Innovations Inc. raised profits in the third quarter despite sales that were little changed.The Earth City-based developer and maker of dental equipment reported a net income of $4.1 million, or 51 cents a share, compared to $3 Internet Payday loans.9 million, or 49 cents, a year ago. Sales edged down 0.9 percent to $26.2 million.

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With NATO warplanes circling overhead, revolutionary fighters battled block by block Saturday as snipers rained fire from rooftops in fierce street fighting in Moammar Gadhafi’s hometown _ the most important remaining bastion of support for the fugitive leader.

The battle for Sirte is crucial because Libya’s new leaders have promised to declare liberation after it is captured even though fighting continues elsewhere and Gadhafi remains on the run. That will allow them to move forward with setting a timeline for elections and establishing normalcy in the oil-rich North African nation.

Revolutionary forces launched a major attack on Friday, pushing into the Mediterranean coastal city from the west, east and south after a three week siege from the outskirts in which they said they were giving civilians time to flee.

Gadhafi forces also remain entrenched in the central city of Bani Walid, but the transitional leaders say they will declare liberation without it because Sirte’s fall will give them control over all seaports and harbors.

British Defense Secretary Liam Fox pledged to keep up NATO airstrikes even after Sirte’s fall, saying the international military action would continue as long as the remnants of the regime pose a risk to the people of Libya.

“We have a message for those who are still fighting for Gadhafi that the game is over, you have been rejected by the people of Libya,” he told reporters Saturday in Tripoli.

Anti-Gadhafi forces met strong resistance as they pushed to within less than half a mile (kilometer) from loyalist fighters dug in around Sirte’s Ouagadougou convention center and Green Square in fierce street fighting in the heart of the city.

Libya’s de facto leader, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, the head of the governing National Transitional Council, said the battle has been “ferocious,” with 15 revolutionary fighters killed and 180 wounded on Friday low interest rate personal loans.

“Our fighters today are still dealing with the snipers positioned on the high buildings and we sustained heavy casualties,” he said at a joint news conference in Tripoli with Fox and Italian Defense Secretary Ignazio La Russa.

Suleiman Ali, commander for revolutionary forces, said loyalist forces have been driven away from Ibn Sina Hospital where hundreds of civilians have sought refuge from the fighting.

A military spokesman in Tripoli, Abdel-Rahman Busin, said he expected the city to be declared free in the next 24 hours.

“They’ve pretty much taken the city and it’s just a few pockets of resistance,” he said, adding snipers were still posing a major threat.

NATO warplanes flew overhead but no strikes were immediately reported.

Abdul-Jalil called on the international community to help Libyans treat the wounded, saying they could deduct the cost from Libyan assets that were frozen under Gadhafi’s regime.

Sirte, 250 miles (400 kilometers) southeast of Tripoli, is key to the physical unity of the nation of some 6 million people, since it lies roughly in the center of the coastal plain where most Libyans live, blocking the easiest routes between east and west.

The international community has rallied around Libya’s efforts to move forward with forming a new government, with transitional leaders promising elections within eight months after liberation is declared.

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Forecasters say Ophelia has weakened from a hurricane to a tropical storm as it races toward the Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland, Canada.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said early Monday that Ophelia was lowered from a Category 1 storm, as its top sustained winds weakened to about 70 mph (110 kph). The storm was moving northeast at 43 mph (69 kph).

Ophelia was centered about 55 miles (85 kilometers) west-southwest of Cape Race, Newfoundland, and a tropical storm watch was in effect for Newfoundland’s Avalon Peninsula. The center says Ophelia is expected to continue to weaken, but still pack powerful winds.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Philippe was moving over the central Atlantic and is not expected to affect land.

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ST. LOUIS 

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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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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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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Companies paid the same amount for wholesale goods last month as a drop in energy prices offset higher food costs.

Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core wholesale prices edged up 0.1 percent, the smallest increase in three months. The figures indicate that inflation pressures are easing.

The Labor Department says the Producer Price Index, which measures price changes before they reach the consumer, was unchanged in August, after a 0.2 percent rise in July.

In the past 12 months, the index has increased 6.5 percent, mostly due to higher gas and food costs. That’s the smallest 12-month rise since March, though much bigger than the annual changes late last year.

Core prices rose 2.5 percent in the past 12 months, the same pace as July.

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The first names to go were hot, free, live and sexy. Porn.xxx is still up for grabs.

The brainchild of Toronto entrepreneur Jason Hendeles, the domain suffix .xxx has been approved by the U.S. based organization that oversees web addresses. Names are going fast.

Frank Schilling, a Canadian who operates out of the Cayman Islands, bought 25 names for $1.7-million, including sexe.xxx to capture the French market, and sexo.xxx to accommodate Spanish-speaking porn-seekers.