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Gas prices unexpectedly rose more than 30 percent for the new year in Myanmar and sparked fears of other goods costing more as well.

Motorists learned of the increase at the pump Sunday when prices increased from 2,500 kyat (3.15 dollars) to 3,350 kyat (4.2 dollars) per Imperial gallon (4.5 liters).

The government made no announcement. But with the fuel price hike, and a new 40 percent electricity cost increase announced late last year, people are concerned about inflation of consumer goods, too.

Myanmar’s energy production is not enough to meet domestic demand, and it imports petrol and other fuels. The government subsidizes gas prices and rations it to two Imperial gallons (9 liters) a day.

An unannounced price hike in 2007 sparked anti-government protests that led to the “saffron rebellion.” The military government then in power crushed it, leaving at least 15 dead and thousands arrested.

The nominally civilian government that took power early last year has made political changes that have improved its relationship with citizens.

(This version CORRECTS Corrects conversion of Imperial gallon to liter, from 4.2 to 4.5. This story is part of AP’s general news and financial services.)

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Senate defeat of competing Democratic and Republican plans to extend a cut in the Social Security payroll tax has punted the issue to the House, where GOP leaders are facing ideological divisions within the party over whether to pass the tax holiday.

The focus is on the GOP-controlled House after Senate votes Thursday exposed wide reluctance by Republicans to go along with the costly proposal _ a centerpiece of President Barack Obama’s jobs agenda.

As expected, Senate Republicans defeated Obama’s plan to extend the payroll tax cut through the end of next year while also making it more generous for workers.

But in a vote that exposed rare divisions among Senate Republicans, more than two dozen of the GOP’s 47 lawmakers also voted to kill an alternative plan backed by their leader, Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to renew an existing 2 percentage point payroll tax cut.

A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Republicans weren’t planning on negotiating with Democrats before unveiling a payroll tax cut plan _ and the spending cuts to pay for it _ next week. But the Senate vote would seem to indicate that House Republicans will be hard-pressed to muscle a payroll tax cut through without Democratic support. And those votes could be hard to come by if the GOP plan contains spending cuts Democrats dislike.

Many Republicans and even some Democrats say the payroll tax cut hasn’t worked to boost jobs and is too costly with the deficit requiring the government to borrow 36 cents of every dollar it spends.

“I can’t find many people who even know that they’re getting it, OK?” said Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who opposed both plans. “So with that being said, we’re going to double down on something that we thought should have worked that didn’t work.”

Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., said after Thursday night’s vote that previous tax rebates “stimulated little and increased the debt a lot” and that it would be better to simply cut spending than turn around and use spending cuts on stimulus-style tax cuts.

The defeat of the competing Senate plans came as Boehner said for the first time that renewing the payroll tax cut would boost the lagging economy. Boehner also promised compromise on a renewal of long-term jobless benefits through the end of 2012.

The payroll tax cuts and unemployment benefits are at the center of a costly, politically-charged year-end agenda in which Democrats seem poised to prevail in renewing a tax cut that many Republicans back only reluctantly no faxing payday loans. But Republicans are insisting _ in a switch from last year _ that the payroll tax cut and jobless benefits be paid for by cutting spending.

Both parties are seeking the political high ground as next year’s elections loom, with Democrats accusing Republicans of siding with the rich, and Republicans countering that Democrats were taxing small business owners who create jobs.

The first payroll tax plan to fall was a Democratic measure that was at the heart of the jobs package Obama announced in September. It would cut the Social Security payroll tax from 6.2 percent to 3.1 percent next year and also extend the cut to employers, with its hefty $265 billion cost paid for by slapping a 3.25 percent surtax on income exceeding $1 million.

Republicans and a handful of Democrats combined to kill the measure on a 51-49 tally that fell well short of the 60 votes required under Senate rules. For the first time, a Republican, Susan Collins of Maine, voted to support the millionaires’ surcharge.

In a surprising result, Democrats and more than two dozen Republicans then voted 78-20 to kill the $120 billion GOP alternative that would have simply extended the existing 2 percentage point payroll tax cut, financed by freezing federal workers’ pay through 2015 and reducing the government bureaucracy.

Republicans offered a simple one-year continuation of the existing law, jettisoning Obama’s call to deepen the cut to 3.1 percentage point on workers’ first $106,800 in earnings, while expanding it to cut in half employers’ Social Security contributions for their $5 million in payroll.

To pay for the measure, Senate Republicans proposed freezing federal workers’ pay through 2015 _ extending a two-year-freeze recommended by Obama _ and reducing the bureaucracy by 200,000 jobs through attrition.

The Democratic plan would give a worker earning $50,000 a more than $1,500 tax cut; the GOP plan would provide a $1,000 tax cut for such an earner. A two-income family making $200,000 would reap a $6,000-plus tax cut under the Democratic plan and a $4,000 tax cut under the GOP version.

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Bank of America is selling most of its remaining shares in China Construction Bank, expecting an after-tax gain of about $1.8 billion.

It said Monday that about 10.4 billion shares will be sold through private transactions with a group of investors. Bank of America will hold about 1 percent of the Chinese company’s common shares after the transactions close.

Bank of America Corp., based in Charlotte, N.C., had owned about 10 percent of China Construction before it announced plans in late August to begin cutting its stake.

It’s the latest initiative by Bank of America to increase its capital base to comply with new international regulations governing large banks. The bank has taken several steps recently to sell non-core assets and businesses.

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From coast to coast and North to South, the Occupy Wall Street protest against corporate greed that started out with a few young people in a lower Manhattan park grew to vocal thousands with weekend rallies in about two dozen states and supporters joining in from Canada and overseas.

Tens of thousands nicknamed “the indignant” marched in cities across Europe on Saturday. Violence broke out in Rome and dozens were injured.

Marches in the United States remained largely nonconfrontational, although dozens of people were arrested in New York when police moved to contain overflowing crowds or keep them off private property. Two police officers in New York City were injured and had to be hospitalized.

In Times Square, thousands of demonstrators mixed with gawkers, Broadway showgoers, tourists and police to create a chaotic scene in the midst of Manhattan.

“Banks got bailed out, we got sold out!” protesters chanted from within police barricades. Police, some in riot gear and mounted on horses, tried to push them out of the square and onto the sidewalks in an attempt to funnel the crowds away.

Sandra Fox, 69, of Baton Rouge, La., stood, confused, on 46th Street with a ticket for “Anything Goes” in her hand as riot police pushed a knot of about 200 shouting protesters toward her.

“I think it’s horrible what they’re doing,” she said of the protesters. “These people need to go get jobs.”

The Times Square rally lasted several hours before the crowd dispersed. Over the course of what was billed as “a global day of protest,” city police arrested more than 80 people in demonstrations at Times Square, Washington Square Park and a nearby Citibank bank branch. Police cited violations such as wearing masks, criminal trespass, and refusing to leave the park at midnight when police warned them it was closed.

Police spokesman Paul Browne said one of the police officers hospitalized suffered a head injury, the other a foot injury. Two dozen were arrested when demonstrators entered the Citibank bank branch and refused to leave, police said.

Citibank said in a statement that police asked the branch to close until the protesters could be taken away. “One person asked to close an account and was accommodated,” Citibank said.

Earlier in the day, as many as 1,000 demonstrators paraded to a Chase bank branch, banging drums, blowing horns and carrying signs decrying corporate greed. A few protesters went inside the bank to close their accounts, but the group didn’t stop other customers from getting inside or seek to blockade the business.

Lily Paulina of Brooklyn said she was taking her money out because she was upset that JPMorgan Chase was making billions, while its customers struggled with bank fees and home foreclosures.

“Chase bank is making tons of money off of everyone … while people in the working class are fighting just to keep a living wage in their neighborhood,” the 29-year-old United Auto Workers organizer said.

Police told the marchers to stay on the sidewalk, and the demonstration seemed fairly orderly as it wound through downtown streets.

Sergio Jimenez, 25, said he quit his job in Texas to come to New York to protest. He participated in an anti-war march to mark the 10th anniversary of the Afghanistan War.

“These wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were all based on lies,” Jimenez said. “And if we’re such an intelligent country, we should figure out other ways to respond to terror, instead of with terror.”

Throughout the country _ from about 50 people in Jackson, Miss., to some 2,000 in Pittsburgh _ the protest gained momentum.

Nearly 1,500 protesters gathered for a march past banks in downtown Orlando, Fla. Hundreds marched on a Key Bank branch in Anchorage, and declared it be foreclosed. In Colorado, about 1,000 people rallied in downtown Denver to support Occupy Wall Street. Nearly 200 people spent a cold night in tents in Grand Circus Park in Detroit, donning gloves, scarves and heavy coats to keep warm. Helen Stockton, a 34-year-old certified midwife from Ypsilanti, said they planned to remain there “as long as it takes to effect change.”

“It’s easy to ignore us,” Stockton said. Then she referred to the financial institutions, saying, “But we are not going to ignore them. Every shiver in our bones reminds us of why we are here.”

Hundreds more converged near the Michigan’s Capitol in Lansing with the same message, the Lansing State Journal reported.

Rallies drew young and old, laborers and retirees. In Pittsburgh, marchers included parents with children in strollers. The peaceful crowd stretched for two or three blocks.

“I see our members losing jobs. People are angry,” said Janet Hill, 49, who works for the United Steelworkers, which she said hosted a sign-making event before the march.

Retired teacher Albert Siemsen said at a demonstration in Milwaukee that he’d grown angry watching school funding get cut at the same time banks and corporations gained more influence in government. The 81-year-old wants to see tighter Wall Street regulation.

Around him, protesters held signs reading: “Keep your corporate hands off my government,” and “Mr. Obama, Tear Down That Wall Street.”

In Massachusetts, Gov. Deval Patrick visited protesters in Boston’s Dewey Square for the first time. He said after walking through the camp that he better understands the range of views and was sympathetic to concerns about unemployment, health care and the influence of money in politics.

The Rev. Al Sharpton led a march in Washington that was not affiliated with the Occupy movement but shared similar goals. His rally was aimed at drumming up support for President Barack Obama’s jobs plan. Thousands of demonstrators packed the lawn in the shadow of the Washington Monument to hear labor, education and civil rights leaders speak.

Hundreds protested in the heart of Toronto’s financial district. Some announced plans to camp out indefinitely in St. James Park. Protests were also held in other cities across Canada from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Vancouver, British Columbia.

Overseas, tens of thousands nicknamed “the indignant” marched in cities across Europe, as the protests that began in New York linked up with long-running demonstrations against government cost-cutting and failed financial policies in Europe. Protesters also turned out in Australia and Asia.

In the violence that broke out in Rome, police fired tear gas and water cannons at the protesters who broke away from the main demonstration, smashing shop and bank windows, torching cars and hurling bottles.

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The details of a competing proposal for an outlet mall in Chesterfield were unveiled this morning.

Standing before a rendering of the proposed “Spirit of St. Louis Outlets,” the backers of the plan said the mall would be an $85 million, 555,000 square foot development on the south side of Highway 40, just east of the Daniel Boone Bridge.

They plan to submit plans to Chesterfield in December and hope to break ground by next summer with an opening date planned for the fall of 2013.

But the development is not yet a sure thing. After all, there is a competing proposal by Michigan-based Taubman Centers, which has formed a joint venture with Outlet Partners, to build an open-air, 500,000 square foot center along the North Outer 40 Drive, just east of Boone’s Crossing.

Stephen Coslik, chief executive of Texas-based Woodmont Outlets which is behind the Spirit of St. Louis proposal, said they should know in the next six months which project will actually be developed.

“At the end of the day, you’ll have one outlet mall,” he said.

The backers of the Spirit St. Louis project said they think their proposal is more attractive because it is large enough to have a racetrack sort of mall layout, has good visibility from the interstate, and is far enough from Chesterfield Mall (about 6 miles) that it would not siphon off sales from the other mall.

They also noted that the land they plan to build on has already been zoned for commercial use. The other project goes before Chesterfield’s planning commission next week to get approval for a zoning change for its proposed development.

One of the other keys will be which project gets the most desirable retailers to come on board. Neither project has yet announced any retailers who have committed to their project.

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Retailers just got an early Christmas gift: Americans are expected to spend more than they did last year during the holidays.

Retail sales in November and December are expected to be up 3 percent during what is traditionally the biggest shopping period of the year, according to research firm ShopperTrak said Tuesday.

The sales predication, which matches the outlook from the International Council of Shopping Centers on Friday, would be below last year’s 4.1 percent spike _ and the 5-plus percent gains during boom economic times. But it’s still above the 2.6 percent average gain over the last 10 years and is considered respectable growth given the down economy.

“Clearly, consumers will remain surgical in their spending,” said Bill Martin, ShopperTrak, co-founder. “But the Christmas season should still be quite satisfactory.”

The industry is still waiting for a widely-watched forecast on Oct. 6 from the National Retail Federation, the nation’s largest retail trade group. But the ShopperTrak and ICSC predictions are the first look at how retailers might fare during the shopping period that can account for up to 40 percent of merchants’ annual revenue. Retailers are worried that many Americans are saddled by concerns about their jobs, the stock market and the overall U.S. economy, which could lead to them cutting back on holiday shopping.

So far, consumers still are spending on necessities, as shown during the critical back-to-school spending, the second-biggest shopping period of the year. However, they’re expected to continue to shop for bargains, a buying habit many picked up during the recession.

Customers also are expected to do more research online before they head to stores _ and browse less when they are in stores. As a result, customer traffic in the store is expected to be down 2.2 percent, according to ShopperTrak, which measures foot traffic in 25,000 stores in the U.S. and blends those figures with economic data.

“Every shopper in a store will be more valuable than last year, and retail stores should be ready to convert their holiday shoppers into sales,” said Martin.

When consumers do head out to the stores for the holidays, the divide that’s been seen this year between luxury purchases and bargain shopping is expected to continue.

ShopperTrak says specialty shops that sell low-end clothing and accessories may feel the need to cut prices to compete with discount chains, but that upscale stores will likely be able to cash in on consumers looking for goods they feel will hold up over long-term use.

The retail analyst expects clothing and accessories sales to rise 2.7 percent over the holidays, but for its traffic to dip 1.1 percent compared with a year ago.

Electronics and appliance sales are expected to rise 1.2 percent from the previous year, but traffic is predicted to fall 4.9 percent. ShopperTrak says the category will likely be hurt as consumers do comparison shopping and then buy online as well as the lack of any “hot” holiday product that will draw in more shoppers. The demise of many of the nation’s consumer electronics chains, such as Circuit City, has also left consumers with fewer places to shop.

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With the snack aisle already full of household names such as Lay’s, Chex Mix and Planters, Howie Sher knew he needed a catchy name for his new product that would help it stand out in the crowd.

So the former Metro East grocer came up with a zinger: “What-A-Ya-Nuts?!”

“I know there’s that emotional pull from the tried and true brands,” said Sher, 43, who recently launched the Clayton-based company. “So if I’m going to create a new brand, I need to grab their attention.”

So far, he has grabbed the attention of Schnucks and Straub’s as well as number of mom-and-pop shops such as Kohn’s Kosher Market in Creve Coeur that have begun carrying his nut cluster snack. His product had a soft launch last month and is now in about 100 locations, mostly in the St. Louis region. .

This week, he’s kicking off a sponsorship with Fox Sports Midwest to have a “What-A-Ya-Nuts Wednesday headlines” on its website, which will feature quirky sports stories. And he’ll be handing out lots of samples at areas stores in the coming weeks.

So what exactly is What-A-Ya-Nuts?

“We’re making like a nut-ola,” he said payday loans. “It’s almost like a granola of nuts.”

What-A-Ya-Nuts are clusters of almonds, pecans and sunflower seeds, with no added preservatives. The suggested retail price is $4.99 for a 4-ounce package.

They come in four flavors that have their own fun and zany names: “jalapeno hysteria,” “maple cinnamon madness,” ’stark raving chocolate” and “cracked Parmesan pepper.”

“We want people to think we’re a little nutty,” Sher said, “because life is too serious.”

Like with any new product, Sher faces some hurdles in getting consumers to make room in their shopping carts for his nuts.

Haim Mano, chair of the University of Missouri-St. Louis’ marketing department, said it can be difficult to get consumers to try a new product from a company with no record.

“If Pringles came up with a new kind of Pringles, it would be easy for them because people know what Pringles is,” he said.

But for these unknown items, companies have to go out of their way to provide samples and freebies

British police made their 13th arrest Thursday in the country’s tabloid phone hacking scandal, and a private investigator at the center of the crisis sued Rupert Murdoch’s media empire for breach of contract.

Britain’s phone hacking scandal _ where journalists broke into the voice mails of royals, movie stars, top athletes, politicians and even teenage murder victims _ has shaken Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. and forced the resignations of top people in Britain’s government, police and media. It also prompted Murdoch to shut down the 168-year-old U.K. tabloid, News of the World.

Police confirmed a 38-year-old man, who they declined to name, was arrested at a London police station after arriving voluntarily Thursday. He was later released on bail.

Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported the suspect was James Desborough, formerly the Los Angeles-based U.S. editor for the News of the World and the 2009 winner of the British Press Award for show business reporter of the year. The newspaper claimed his arrest was related to activities that took place before he moved to the United States in 2009.

Both London police and News International, the British division of Murdoch’s News Corp. empire that owned the tabloid, declined to confirm that Desborough was the suspect being questioned.

“We are fully cooperating with the police investigation and we are unable to comment further on matters due to ongoing police investigations,” News International said.

However, News International confirmed it has been sued by private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, who was jailed in 2007 along with a reporter at the News of the World for hacking into the voicemail messages of royal staff.

Last month, News Corp. stopped making legal payments to Mulcaire, a day after Murdoch told lawmakers in a special parliamentary hearing that he would try to find a way to stop the payments.

News International spokeswoman Daisy Dunlop confirmed the Mulcaire lawsuit on Thursday but declined to comment further. A person familiar with the case said it alleged a breach of contract in respect to Mulcaire’s legal costs.

In a separate development, lawyers for British television actress Leslie Ash and former soccer player Lee Chapman confirmed they had resolved their legal action against the News of The World.

The tabloid’s parent company had “agreed to pay our family an appropriate sum by way of compensation and costs and it has apologized for the harm and distress it has caused us,” the couple said in a statement.

But they indicated they now plan to sue other British newspapers over allegations that their phone messages _ and those of their children _ may have been illegally accessed.

“We remain concerned that the practices complained of against NGN (News Group Newspapers) are likely to have been prevalent within a number of other media publishers, and we will be instructing our lawyer … to take action against other newspapers,” they said.

Ash and Chapman had been the subject of frequent tabloid stories after the actress suffered health problems and won a then-record 5 million pounds ($8.25 million) compensation payment from a London hospital after contracting an infection during treatment there.

The couple believe their messages were intercepted in 2004 while Ash was recovering in the hospital.

News International said it would not comment on the settlement.

The disclosure this week of new documents in the phone hacking case has piled the pressure on Murdoch’s media empire.

Correspondence published Tuesday by British lawmakers investigating the scandal suggested that one of his closest executives was warned more than four years ago that phone hacking was endemic at the News of the World. The company had previously insisted the practice was not widespread.

The charges were made in a 2007 letter written by Clive Goodman, a former journalist with the now-defunct tabloid whose jailing in 2007 on phone hacking charges first brought the practice into the spotlight.

Then-News International Ltd. Executive Chairman Les Hinton had fired Goodman as a result of his conviction. In his response, Goodman insisted that his activities had been carried out with the support of other members of staff and alleged that phone hacking had been routinely discussed at the paper.

However, in a 2007 appearance before the House of Commons media committee, Hinton assured parliamentarians that no one else at the paper had been engaged in phone hacking.

Hinton, who worked for Murdoch for more than five decades, announced his resignation July 15 as publisher of The Wall Street Journal. He is News Corp.’s first U.S. executive to lose his job in the phone hacking scandal.

Hinton was appointed earlier this year to The Associated Press board of directors. AP spokesman Paul Colford says Hinton has not attended any AP board meetings but has not offered his resignation.

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For 35 years, Toronto singer-songwriter Dan Hill tolerated that other people owned the master recordings and song copyrights for many of his greatest hits.

Now he can claim them back.

Under an obscure clause in U.S. copyright law, he has a shot at regaining ownership from record labels and publishing companies