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Laclede Group Inc. posted a wider fiscal fourth-quarter loss on weaker results from its Missouri natural gas utility.

The net loss for the three months ended Sept. 30 was $2.8 million, or 13 cents a share, compared with a loss of $1.6 million, or 7 cents a share, for the same period last year, the St. Louis-based company said in a statement.

Laclede Gas, the utility that sells natural gas to 630,000 customers in St. Louis and surrounding Missouri counties, recorded a $5.4 million loss compared with $4.8 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2010. The utility typically has a loss for the summer quarter when natural gas demand is weakest.

Meanwhile, the company’s wholesale gas marketing unit, Laclede Energy Resources, saw profit rise to $3.2 million from $3 million.

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A top bank lobbyist insisted Saturday that banks and the eurozone are far from reaching a deal to cut Greece’s debt, despite claims by eurozone finance ministers that they will ask banks to take steeper losses on their Greek bonds.

Although the ministers did not say how much of a cut they are aiming for, a report from Greece’s international debt inspectors suggested that the value of Greece’s bonds may have to be slashed as much as 60 percent to get the country solvent enough to repay its debt.

The ministers on Saturday sent their chief negotiator, Vittorio Grilli, to start discussions with banks and other private investors on a new deal for Greece.

However, Charles Dallara, the managing director of the Institute of International Finance, which has been leading the negotiations, said in an interview with The Associated Press that an agreement remained elusive.

“We’re nowhere near a deal,” he said.

Banks in July agreed to accept 21 percent losses on their Greek bonds. However, eurozone leaders have since reopened the deal and Greece’s international debt inspectors _ the so-called troika of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund _ have said that Greece’s economic situation has deteriorated dramatically since the summer.

They said that under the July deal, Greece would need an extra euro252 billion ($347 billion) in loans from the eurozone and the IMF _ on top of the euro110 billion ($152 billion) it has been relying on to pay bills since May 2010.

But Dallara said new plans to slash Greece debt would still leave the country as “a ward of Europe” for years.

He declined to say how much in losses banks would be willing to accept, saying only “we would be open to an approach that involves additional efforts from everyone payday loan no faxing.”

Dallara was in Brussels, where eurozone finance ministers have been meeting for two days of talks.

Earlier Saturday, an EU official said EU finance ministers neared agreement on forcing banks to raise just over euro100 billion ($140 billion) to ensure they have enough cushion to weather further losses on their Greek bonds as well as market turmoil.

Strengthening banks and slashing Greece’s debts are critical to solving Europe’s crisis, which is now threatening to engulf larger economies like Italy and Spain and is blamed for dampening growth across Europe and even the world.

“The crisis in the eurozone is doing real damage to many of the European economies, including Britain,” George Osborne, Britain’s chancellor of the exchequer, said as he headed into Saturday’s meeting. “We have had enough of short-term measures, sticking plasters that get us through the next few weeks.”

The European official said EU leaders meeting Sunday should sign off on forcing the continent’s biggest banks to raise just over euro100 billion in capital. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions between ministers were still ongoing.

The figure is likely to disappoint some analysts. A report by the International Monetary Fund has called for up to euro200 billion ($280 billion) to be poured into banks.

The new rules would force systemically important banks to raise their core capital ratios to 9 percent, compared with just 5 percent to 6 percent they needed to pass EU stress tests this summer. The ratio measures the amount of capital banks hold compared to their risky assets.

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The launch of the iPhone 4S was executed at the Toronto Eaton centre with usual military precision and near-religious fervour. Already, some products are sold out.

On Friday morning the store front was a sort of shrine, decorated with flowers and multicoloured post-it notes bearing messages for the late leader, Steve Jobs.

“Thanks for my Christmas gifts,” wrote Ashley. “Thank you Steve Jobs you are in the iClouds now,” wrote another.

“iSad,” said someone else.

More: Five reasons to avoid the new iPhone 4S

More: Apple co-founder Wozniak first in line for new iPhone

More: Glitches raise ire of iPad, iPhone users

The line began Thursday. Mo Bastaki, a 22-year-old accountant, arrived around 6 p.m. This launch is special, says Bastaki, “It’s the last product Steve was alive for.”

But Bastaki, along with some hundred other people, was thrown out of the centre into the rain at 2 a.m.

When they were let back in three hours later, it was a Lord of the Flies affair payday loans. “All these guys who weren’t in line, got in line,” he says.

For some, the exercise is a cultural one. “We come here to feel the environment,” says Xianwen Zhang, a 22-year-old Chinese student from Zhejiang studying with his friends at Humber College, “This does not happen in China.”

It’s a business opportunity for others. One American woman (who wished to stay anonymous) is buying 16 phones for her Russian friends, who pay her to fly back and deliver the goods. “I get to see my brother and friends,” she says.

At six in the morning, blue-shirted Apple employees gave out white tickets, embossed with a perfect silver Apple on top. A ticket equals one phone.

In under two hours, the 32 g white phone had sold out. “If you were thinking white,” said Apple employee Brandon R to people at the end of the line, “maybe think black.”

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Greece’s international debt inspectors have completed their review of the government’s reforms, saying Tuesday that if their conclusions are adopted by the eurozone and IMF, Athens is likely to receive the next batch of its bailout loans in early November.

The inspectors from the International Monetary Fund, European Commission and European Central Bank, collectively known as the troika, said Greece’s deficit targets for 2011 were “no longer within reach,” but that additional measures announced were adequate for 2012.

They said additional measures would likely be needed for 2013-2014, and that they should “focus on the expenditure side.”

Greek authorities “continue to make important progress, notably with regard to fiscal consolidation,” the troika said in a joint statement.

“To ensure a further reduction in the deficit in a socially acceptable manner and to set the stage for a recovery to take hold, it is essential that the authorities put more emphasis on structural reforms in the public sector and the economy more broadly.”

Greece has been dependent since May last year on a euro110 billion ($150 billion) bailout package from other eurozone countries and the IMF. Without the next euro8 billion loan installment, the country has said it would run out of funds to pay salaries and pensions in mid-November.

Mired in a recession that is deeper than originally expected, Greece’s economy is now only expected to recover from 2013 onwards, the troika said.

“There is no evidence yet of improvement in investor sentiment and the related increase in investments, in part because the reform momentum has not gained the critical mass necessary to begin transforming the investment climate,” it said free credit report and score. It noted, however, that exports were rebounding.

The debt inspectors said the Greek government had achieved a “major reduction” in the deficit despite the recession. However, it said, “the achievement of the fiscal target for 2011 is no longer within reach, partly because of a further drop in GDP, but also because of slippages in the implementation of some of the agreed measures.”

Additional measures the government recently announced _ which include extra taxes and suspending about 30,000 civil servants on partial pay _ “should be sufficient to bring the fiscal program back on track and ensure that the deficit target of euro14.9 billion will be met.”

The troika said that delays in the country’s privatization effort combined with worse market conditions would lead to “significantly lower” revenue than expected this year, but that the government was still committed to raising euro35 billion through privatizations by the end of 2014.

“Ensuring that the privatisation fund remains independent from political pressures remains key for success in this area,” it said.

Once the other eurozone countries and the board of the IMF approve the troika’s review, “the next tranche of euro8 billion … will become available, most likely, in early November.”

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Ameren Corp. says stricter clean air rules that take effect next year are forcing it to shutter two of its oldest Illinois power plants by the year’s end and eliminate 90 jobs.

The 70-year-old plants at Meredosia and Hutsonville, Ill., have run sporadically over the past few years because they are the least efficient in the company’s fleet and don’t produce electricity cheap enough to sell in a weak power market.

Ameren said new regulations finalized by the Environmental Protection Agency this summer were the primary reason it was choosing to permanently mothball them. The rules require steep cuts in power plant emissions that contribute to ozone and fine particle pollution. To a lesser extent, the company said, it’s hamstrung by the regional grid operator’s rules that prevent it from selling the plant’s generating capacity more than a year in advance.

“We cannot continue to economically operate these units,” Steven R. Sullivan, head of Ameren Energy Resources Co., said in a statement. “Numerous options to bring these units into compliance were explored, including installing additional environmental controls, but the costs were just too high to be justified.”

Utilities across the country have announced the closure of dozens of older coal-fired power plants in recent weeks, frequently blaming EPA regulations Payday Loan for Bad Credit. The closures and related job losses have become political fodder for conservative lawmakers who assert that the regulatory agenda by the administration of President Barack Obama is damaging an already feeble economy.

Environmental and public health advocacy groups reject the argument.

“It’s wildly disingenuous,” said Henry Henderson, who heads the Natural Resources Defense Counsel’s Chicago office. “There is a design life to engineered equipment, and these old plants are past their design life.”

The older coal plants being shut down around the country are the dirtiest and most responsible for poor air quality and respiratory disease linked to thousands of premature deaths, he said. Also, lost generation capacity is being replaced by new renewable energy sources and energy efficiency projects, which are creating new jobs.

Ameren’s Meredosia plant, about an hour west of Springfield, dates to the 1940s.

The plant began generating electricity in 1948, and additional generating capacity was installed incrementally until the mid-1970s.

Ameren has already closed two of Meredosia’s four units. One of the units runs on coal, the other on fuel oil. Together they can generate 369 megawatts

Al-Qaida’s branch remains a powerful threat in this deeply unstable nation, even after a U.S. drone strike that eliminated three of its key figures. Its military leadership remains intact and is only growing stronger amid months of political turmoil tearing Yemen apart.

As the president struggles to keep power, Islamic militants have taken advantage of the government’s crumbling control to take over several cities in the south, raising the danger they can establish a permanent stronghold. On Saturday, militants holding Zinjibar, a southern provincial capital, battled government forces in fighting that killed at least 28 soldiers and militants.

Yemen is considered a crucial battleground with the terror network. The impoverished nation on the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula is on the doorstep of Saudi Arabia and the oil-producing nations of the Gulf and lies on strategic sea routes leading to the Suez Canal. But order has crumbled as President Ali Abdullah Saleh faces more than seven months of protests demanding an end to his 33-year authoritarian rule, and his loyalists have battled with military units and tribal fighters who sided with the opposition.

Ironically, the turmoil appears in one way to have been a boost to U.S. efforts to fight al-Qaida in Yemen, considered the terror network’s most active and dangerous branch.

Saleh seems to have sought to cling to power by making himself more valuable to Washington, which has pressed him to retire and allow a stable transition. In recent months, Saleh _long criticized as unreliable in his fight against al-Qaida _ has given U.S. counterterrorism units a far freer hand to act in his country, U.S. and Yemeni officials say.

Top U.S. counterterrorism adviser John Brennan has said the Yemenis have been more willing to share information about the location of al-Qaida targets. Yemeni security officials say the U.S. was conducting multiple airstrikes a day in the south since May and that U.S. officials were finally allowed to interrogate al-Qaida suspects, something Saleh had long resisted. The officials spokes on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence issues.

The cooperation was key to hunting down Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-Yemeni cleric who was killed in Friday’s strike by U.S. drones in a desert stretch of central Yemen. Killed with him was Samir Khan, a Pakistani-American who was a propagandist for the group, producing its English-language Web magazine, Inspire.

Also believed to have died in the blast is the top bombmaker for al-Qaida in Yemen _ Ibrahim al-Asiri. The 29-year-old Saudi designed the explosives used in the group’s most notorious plots, including the Christmas 2009 failed attempt to blow up a jetliner headed to Detroit and an intercepted pair of explosives-laden printers that were mailed from Yemen to the United States in 2010.

Late Friday, two U.S. officials said intelligence indicated al-Asiri was among those killed in the strike. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because al-Asiri’s death has not officially been confirmed.

Their deaths would strike a heavy blow to the international reach of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, as the group is called, since al-Awlaki was a valuable recruiter of Muslims abroad to carry out attacks and al-Asiri was an experienced constructor of explosives for such attacks.

But the strike “doesn’t change the dangerous dynamic. The big picture is that the country is falling apart,” says Christopher Boucek, a scholar who studies Yemen and al-Qaida. “Saleh is pushing it into civil war by refusing to step down … creating the chaos that al-Qaida will thrive in.”

Still at large are crucial figures in the group, including its leader Nasser al-Wahishi, a Yemeni who once served as Osama bin Laden’s personal aide in Afghanistan. He fled to Iran after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, and Tehran handed him over to Yemen, where he was jailed.

But in 2006, he broke out of a Sanaa prison along with nearly two dozen other al-Qaida militants in an escape U.S. officials have said had help from supporters within the regime.

He then founded al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, incorporating remnants of the Saudi branch of the terror network that had been crushed by a crackdown in the kingdom in the mid-2000s, and launched a campaign to overthrow Saleh.

Alongside him is Qassim al-Raimi, the group’s military commander who Yemeni officials believe masterminded the Christmas airliner and the package bomb plots, and deputy leader Saeed al-Shihri, a Saudi who fought in Afghanistan and spent six years in the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, before being released and going through Saudi Arabia’s famous “rehabilitation” institutes.

Also still at large is Fahd al-Quso, a Yemeni who was also close to bin Laden and has been indicted in the United States for a role in organizing the 1998 suicide bombing of the USS Cole off the coast of Yemen’s southern port of Aden, which killed 17 sailors and injured 39 others. Al-Quso is also believed to have helped prepare the young Nigerian accused of carrying out the attempted 2009 airline bombing.

Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula is estimated to have several hundred fighters hiding in mountainous provinces, sheltered by sympathetic tribes disillusioned with Saleh’s regime.

Its fighters are believed to be among hundreds of Islamic militants who earlier this year took control of Zinjibar, capital of southern Abyan province, the nearby town of Jaar and several surrounding villages. Since then, they have fended off military forces besieging them.

The military’s troops have been plagued by disarray in the fight. Two competing units are involved in the fight _ one under Saleh’s command and the other under the leadership of a defecting general, leading to internal conflicts.

At one point, the U.S. had to airlift food and other supplies to one military unit that was on the verge of surrendering for lack of material. Yemeni security officials say the U.S. has also carried out airstrikes in the Zinjibar area to help in the battle, though American officials have not confirmed any such strikes.

On Saturday, government troops tried to advance into the eastern part of Zinjibar in heavy clashes with militants. The Defense Ministry said in a statement that 20 militants and six soldiers were killed in the day’s fighting. Military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press, said airstrikes also hit a hospital in Jaar that militants used as a hideout. It was not immediately clear if there were casualties.

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Rebuffing an election boycott by Shiite protest groups, supporters of the country’s Sunni rulers voted in a special parliamentary election that is likely to reinforce divisions after seven months of unrest in the Gulf’s main Arab Spring showdown.

Bahrain’s confrontation between a reform-seeking Shiite majority and Sunni rulers holding near-total power remains one of the trickiest puzzles for the West as the Middle East’s politics are redrawn.

The Shiites’ calls for a greater say in national affairs echoes the same notes as in other Arab nations whose uprisings gained clear Western support. But Bahrain’s Sunni rulers have strong cards that most others cannot play, including a critical military partnership with Washington as hosts to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet _ the Pentagon’s front-line force against potential threats from Iran.

“This is a fake election. It’s useless,” said one man among a group of young Shiites gathered in streets littered with trash, rocks and tear gas canisters from clashes the night before.

“We don’t have any stake in the political system anymore,” said the man, who only gave his first name, Ali, fearing retaliation by the authorities.

The elections were needed to fill 18 seats in the 40-member parliament left vacant by a mass resignation of Shiite lawmakers to protest crackdowns, including deadly clashes, arrest sweeps and workplace purges. The boycott call by the main Shiite blocs effectively turned their backs on Bahrain’s political system and staked their hopes in an embarrassingly low turnout at the elections.

But Bahrain’s state TV announced the turnout at 51 percent in the districts with open seats _ lower than the 67 percent turnout in last year’s full parliamentary election, but an apparent strong reply against the boycott.

Most of the voters who turned out Saturday appeared to be supporters of the government.

Full results are expected by early Sunday. But the most important outcome was already determined by the Shiite boycott: The opposition must now decide whether to escalate public protests as their best remaining option.

“Leaving the political process opens up the obvious question of where to go from here,” said Toby Jones, an expert on Bahraini affairs at Rutgers University. “This opens the door for groups calling for more confrontation.”

More than 30 people have died in the unrest and hundreds have been arrested, including activists sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of plotting to overthrow the ruling system.

In recent months, Bahrain has faced near daily skirmishes after security forces crushed a wave of large-scale marches and sit-ins inspired by other Arab uprisings. The current clashes are isolated in Shiite neighborhoods and pose no direct danger to the leadership. But they highlight the deep frustrations among many Shiites _ who account for about 70 percent of the population _ and the growing belief in poorer districts that mass protests are the only way to force change.

Hours after the voting ended, clashes raged in some mainly Shiite areas into early Sunday.

Shiites claim they suffer widespread discrimination, including being blocked from top political and government posts. They also bristle at daily evidence of perceived second-class status, such as security forces bringing aboard Sunni Muslims from other Arab nations and south Asia under a government program that grants citizenship in exchange for loyalty.

“Each side sees itself as the legitimate voice of the country and the others as those standing in the way,” said Jones. “The election just drives home this message. It’s political theater on both sides to make a point.”

Security was boosted to high-alert levels for the election. Police set up dozens of checkpoints and patrolled key roadways.

An election coordinator, Brig. Abdullah bin Saif Al Nuaimi, said several arrests were made for trying to disrupt the voting, including throwing stones at cars coming to polling stations.

The voting in predominantly Shiite areas appeared light. At one polling station in the Manama neighborhood of Sanabis, which has been the scene of clashes since Friday, only about 30 ballots were cast in the first four hours of voting.

But at a polling station in Hamad Town, a mixed Sunni-Shiite area, the voting was noticeably stronger with a steady stream of people. Voting was also brisk at special locations, including a mall in the capital, Manama.

Bahrain’s parliament has little direct powers, but it carries important symbolism as part of limited political reforms started about a decade ago. It also is one of the few popularly elected bodies permitted by the Arab kings and sheiks who rule the Gulf from Kuwait to Oman.

“It was my duty to vote and show I have solidarity with the leaders of Bahrain,” said Samira, a 32-year-old Sunni, who only gave her first name for fear of being harassed after she voted in Sanabis.

Bahrain’s prime minister, Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, claimed the voting “asserted that we are on the right path toward a better future.” A government-issued guide to the elections carried the heading: “From anarchy to action.”

The U.S. has urged all parties in Bahrain to restart reconciliation talks, which were opened by the government in July and produced a set of proposals that included boosting the powers of the parliament. But the U.S. has been careful not to reprimand Bahrain’s leaders too harshly in public to avoid jeopardizing strategic bonds in the Gulf.

Bahrain has the backing of powerful neighbors. A Gulf force, led by Saudi Arabia, was dispatched to Bahrain in March to help prop up the 200-year-old Sunni dynasty.

But the protests across the region have stirred some small steps toward more political openness.

The United Arab Emirates also held elections Saturday for seats on a national advisory council, which has no legislative powers but is promoted by Emirati officials as part of a widening “experiment” in allowing a greater public voice in affairs. The UAE’s elections will be decided by about 129,000 hand-picked voters.

Next week, Saudi Arabia plans to hold municipal elections after a nearly two-year delay. Women, however, will be still barred from participating or voting.

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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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Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki tried on Saturday to ease sectarian tensions over a brutal bus massacre that left 22 Shiite pilgrims dead, as authorities released two suspects in the killings.

The two were released for lack of evidence, and six other suspects are still being held in Baghdad, a senior Iraqi official close to al-Maliki said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

In the attack Monday, gunmen wearing military-style uniforms stopped the bus at a fake security checkpoint on a remote stretch of desert highway in Anbar. The passengers aboard were all from the Shiite holy city of Karbala in southern Iraq, said Karbala councilman Hussein Shadhan al-Aboudi, and were headed to the Sayyida Zainab shrine in Damascus, Syria.

Witnesses said the gunmen ordered 22 men off the bus, walked them down the road, and shot them in a nearby valley in Iraq’s Sunni-dominated Anbar province.

The arrests, in turn, stirred Sunni resentments, when a prominent sheik in Anbar accused security forces of “abducting” the suspects as Shiite revenge for the massacre.

Al-Maliki, a Shiite, sought to tamp down sectarian anger.

“It is true that the crime was very ugly, and it caused great pain to the families of the victims, but this attack did not target a specific component of the Iraqi people,” al-Maliki told reporters. “The terrorists did not differentiate between people, and their goal was to create a crisis.”

Al-Maliki said Sunnis were also killed, but did not elaborate. He confirmed that some suspects had been freed but did not say how many.

Al-Aboudi maintained that all of the bus passengers were Shiite. But he said the same gang of gunmen also killed a Sunni motorist on the same stretch of road earlier that day.

On Saturday, al-Maliki said the investigation “went through legal channels.” That apparently is what led to the release of the two suspects.

“When they saw that the evidence was not sufficient, legal authorities took a decision on this,” al-Maliki said. “And we respect the judiciary system.”

Karbala officials who were briefed on the case initially said 10 suspects were arrested. But al-Aboudi said Saturday that there were only eight, and blamed the discrepancy on confusion in the immediate aftermath of the arrests.

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QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“I love it from my standpoint, but looking at it from the government’s standpoint, can they afford to do that?”