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Hundreds of laid-off workers massed Friday outside a Shanghai factory of a Singaporean supplier to major consumer electronics companies such as Motorola and HP _ the latest in a spate of labor unrest in China as manufacturers struggle with higher costs and slowing exports.

Reports of recent strikes at factories and other major employers show the increased pressure on China’s manufacturers and workers amid weak demand in Europe and the U.S. that comes on top of surging costs for labor and materials. The country’s manufacturing contracted in November for the first time in nearly three years, according to a survey released Thursday.

A nervous Beijing has begun reversing a two-year effort to cool the world’s second-biggest economy, seeking to counter slowdowns in factory production and property that are dragging growth lower and spurring unrest.

Some of the 300-400 workers at the factory gate of Hi-P International in the eastern industrial suburbs of Shanghai said it was their third day of protesting over mass layoffs due to the company’s decision to relocate some manufacturing.

They said they were seeking more information, and improved terms for themselves.

A group of the workers, bundled up against the cold, held up a banner demanding: “We want an explanation! We want truth! Where is Hi-P’s truth? Where is the government’s credibility?”

Workers also accused the factory of violating labor standards.

“Sometimes, they ask us to work 18 or 19 hours in a day. Sometimes the overtime is even longer than a normal 8-hour work day,” said Tao Yong, a worker in his mid-30s.

Police in vans and unmarked cars watched but did not intervene. One worker showed bruises he said were from an earlier beating by police.

Company officials contacted by phone in Shanghai and Singapore refused comment on the protest. Shanghai city government and police also did not immediately respond to inquiries about the strike or the workers’ claims of injuries from scuffles with police.

“We all work for this company, and now if the company is going to move, they owe us an explanation. So we are waiting for a solution,” said Chang Yan, a woman in her mid-20s who like most of the others was wearing a blue factory uniform embossed with a red Hi-P logo.

Reflecting the tougher times for manufacturers, Hi-P International’s net profit margin plunged 80 percent from a year earlier in third quarter to 2.1 percent from 11.6 percent _ mainly due to higher costs. Net profit in July-September fell 42 percent to 6.5 million Singapore dollars ($5.1 million) from a year earlier, according to its latest financial report.

The company, founded in 1980 as a tooling factory, said its third-quarter revenue rose 34 percent, but so did costs for materials and taxes.

The New York-based group China Labor Watch said Hi-P was shifting some of its production to the nearby city of Suzhou and had not paid the legally required amount of compensation to workers, who were laid off without notice.

According to its website, Hi-P International is a contract manufacturer for the wireless telecommunications, consumer electronics and computing and automotive industries, with two-dozen factories and about 18,000 employees.

Hi-P has factories in five other Chinese cities besides Shanghai and Suzhou. Motorola and other major electronics companies are among its customers.

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Markets were boosted again on Tuesday by hopes that the 17 countries that use the euro will finally come up with a plan to deal with their crushing debt crisis.

As the 17 finance ministers of the countries that use the euro converged on EU headquarters in a desperate bid to save their currency _ and to protect the global economy from a debt-induced financial tsunami _ investors were reminded of the urgency of the task at hand.

Italy’s borrowing rates shot up Tuesday to above 7 percent, an unsustainable level on a par with rates that forced the others to seek bailouts.

The fear is that the crisis _ which already has forced bailouts of Greece, Ireland and Portugal _ could engulf bigger economies such as Italy, the eurozone’s third-largest. If Italy were to default on its debt of euro1.9 trillion ($2.5 trillion), the fallout could spell ruin for the euro project itself and send shock waves throughout the global economy.

Though no specific details have yet emerged of what will likely result from a Dec. 9 summit of EU leaders, the ministers are thought to be discussing ideas that would have been taboo only recently: countries ceding fiscal sovereignty to a central authority; some kind of elite group of euro nations that would guarantee one another’s loans _ but require strong fiscal discipline from anyone wanting membership.

On Tuesday, finance ministers also were likely to discuss the options _ plus a possible way to boost the region’s rescue fund, the European Financial Stability Facility, at a meeting in Brussels.

“Global equity markets have started the week hopeful that EU policymakers are actually moving closer to resolving the eurozone debt and banking crisis, with hopes pinned on reports that France and Germany are planning a ‘fast-track’ updated Stability Pact to both tighten budget rules and provide fiscal policy oversight,” said Neil MacKinnon, global macro strategist at VTB Capital.

On Monday, stocks advanced strongly, particularly in Europe, with the CAC-40 in France up a massive 5 percent or so.

As a result, the gains Tuesday were not as marked but did provide some further evidence of the hopes that European leaders will finally get their act together in around 10 days time.

In Europe, Germany’s DAX was up 0.2 percent at 5,747, while the CAC-40 rose 0.5 percent at 3,026. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was 0.1 percent higher at 5,320. The euro, meanwhile, was up 0.4 percent at $1.3346.

Wall Street was poised for further gains, too, amid ongoing evidence of a strong start to the U.S. holiday shopping season. Dow futures were up 0.5 percent at 11,555, while the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 futures rose 0.6 percent at 1,198.

Earlier, most Asian markets ended higher, with the Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo climbing 2.3 percent to close at 8,477.82.

Elsewhere in Asia, South Korea’s Kospi rose 2.3 percent to 1,856.52 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 1.2 percent to 18,256.20. Benchmarks in Singapore, Taiwan and Australia were also higher.

Mainland Chinese shares advanced, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index gaining 1.2 percent to 2,412.39.

Oil prices tracked equities modestly higher _ benchmark crude for January delivery was up 49 cents to $98.70 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

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Pamela Sampson in Bangkok contributed to this report.

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Egypt’s civilian Cabinet offered to resign Monday after three days of violent clashes between demonstrators and security forces in Tahrir Square, but the action failed to satisfy protesters deeply frustrated with the new military rulers.

The Health Ministry and a doctor at an improvised field hospital on the square said at least 26 people have been killed and 1,750 wounded in the latest violence as activists sought to fill the streets for a “second revolution” to force out the generals who have failed to stabilize the country, salvage the economy or bring democracy.

Throughout the day, young protesters demanding the military hand over power to a civilian government fought with black-clad police, hurling stones and firebombs and throwing back the tear gas canisters being fired by police into the square, which was the epicenter of the movement that ousted authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak.

By midnight tens of thousands of protesters were in the huge downtown square.

The clashes have deepened the disarray among Egypt’s political ranks, with the powerful Muslim Brotherhood balking at joining in the demonstrations, fearing that turmoil will disrupt elections next week that the Islamists expect to dominate.

The protests in Tahrir and elsewhere across this nation of some 85 million people have forced the ruling military council as well as the Cabinet it backs into two concessions, but neither were significant enough to send anyone home.

The council issued an anti-graft law that bans anyone convicted of corruption from running for office or holding a government post, a move that is likely to stop senior members from the Mubarak regime from running for public office.

Hours later, the Cabinet of Prime Minister Essam Sharaf submitted its resignation to the council, a move that was widely expected given the government’s perceived inefficiency and its almost complete subordination to the generals.

Protesters cheered and shouted “God is great!” when the news arrived of the Cabinet resignation offer, but they almost immediately resumed their chant of “The people want to topple the field marshal” _ a reference to military ruler Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi.

“We are not clearing the square until there is a national salvation government that is representative and has full responsibility,” said activist Rami Shaat, who was at the site.

The council released a statement late Monday calling for a national dialogue to “urgently study the reasons for the current crisis and ways to overcome it.”

The statement, carried by Egypt’s state news agency, said the military deeply regrets the loss of life and has ordered the Justice Ministry to form a committee to investigate the incidents of the past few days. The military said it ordered security forces to take measures that would protect demonstrators, who have the right to peaceful protest.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said the United States was deeply concerned about the violence and urged restraint on all sides so Egypt could proceed with a timely transition to democracy.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also deplored the loss of life and called on authorities “to guarantee the protection of human rights and civil liberties for all Egyptians, including the right to peaceful protest,” U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said.

Amnesty International harshly criticized the military rulers in a new report, saying they have “completely failed to live up their promises to Egyptians to improve human rights.”

The London-based group documented steps by the military that have fallen short of increasing human rights and in some cases have made matters worse than under Mubarak.

“The euphoria of the uprising has been replaced by fears that one repressive rule has simply been replaced with another,” according to the report, issued Tuesday.

The report called for repeal of the Mubarak-era “emergency laws,” expanded to cover “thuggery” and criticizing the military. It said the army has placed arbitrary restrictions on media and other outlets.

Egyptian security forces have continued to use torture against demonstrators, the report said, and some 12,000 civilians have been tried in military trials, which it called “unfair.”

In many ways, the protests in Tahrir bore a striking resemblance to the 18-day uprising that toppled Mubarak. The chants are identical, except that Tantawi’s name has replaced Mubarak’s.

“The people want the execution of the marshal,” protesters screamed Monday. The hallmark chant of “erhal,” or “leave,” that once was aimed at Mubarak is now meant for Tantawi, his defense minister for 20 years.

Some of the protesters demanded that the generals immediately step down in favor of a presidential civilian council.

“If the military steps down, then who will be left to run the country until elections are held?” said Ahmed Fathy, a 27-year-old dentist who prefers a date for the handover rather than the departure of the military now. “The military can strike back by turning the nation against us.”

About 5,000 to 7,000 protesters were in Tahrir Square for most of the day but the number rose to around 30,000 after nightfall _ nowhere near filling it but displaying the strength of the movement despite the military’s tireless campaign to marginalize the youths who drove Mubarak from office. Protesters also marched in other cities, including thousands of students in the coastal city of Alexandria.

Unlike in January and February when the demonstrators were united against Mubarak, the latest protests reflect political divisions and Egypt’s growing economic hardships and tenuous security.

Islamists led by the Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s largest and best-organized political group, are not taking part in the protests this time, a stand that has been widely seen as motivated by a desire not to get involved in anything that could disturb parliamentary elections that are due to start Nov. 28 and conclude in March.

But the Brotherhood, whose supporters gave muscle to the protesters in January and February, may have underestimated the appeal of the secular-minded activists and the depth of anger over the military rulers’ failings and the inefficiency of the Cabinet that the generals support.

To many of the protesters, the Brotherhood and its allies, mainly the ultraconservative Salafis, are more keen on winning parliamentary seats than the future of the nation.

That so many protesters are in Tahrir Square without the participation of the Islamists could provide the liberal pro-reform groups with a boost that would fuel their movement in the face of the military’s perceived intransigence.

“We don’t need them,” Zeinab Kheir, a lawyer and an activist, said referring to the Brotherhood, vilified by many activists as an opportunistic, self-serving group.

“We want the (military) council to leave immediately so we can continue our revolution, which the military sold out,” said Mohammed Ali, a shoemaker among the protesters. “A civilian Cabinet from the square is what we want.”

The divisions between the secularists and Islamists surfaced in the square Monday when senior Brotherhood leader Mohammed el-Beltagy was heckled by protesters who threw water bottles at him. He hurriedly left.

However, moderate Islamists from two groups _ the Wasat, or Centrist party, and supporters of presidential hopeful Abdel-Monaem Abul Fetouh _ said they would take part in a big protest dubbed “National Salvation” planned for Tuesday.

Throughout the day, the sounds of gunfire crackled around Tahrir Square, and a constant stream of injured protesters _ bloodied from rubber bullets or overcome by tear gas _ were brought on motorbikes into makeshift clinics on sidewalks, where volunteer doctors scrambled from patient to patient.

A morgue official said the toll had climbed to 24 dead since the violence began Saturday _ a jump from the toll of five dead around nightfall Sunday, reflecting the ferocity of fighting. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the numbers.

Since Mubarak fell and the military took over, Egypt’s revolution has been mired in frustration and confusion. Activists and many in the public accuse the generals of seeking to hold on to power, and they fear that the military will dominate the next government no matter who wins the election. Many Egyptians are also frustrated by the failure of the military and the caretaker government to conduct any real reforms, halt widespread insecurity or salvage a rapidly worsening economy.

The military says it will hand over power only after presidential elections, which it has vaguely said will be held in late 2012 or early 2013.

On Monday, a group of 133 diplomats from the Foreign Ministry took the rare step of issuing a petition demanding that the military commit to hold presidential elections and transfer power by 2012.

“What does it mean, transfer power in 2013? It means simply that he wants to hold on to his seat,” said protester Mohammed Sayyed, referring to Tantawi.

Sayyed carried two rocks as he took cover from tear gas in a sidestreet off Tahrir Square. He wore a bandage on his head after being hit by what he said was a rubber bullet.

“I will keep coming back until they kill me,” he said. “The people are frustrated. Nothing changed for the better.”

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TORONTO

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Thursday tried to reassure U.S. soldiers, a group hit hard by high unemployment, that the Fed is working to strengthen the economy.

In a speech at a military base in El Paso, Texas, Bernanke told a group of soldiers and their families that the Fed is trying to lower unemployment. He talked about the Fed’s policies of keeping short-term rates near zero and buying securities to try and lower longer-term rates, such as mortgages.

Many veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are returning home to find few jobs and limited prospects. The unemployment rate for veterans of those wars was 12.1 percent in October. That’s up from 10.6 percent a year ago and well above the national average of 9 percent.

“I’m here because the men and women in military service, like all Americans, are profoundly affected by the economic challenges our nation has faced these past several years,” Bernanke said during the speech at Fort Bliss, the country’s largest Army base.

The town hall meeting was the latest in a series of public outreach efforts Bernanke has made to underscore the efforts the central bank is pursuing to help ordinary Americans cope with the Great Recession. Over the past 2 1/2 years, Bernanke has attended half a dozen informal gatherings in Kansas City, Atlanta, Cleveland and other cities payday advances.

Thursday’s town hall meeting was his first in Texas. Fed officials say Bernanke chose the location because he wanted to highlight the base’s successful financial literacy program.

Last week, the Fed downgraded its economic outlook for the next two years and said that it does not expect the unemployment rate to fall significantly through the end of next year.

President Barack Obama is pushing for tax credits of up to $5,600 to businesses that hire a veteran who has been unemployed for six months or more. Another tax credit would provide $9,600 for companies that hire an injured vet who has been unemployed that long.

The Senate is expected to take up the tax credits as part of broader legislation. The tax incentives cleared the House last month and are not expected to be paid for through Obama’s proposed tax on millionaires, raising hopes that could win Republican support.

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Regions Bank has eliminated a new debit card fee it imposed on some checking accounts this month that was unpopular with customers.

In a statement Monday, the bank said it is eliminating a monthly $4 fee it introduced this month on some checking accounts when a Regions customer used a debit card in a non-ATM transaction.

Now, though, Regions Bank has reversed course, based on customer feedback about the fee. “We have heard from our customers and are responding to their feedback by eliminating the monthly fee for CheckCards,” John Owen, head of Consumer Services for Regions Bank, said in a statement. The bank declined to disclose the number of complaints it received, or whether customers closed their accounts based on the fee.

On Nov. 4, Regions Bank will reimburse customers who were charged the fee.

Birmingham-based Regions is among the largest banks in St. Louis, based on deposits. It has 70 branches in the St. Louis area.

Regions joins other banks in dropping debit card fees. The retail banking arm of JPMorgan Chase & Co., which tested a fee for some checking accounts earlier this year, including a $3 monthly fee for a debit card and $5 for online bill pay, will end that program in November. SunTrust Bank also announced on Monday that it is dropping its monthly $5 debit card fee that was set to take effect this week online pay day loans. Wells Fargo has also cancelled its plans to test a fee structure for debit cards in some states.  

Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America, the second largest bank in the U.S. and the second largest bank locally, has come under fire in recent weeks after it announced plans to introduce a $5 monthly fee on some checking accounts when a debit card is used. That fee is set to go into effect in early 2012.

Banks said they were imposing the fees based on new federal legislation that led to a lower cap on what a bank can charge for debit card transactions. As part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform bill, maximum “swipe fees” decreased from 44 cents to 24 cents, beginning in October.

Some local banks and credit unions welcomed the new debit card fee announcements by their competitors as an opportunity to attract new customers. One recent ad by First Community Credit Union, the biggest credit union in St. Louis, reads: “Why pay for your debit card?” The credit union does not impose monthly fees for checking accounts.

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On one side of Bangkok, you’ll find the victims of Thailand’s worst flooding in half a century. They float down trash-strewn waterways, paddling washtubs with wicker brooms over submerged neighborhoods.

Just a few miles (kilometers) away, you’ll find something else entirely: well-heeled shoppers perusing bustling malls decorated with newly hung Halloween decorations, couples sipping espresso in the air-conditioned comfort of ultrachic cafes.

Although catastrophic flooding has devastated a third of this Southeast Asian nation and submerged some of the capital’s northernmost districts, the reality for the majority of this sprawling metropolis of 9 million people is that life goes on.

The desperate images of disaster contrast sharply with scenes of total normality _ from night-owls drinking cocktails in red light districts to tourists enjoying relaxing foot massages in faux-leather chairs downtown.

An exodus of thousands of Bangkok residents to nearby resorts and a government-ordered five-day holiday have left the notoriously congested city unusually easy to maneuver by taxi and three-wheeled tuk-tuk.

“It’s better, in a way,” Nicole Attwater of Sydney said Sunday, adding that she was happy to brave some flooding to see the Grand Palace, the gold-studded former seat of the Thai monarchy, with far lighter crowds than normal on a sunny morning.

“It’s a good time to come, because it’s quiet,” she said.

Most of Bangkok is dry, with little to indicate that anything is wrong _ except for the ominous walls of sandbags stacked around hotels and homes, and the apocalyptic predictions of everyone from expatriate bloggers to some members of the Thai government.

Yet, the threat of floodwaters sweeping through the city is still very real. Nationwide, 381 people have died over the last three months, and 110,000 more have been displaced _ 10,000 of them in Bangkok, according to government figures. The catastrophe has put hundreds of thousands of people out of work and cost billions of dollars in damage _ a bill that grows larger by the day.

Among items struck from tourists’ agendas: shopping for crafts at the popular Chatuchak weekend market and dinner cruises down the city’s Chao Phraya river _ all canceled due to the high waters. The river swelled to a record high level early Sunday, spilling into some neighborhoods and sparking fears it would flood the inner city.

Fears over worse-case scenarios and travel warnings issued by foreign governments have slashed visitors by half at sites like the Grand Palace and the giant gold-plated Reclining Buddha inside Bangkok’s Wat Pho temple complex.

But the biggest problem by far, said tour guide Keerati Atui, is the media, which he said has given the impression that most of Bangkok is under water.

“Look around,” he said, gesturing to lines of tourists streaming into the white-walled palace. “It’s dry. Everything here is normal.”

River water has lapped at the palace gates and even crept inside, but much of it has welled up through drains in the riverside neighborhood. One picture posted this week on Twitter showed a cameraman filming a television news anchor on a street beside the palace in ankle-high water. On both sides of the pair, the street was bone dry.

Heavy monsoon rains have pummeled a large swath of Asia since July. As floodwaters crept across Thailand, they first drowned neighboring provinces, then districts on the northern outskirts of Bangkok. Last week, advancing water forced the city’s Don Muang airport, which is used mainly for domestic flights, to shut down. However, the international Suwarnabhumi airport remains open, and the city’s skytrain and subway lines were functioning normally.

Nobody knows how far the water will go, but so far Bangkok’s defenses have mostly held.

Statements from government leaders have alternated from assurances the capital would be spared to dire warnings that nowhere is safe.

Panicked Bangkokians have stripped supermarkets and convenience stores of bottled water and dried noodle supplies in recent weeks as a result, but there is still plenty to drink. Both those items can be still found in street-side shops along the city’s temple-dotted riverside, where the mineral water is ice cold and the noodle soup is spicy and sprinkled with fish balls.

“A lot of people are overreacting, they’ve been hoarding too much stuff,” said Kwanpimol Pleegluay, a 48-year-old housewife. “They watch the news and see people in other flooded provinces and think that’s going to happen to them here.”

Kwanpimol was taking a casual stroll along the Chao Phraya with her husband over the weekend _ to see how high the river swelled. After peering into the water, she took his photo and chose one word to describe the scene: “Beautiful,” she said.

On the other side of the Chao Phraya, where the 200-year-old pagoda of the city’s famed Temple of the Dawn rises from the banks, 42-year-old monk Phramaha Abhin said he was not worried.

“The Lord Buddha taught us not to be negligent, we must always prepare,” said Phramaha, referring to newly laid protective layer of sandbags outside the temple, where he lives. “But he also taught us not to foolishly fear that which hasn’t happened yet.”

Many people in Bangkok and neighboring provinces see the flooding as something that should be accepted, not something to be angry about.

In Bangkok’s heavily flooded Thonburi district, a navy team evacuated a stranded pregnant woman whose water broke Sunday. Aorasa Wisetkoop looked anxious, but remained calm and held tightly onto her belly, while a rescue team lifted her into a boat.

“We had to get her to hospital,” rescuer Nitipat Mongolpradit said.

But along with every tragic and urgent incident in the inundation, there were images of Thais splashing in the floodwaters for fun.

When the river began flowing like a waterfall over a wall into Chantana Srisuwan’s wooden-shack kitchen, the 58-year-old pulled out a stack of aluminum pans, soaped them up and began washing them. “Why bother being troubled?” she asked.

“If we think we shouldn’t get wet, we’ll never have peace of mind,” she said, as a neighbor complained he could not sleep because his bed was submerged beneath encroaching waves. “If there’s no water, great. But if there is, we have to learn to live with it.”

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The Abu Dhabi company building a branch of the Guggenheim museum in the Emirati capital said Sunday it has temporarily dropped plans to award a major construction contract, raising questions about the future of the high profile project.

The state-run Tourism Development and Investment Co. said it recalled the tender for concrete work on the Frank Gehry-designed museum because it is reviewing its strategy for handing out jobs to contractors. It didn’t say when it would again seek bids.

The Guggenheim is one of the showcase museums TDIC is building on Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Island, a planned cultural district overlooking the Persian Gulf. The island is also slated to contain a national museum, performing arts center and a branch of the Louvre.

A spokeswoman insisted Sunday that the Guggenheim project is still moving ahead, but didn’t provide details.

TDIC has previously said it would open the museum by 2013.

Some preliminary groundwork for the 450,000-square-foot museum has been completed. The construction contract now on hold would have involved major work on the museum’s base and other parts of the building.

TDIC has not released the value of that deal free credit score.

TDIC is one of several companies set up by Abu Dhabi to diversify the economy and drive development in the emirate, which borders Dubai to the south.

The money-losing company relies heavily on direct cash infusions from the oil-rich Abu Dhabi government, but it also has turned to banks to fund some of its operations.

TDIC executives traveled to Europe and Asia over the summer to meet with potential investors about the possibility of issuing new bonds, but then put off those fundraising plans.

The Guggenheim project has been a flashpoint for controversy.

In March, more than 130 international artists and writers promised to boycott the museum unless authorities do more to protect workers’ rights at the site. That followed an earlier report by Human Rights Watch that outlined alleged abuses against migrant workers on the project.

TDIC has said it is committed to protecting workers’ rights and has taken on board many of Human Rights Watch’s recommendations.

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U.K. government borrowing in September fell by more than anticipated, official figures showed Friday, providing rare good news after a series of downbeat reports.

The Office for National Statistics said public sector net borrowing in September was 14.1 billion pounds ($22.2 billion), down on the 15.4 billion pound shortfall in the same month last year.

September’s figure was about a billion pounds better than the market consensus.

The agency also revised its August borrowing figure downward by 2 billion pounds.

The data leaves the government broadly on course to hit its full-year deficit target of 122 billion pounds, providing the economy doesn’t deteriorate further.

However, worries persist.

“We doubt that these figures fully reflect the recent slowdown in the pace of economic growth and therefore we continue to expect the trend in borrowing to deteriorate in the second half of the fiscal year,” said Samuel Tombs, U.K. economist at Capital Economics.

The statistics agency reported earlier this week that inflation had hit a three-year high of 5.2 percent. Unemployment was up to 8.1 percent in the latest report, while household incomes were growing at less than 2 percent a year; GDP rose just 0.1 percent in the second quarter.

Chris Williamson, chief economist at financial information company Markit, said the government may be forced to cut spending further to meet the borrowing target if the economy gets worse. However, he said this raises the risk that austerity measures “end up driving the deficit higher rather than reducing it.”

Concern about sagging growth has prompted the Bank of England to resume a program of buying up financial assets from the banks in the hope of increasing the money supply and getting them to lend more.

Earlier this month, the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee unanimously voted to spend another 75 billion pounds ($118 billion) on the so-called program of quantitative easing. Between March 2009 and January 2010, it bought up 200 billion pounds ($315 billion) of assets.

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Libyan fighters fanned out in Tripoli neighborhoods Saturday to search for armed supporters of fugitive leader Moammar Gadhafi a day after a major gunbattle rocked the capital for the first time in two months.

Dozens of men combed apartment buildings for suspects and weapons in the Abu Salim neighborhood, which is home to the prison of the same name that became notorious for the abuse and killing of Gadhafi opponents. A day earlier, a gunbattle broke out in the area when a group tried to raise the green flag that symbolizes the ousted regime.

Revealing serious divisions within the revolutionary ranks, Saturday’s sweep of Abu Salim was being conducted mainly by a breakaway militia that refuses to answer to the main Tripoli military council.

It is one of many factions that have refused to put themselves under the umbrella of official revolutionary authorities, raising fears of vigilante justice as the North African nation faces continued fighting by loyalists of the fugitive leader.

One anti-Gadhafi fighter stomped on a green flag as others searched vehicles. Another showed off a box stuffed with bullets he said was found in a second-floor apartment in one of the residential buildings.

Abdullah Naker, the head of the so-called revolutionary council, called on all anti-Gadhafi forces to join them in the search and warned his men will fight anybody who gets in their way.

“All of Tripoli will be searched and we will reorganize our checkpoints and our guards in public and private institutions inside of Tripoli and outside of Tripoli,” he told reporters.

He said eight wanted men and 12 other suspects were arrested. He also alleged that teachers have been telling students that Gadhafi will return and said teams had been sent to stop the practice.

“We gave the military council a chance to prove themselves and they failed, and we will not leave things to chance,” he said.

A senior Interior Ministry official, Ibrahim al-Bargathi, said Friday’s skirmish started when a group of some 30 people, including eight women and some armed men, started walking with green flags. Local opponents began fighting with them, then revolutionary forces swarmed into the area from across the city, he said payday loans.

He said six people were injured and 14 were captured _ nine men and five women.

It was the first major violence in Tripoli between Gadhafi supporters and revolutionary forces since the then-rebels swept into the capital in late August and forced the longtime leader into hiding. The tensions suggest Libyans face grave challenges in trying to reconcile after months of bitter civil war.

The flare-up in Tripoli and fierce resistance on two other fronts have set back the new rulers’ stated goals of declaring total victory and establishing democracy. It also raised fears of a protracted insurgency as Gadhafi, the ruler for nearly 42 years, remains on the run.

The capital has been relatively calm since then-rebels swept into the city two months ago. But Gadhafi’s loyalists have control of parts of his hometown of Sirte and the desert enclave of Bani Walid and have fought off NATO-backed revolutionary forces besieging them for weeks. Gadhafi has tried to rally his supporters with several audio recordings issued from hiding.

The firefight in Tripoli began after Friday prayers. Witnesses said dozens of loyalists carrying green flags appeared on a square in the Abu Salim neighborhood, which has long been a pro-Gadhafi stronghold. Residents also reported fighting in several other areas known to still hold loyalists of the former leader.

Interim leader Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, the head of the governing National Transitional Council, had hoped to declare liberation this week after what he expected would be the imminent fall of the holdout city of Sirte, Gadhafi’s hometown, 250 miles (400 kilometers) southeast of Tripoli on the Mediterranean coast. That could allow the council to name a new interim government and set a timeline for holding elections within eight months.

The revolutionary forces control much of Sirte after launching a major push a week ago but still face heavy resistance.

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