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The humble pickup truck has plowed through the desert sands of Libya in pursuit of Moammar Gadhafi’s forces and patrols the high passes of Afghanistan. Tough, multitasking and relatively cheap, it’s the choice of Latin American armies, al-Qaida terrorists, Somali warlords and even U.S. Special Forces trying to blend in with the locals.

Of course, most don’t just pick one off the lot and drive to the battlefield. They modify them in back-alley workshops to become lethal and more durable. Or they come here, to a busy, sprawling plant that turns out military-style modifications by the thousands.

Pairing sophisticated computer modeling with skilled workers, many from poor families in the surrounding countryside, the RMA Group has supplied 35,000 such road warriors, mostly Ford Rangers, to the Afghanistan police and army under a U.S. military contract, with more on their way.

Other apparently satisfied customers of the Thailand-based American company range from U.N. peacekeepers to private individuals seeking bullet-free rides. Singapore’s military recently bought 1,000 converted SUVs.

“We take a commercial vehicle off the shelf, the price of which is generally low, and then adapt that to exactly what the customer wants and needs. We focus on rough-tough, conflict and post-conflict markets,” says Ron Tyack, a group vice president. He recently took reporters through the factory, 150 kilometers (93 miles) southeast of the Thai capital Bangkok.

At one station stood a tested Ford Everest, seven of its windows shattered but not penetrated by 27 AK-47 bullets.

“There is no second chance to ‘get it right’ when it comes to shielding your vehicle from hostile fire,” notes an RMA brochure. Muscled up with steel, composite materials and ballistic glass, such pickups are meant to stop fire from handguns, rifles like the AK-47 and grenade shrapnel.

The converted Rangers for Afghan forces average $25,000 apiece compared to some $100,000 for a Humvee, the equivalent U.S. military workhorse, says Tyack, an Australian with more than 40 years of automotive experience. Spare parts for pickups generally are also cheaper and easier to obtain _ all reasons for their popularity among guerrillas, rebels and armies on a shoestring budget.

“The ANP (Afghan National Police) has conducted a lot of successful operations using Ford Ranger pickups in remote cities and districts. (They’re) strong, work very well in difficult terrain and on dirt roads,” says Mohammad Najib Nikzad, an Afghanistan government spokesman. But he said Toyota pickups were cheaper and their higher speed made it easier to pursue suspects in cities.

In Afghanistan and Iraq, U.S. Special Forces teams sometimes board unmarked pickups to avoid detection. U.N. peacekeepers in Kosovo, Haiti and elsewhere ride in pickups emblazoned with U.N. markings. RMA has a five-year contract with the world body to provide the vehicles.

On Libya’s front lines recently, field commander Abdel-Razak Najim told The Associated Press his revolutionary fighters preferred Toyota but added that the more robust Ford was “a big car and has good balance so we attach rocket launchers on them because they can handle the force.” Virtually all the battlefield pickups in Libya are locally modified.

The Toyota Hilux, designed for backwoods recreation and hauling goods to market, has been a special favorite of irregular forces since its introduction in the late 1960s. The defeat in 1987 of Gadhafi’s forces by the highly mobile troops of Chad was dubbed the “Toyota War.”

The RMA Group, which started modestly in 1985 and expects $770 million in revenue this year, also works on models from Toyota for the mining industry as well as Land Rover but has its strongest links with the Ford Mazda Motor Company, a joint venture of the two automakers that produces the Rangers just 30 kilometers (18 miles) away. Thailand has become a major Asian hub for foreign car manufacturing and export, turning out about 1.8 million a year. It’s also the world’s second-largest market for pickups, after the United States.

When the U.S. military sought bids for light tactical vehicles, Ford didn’t have a ready product that met the specifications and didn’t want to get into the modification business. RMA got a major boost when it stepped in, delivering the first one to Afghanistan in 2005.

Tyack says that detailed groundwork is done on customer requirements and the invariably punishing environments in which the vehicles will operate.

For Afghanistan, the dark green Rangers need heater blocks to withstand temperatures that can plunge to minus 30 degrees Centigrade (minus 22 degrees Fahrenheit), higher ground clearance given the rock-strewn roads and better suspension to take heavy loads (Tyack recalls seeing one carry a baby camel). Better filters are needed since fuel in Afghanistan is usually high in sulfur content. Standard tires are replaced by virtually puncture-proof, non-radial ones.

“You don’t want to be on patrol and suddenly find you have a flat tire,” he says. You also don’t want to be hit with a roadside bomb because most of the Rangers are not armored, given the high cost of such conversions.

The plant also can come up with more than 100 adaptations beside the battlefield versions.

A Land Rover Defender at the plant had been turned into a field ambulance. In 2008, on urgent request from the Vietnamese government, the plant configured vehicles for workers investigating the possible outbreak of Asian bird flu, providing separate driver and health worker compartments and isolated storage for hazardous specimens.

Elsewhere at the factory, pickups geared for working in mines, sometimes underground, were readied for shipment after being beefed up with extra protection against falling rocks and rollovers. Customers include gold mines in South Africa and the Freeport mine, one of the world’s largest, in Indonesia’s Papua province. With an ongoing separatist insurgency in the latter nation, some of the pickups destined for Freeport are armored.

Quality control testing is done on factory grounds, with the vehicles driven through a ford, under a shower, around a steeply sloped curve, over a patch of rock-strewn road and into a deep freezer.

One piece of equipment _ a machine gun _ doesn’t get bolted on until the truck reaches Afghanistan. The company is not in the weapons business.

Tyack says RMA, with 1,600 of its 4,000 employees in Afghanistan, sees itself as part of the transition from U.S. to Afghan security control, providing not only the hardware but servicing and training. Since up to 5,000 of its road warriors will need to be replaced every year, it may well be around after the last American troops have gone home.

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Rodney Diverlus’s parents qualified to vote for the first time in last month’s provincial election after moving to Canada from Haiti — and they voted Liberal.

The reason: With a son and four daughters in or approaching university, they were swayed by liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty’s pledge to slash college and university tuition fees by 30 per cent.

But Rodney — a third-year student at Ryerson University, also voting in his first election, shunned the Liberals.

The reason: He sees too many holes and unanswered questions in the program.

McGuinty’s pledge sounded straightforward enough.

The province would give most undergraduate university and college students a grant amounting to 30 per cent of their fees. The grant would be paid directly to the university or college, which would then reduce the students’ fees accordingly.

Families with incomes above $160,000 would not qualify for the grants, nor would students at professional schools. And the grants would only apply to students within four years of graduating from high school.

The Liberals said five out of six students in the province would benefit from the program, which they said will start Jan. 1.

It was certainly going to cost real money: The Liberals estimated $423 million starting in 2012-13, and rising to $486 million in four years.

Rodney Diverlus was delighted when he first heard about the program. A performance dance student, he was accustomed to regular tuition fee increases. He has a student loan of $16,000.

“To know that the tuition fee would be reduced by 30 per cent, I was dumbfounded,” he said in an interview.

So were his parents. He has an older sister in graduate school, a younger sister graduating from high school this year, and two other sisters only a few years away from college or university.

But Diverlus found his initial enthusiasm cooling as he started pulling back the layers of the promise.

He began to realize, at the outset, that he might not be eligible for the grants on several grounds.

First, the program isn’t open to professional schools. That seemed to be targeted at law and medical schools, where nearly all students have degrees.

But what about performance arts programs, such as dance and music? And architecture, business and nursing? All are undergraduate programs, but could be deemed professional fast payday loan no faxing.

And the grant for all students is a flat $1,600 for university and $730 for college — despite the fact that some programs have significantly higher fees than the arts and science fees on which the basic 30 per cent grant is calculated.

Diverlus has another issue. He cut back to part-time status this year because he’s active in student government, but part-time students don’t get the grants.

Student organizations say there are other questions.

Nora Loreto of the Canadian Federation of Students notes that grants are only issued to students within four years of completing high school. Since many students take a year or more away from studies, they’ll lose grants when they do.

Others who work part time and take more than four years to get through a regular course will also be out of luck in their fifth and later years.

This is a particular issue for college students, who have often spent time in the workforce before returning to upgrade qualifications, she says.

Students are also puzzled by how the $160,000 limit on family income will be measured. Universities, who will be given the grant money to allot, don’t know their students’ family incomes.

Who will make the call? The Ontario Student Assistance Program has family income information on some students, but not all students use the program.

There’s even the question of whether the Liberal plan will require legislation or whether it can be set up under existing statutes. Steering new legislation through a minority legislature could be tricky.

When questions about the program’s details were put to the premier’s office, a spokesperson replied: “We’re looking forward to having more to say on implementation in the future.”

Diverlus and Loreto suggest the plan could be made simpler if it reduced fees for all students across the board.

That would spread the available money across a greater number of students, so the fees reduction would be less than 30 per cent, they acknowledge.

But it would be simpler to administer, and would bring part-time and older students into the tent.

Also read:

Easy ways to save for your child’s educationE

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The No. 2 official on the Federal Reserve says economic growth will end “noticeably stronger” in the second half of this year, but she says the central bank still needs to keep its policy options open to provide more support to the economy if necessary.

Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Janet Yellen said in a speech in Denver on Friday that oil and other commodity prices are falling and supply disruptions caused by Japan’s natural disasters are easing. But she said the economy is still facing numerous problems.

Yellen said the central bank may need to consider more bond purchases to lower interest rates, but she said such an effort should be considered only if the economy required “significantly greater” help than the Fed is now providing.

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Greeks furious at the government’s austerity measures are vowing to turn out in force on the streets of Athens on the second day of a general strike, as lawmakers vote on the intensely unpopular new measures needed to secure continued payment from an international bailout fund.

Unions plan demonstrations, with one intending to encircle parliament in an attempt to prevent lawmakers getting into the building for the vote. On Wednesday, riots broke out during a protest march by more than 100,000 people.

The austerity bill won initial approval with a majority vote Wednesday, and lawmakers now vote on the details.

The measures include the suspension on reduced pay of 30,000 public servants and the suspension of collective labor contracts, and have angered even deputies from the governing Socialist party.

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U.S. consumers spent more on autos, clothing and furniture in September to boost retail sales by the most in seven months. The gain offered a hopeful sign for the sluggish economy.

The Commerce Department says retail sales increased 1.1 percent last month.

Auto sales rose 3 free online credit report.6 percent to drive the overall gain. Excluding that category, sales increased a solid 0.6 percent.

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Stock futures are plummeting after the Federal Reserve indicated the U.S. economic slump could last for years.

The Fed took steps to stimulate the economy Wednesday that had largely been expected. But investors were troubled because the central bank’s statement showed it expected a deep and persistent downturn.

A government report Thursday morning on new claims for unemployment benefits will give traders news on the country’s jobs crisis _ one of the major economic challenges cited by the Fed.

Ninety minutes before the opening bell, Dow Jones industrial average futures are down 211 points, or 1.9 percent, at 10,796. Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures are down 24, or 2.1 percent, at 1,131. Nasdaq 100 futures are down 43, or 1.9 percent, at 2,202.

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Stocks are opening mixed amid uncertainty about what steps the Federal Reserve might take to stimulate the U.S. economy.

Concerns that Greece could fail to qualify for fresh bailout funds also pushed stocks lower.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke plans to discuss the central bank’s policy decision at midday Wednesday. Most economists expect some sort of stimulus measures.

Investors are also concerned about European debt. Greek finance ministers said Wednesday the country will have to enact more austerity measures before international lenders will release rescue funds.

Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones industrial average is down 11 points, or 1 percent, at 11,399. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index is up less than 1 point. The Nasdaq composite is up 11, or 0.4 percent, at 2,601.

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Italy’s Senate approved Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s disputed austerity package Wednesday, ending weeks of uncertainty that roiled financial markets unsure that the government was serious about cutting its deficit and avoiding becoming Europe’s next debt crisis victim.

The upper chamber voted 165-141 with three abstentions to approve the package, which the government put to a confidence vote to ensure Berlusconi’s allies united behind him after weeks of bickering over details of the plan.

The proposal now goes to the lower Chamber of Deputies, where Berlusconi’s allies also maintain a majority.

The final package aims at reducing the country’s deficit by more than euro54 billion ($70 billion) over three years through budget cuts, tax hikes and changes to the country’s costly pension system. Italy’s deficit to GDP ratio now stands at 120 percent, one of Europe’s highest.

Had the vote failed, Berlusconi would have been forced to resign, a prospect lawmakers clearly wanted to avoid given the nervousness with which financial markets have already viewed Italy’s flip-flopping proposals and ability to balance the budget by 2013.

The European Central Bank had demanded stiff austerity measures to calm the markets, but it’s not clear whether the package passed Wednesday is sufficient. The ECB has spent billions over the last month buying up Italian government bonds to get Italy’s borrowing costs lower and help them avoid becoming the next eurozone nation to need an international bailout.

“We did our job,” proclaimed Maurizio Gasparri, head of Berlusconi’s party in the Senate, after the vote, saying the “robust” package should assure markets and the ECB.

The package was bitterly opposed by Italy’s main labor union, which staged a general strike on the eve of the vote. A few dozen protesters launched smoke bombs in front of the parliament building Wednesday.

Lawmaker Angelo Bonelli of the opposition Greens said the plan targeted Italy’s weakest, saying they were “shouldering the brunt of the crisis.”

Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti’s office confirmed Wednesday that the final changes in the plan, including pension reform that had been resisted by Berlusconi’s coalition allies, significantly increases the dent in Italy’s deficit. Italian media reported the latest new taxes and spending cuts totaled euro4 billion ($5.7 billion).

When the deficit-battling package was first unveiled Aug. 12, the package added up to euro45.5 billion ($64.1 billion). But weeks of waffling by squabbling coalition allies whittled down the new or higher taxes and spending cuts, further shaking the markets’ confidence, and the government beefed up the measures at a Cabinet meeting Tuesday.

“The decisions taken yesterday by the Cabinet have strengthened the measures significantly,” Antonio Azzollini, the head of the Senate’s budget committee, told the assembly.

Azzollini, from Berlusconi’s party, said sales taxes on goods and many services would be raised from 20 percent to 21 percent, an additional income tax of 3 percent would be on levied on incomes exceeding euro300,000 (nearly $450,000), and the timetable for raising the retirement age for women would be speeded up from 2016 to 2014.

Berlusconi had originally shied away from putting the package to a vote of confidence in his government, but decided to speed up its passage after ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet, during a visit Saturday, appealed for quick, decisive action to save Italy’s credit reputation.

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ST. JOHN

The housing market’s long-awaited recovery waited another month in July.

Sales of previously owned houses in metro St. Louis fell 18 percent compared to June, and were 9 percent of May’s pace, an unusually steep slip for a normally busy month, one reflecting a mix of tight credit, hot weather and a fresh round of economic worry. Prices fell, too, across most of the region.

The news wasn’t all bad, though, as sales soared 16 percent compared to the same month last year