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Economist Mario Monti formed a new Italian government without a single politician Wednesday, drawing from the ranks of bankers, diplomats and business executives to make sure Italy escapes looming financial disaster.

The 68-year-old former European Union competition commissioner told reporters he will serve as Italy’s economy minister as well as premier for now as he seeks to implement “sacrifices” to heal the country’s finances and set the economy growing again.

Monti and his new cabinet ministers will be sworn later Wednesday, formally ending Silvio Berlusconi’s 3 1/2-year-old government as well as his 17-year-long run of political dominance.

Monti said he would lay out his emergency anti-crisis policies in the Senate on Thursday, ahead of a confidence vote. A second vote, in the lower Chamber of Deputies, will follow, likely on Friday. He stressed that Italy’s economic growth is a top priority.

Hopes for Italy’s new administration won it some respite in financial markets Wednesday. The yield on its ten-year bonds dropped 0.16 percentage point to 6.77 percent. In the last week, that borrowing rate had flirted over 7 percent _ the level that forced fellow eurozone members Greece, Ireland and Portugal to seek international bailouts.

Up until summer, Italy had mostly avoided the European debt turmoil despite having a jaw-dropping amount of debt: euro1.9 trillion ($2.6 trillion), or is nearly 120 percent of its GDP. But after frequent delays and backtracking on austerity measures, markets lost faith that any Berlusconi government could fix Italy’s economic issues.

Restoring confidence in Italy’s financial future is crucial because, as the third-largest economy in the eurozone, it is too big for Europe to rescue. A debt default by Italy would threaten the euro itself and shake the global economy.

Monti gave few hints about his political program Wednesday, sidestepping a question about whether the government would dip into citizens’ bank accounts as it did decades ago during another debt crisis.

“You may ask,” he replied, but went no further.

Explaining why his Cabinet contained no one from Italy’s fractious political parties, Monti said that his talks with party leaders led him to the conclusion “that the non-presence of politicians in the government would help it.”

His ministers include Corrado Passera, CEO of Italy’s second-largest bank, Intesa Sanpaolo SpA, to head Development and Infrastructure; Piero Gnudi, a longtime chairman of Enel utility company, as Tourism and Sport minister in a country heavily dependent on tourist revenues; and the current Italian ambassador to Washington, Giulio Terzi di Sant’Agata, to be foreign minister.

A historian of the Catholic church with close ties to the Vatican, Andrea Riccardi, was named minister of international and domestic cooperation, a choice that seemed to reward pro-Vatican lawmakers in Parliament.

A Monti government is “an historic and significant turn of events,” said Francesco Rutelli of the pro-Vatican centrists payday loans lenders.

Still, his choices raised some eyebrows.

“This government, ties to banks, to business, to the Vatican, to private universities _ to the usual names _ is the opposite of what this country needs,” said Paolo Ferrero, leader of Rifondazione Comunista, a tiny, far-left party.

Passera also sits on the board of directors of Milan’s Bocconi University, which forms Italy’s business elite. Monti is currently the head of the Bocconi.

But analysts gave Monti’s selections a top mark, insisting the Cabinet ministers were independent.

“I think the quality of the people is very high,” said Roberto D’Alimonte, a political science professor at Rome’s LUISS University. “All these people are very high-caliber, and highly respected, independent.”

Italy’s economy is hampered by high wage costs, low productivity, fat government payrolls, excessive taxes, choking bureaucracy and low numbers of college graduates. But Monti says Italy can beat the crisis if its largely polarized citizenry _ often bitterly divided over Berlusconi’s long tenure _ can pull together. He has also met with union leaders and business representatives.

“I hope that, governing well, we can make a contribution to the calming and the cohesion of the political forces,” Monti told reporters.

The head of Italy’s largest union confederation, Susanna Camusso, backed Monti but hoped he “won’t put his priority on pensions.”

Parliament on Saturday voted to raise the retirement age as part of an austerity package to 67 by 2026 and 70 by 2050, but critics say those reforms are meaningless because they are so far in the future. The new changes also call for the sale of state property and privatizing some services but contain no painful labor reforms. They also offer tax incentives to companies that hire young workers to fight Italy’s 25 percent unemployment rate for people ages 15 to 24.

The shift in power away from career politicians had caused bickering within Berlusconi’s conservative People of Freedom Party, which eventually endorsed Monti. But Berlusconi’s main coalition ally, the Northern League, has announced it will stay in the opposition during Monti’s government.

Rutelli predicted on Sky TG24 TV that Monti’s government would win the confidence votes and last until the end of the legislature in spring 2013, to the dismay of many of Berlusconi’s allies, who want elections in a few months.

“The economic crisis won’t be solved in a brief time,” he noted.

Not everyone was enthusiastic about an unelected, technocratic government.

“When governments of technocrats are needed, it means democracy and politics are considered useless, so it’s something negative that has to be for a limited period of time,” said skeptic Giuseppe Drago on the streets of Rome.

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Fast-expanding Gulf carrier Qatar Airways says talks with Airbus over an expected large plane order are now stalled.

The company’s CEO, Akbar al-Baker, said the negotiations were at an impasse Tuesday. He added that he is “pessimistic” about an accord before the end of this week’s Dubai Airshow.

Doha-based Qatar Airways’ fleet of 101 aircraft is dominated by Airbus planes, though it does have orders or options for nearly 90 Boeing jets.

On Tuesday, Qatar Airways announced plans to buy two Boeing 777 cargo planes.

Qatar Airways is increasingly challenging Dubai-based Emirates in the race for long-haul customers that use the Gulf as a transit hub.

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WASHINGTON

Merck & Co. said Thursday it has revamped its research operations to make them more productive, has started a new four-pronged business strategy to increase revenue and profit and has some exciting drugs on the horizon.

The drugmaker also boosted its quarterly dividend by 4 cents to 42 cents per share this quarter _ the first increase since 2004. That was just before Merck pulled painkiller Vioxx from the market because it increased heart attack and stroke risk. Merck’s shares rose sharply.

Merck’s pipeline of experimental drugs includes what could be several important new medicines for patients and shareholders, company executives told analysts during a daylong business briefing at Merck headquarters in Whitehouse Station, N.J. And Merck, the world’s No. 3 drugmaker by revenue, has eight new products for which it will seek U.S. approval in 2012 or 2013.

That’s just in the nick of time. Merck already has been hurt by competition from generic versions of blockbuster osteoporosis, blood pressure and cholesterol drugs, like its rivals. Next August, its current top seller, $5 billion-a-year allergy and asthma drug Singulair, gets hit by U.S. generic competition.

CEO Kenneth Frazier said the company hopes to keep 2012 revenue about the same as this year’s. In this year’s first nine months, it has increased sales by 5 percent, or nearly $2 billion, to about $35.8 billion.

Merck has gotten five new drugs approved this year, including breakthrough hepatitis C drug Victrelis and the first combination pill for people with both diabetes and high cholesterol, Juvisync. It also has applied to regulators for five more approvals. Those include a long-acting diabetes pill and a combination cholesterol drug.

Merck plans in 2012 and 2013 to seek U.S. approval for eight more medicines, including drugs for chronic insomnia, hardening of the arteries, osteoporosis and reversal of anesthesia, plus two allergy medicines and an improved version of its blockbuster cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil. Altogether, it has 19 medicines in late-stage testing.

Many of those came from Merck’s November 2009 acquisition of Schering-Plough Corp no fax pay day loan. Frazier said the integration has enabled the combined company to reduce costs by $2.8 billion. Merck has done that partly by eliminating 16,000 jobs out of the combined 106,000 the two companies had right before the deal.

Frazier outlined the company’s new business strategy, which includes growing medicine sales in emerging and other key markets, expanding its consumer and animal health businesses, launching new drugs and boosting sales of existing ones, and managing spending tightly.

Merck also has trimmed the number of diseases for which it does research, developed computer models and other ways to decide much earlier whether to scrap or continue testing of experimental drugs, and made other changes to address one of the industry’s biggest challenges _ getting more bang for the billions companies pour into trying to create new drugs.

“The new research strategy and operating model that we’ve been implementing over the past few years is now in place,” research head Peter Kim told about 130 analysts. “These changes position us for long-term growth with a sustainable return on investment.”

He said Merck has two experimental drugs that could transform patient care. One, called anacetrapib, is in final-stage testing for hardening of the arteries.

The other, known only as MK-8931, is in early testing for Alzheimer’s disease. Kim told reporters that while it’s still just a hypothesis that it will work, if it pans out “it’s going to have a dramatic impact on medicine.”

Merck also is developing more combination diabetes drugs, just five years after launching its first, Januvia, now the best-selling pill for Type 2 diabetes.

Merck shares rose $1.18, or 3.5 percent, to close at $34.97, outpacing the 1 percent gain in the Dow Jones industrial average.

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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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Stocks are opening higher as hopes grow that a plan to tackle the European debt crisis will survive.

The European Central Bank surprised markets early Thursday by cutting its benchmark interest rate.

Shortly after the open Thursday, the Dow Jones industrial average is up 128 points, or 1.1 percent, to 11,969. The S&P 500 index is up 12 points, or 1 percent, to 1,250. The Nasdaq is up 23, or 0.9 percent, to 2,663.

The Labor Department said the number of people who applied for unemployment benefits dipped slightly last week absolutely free credit score.

Greece’s prime minister surprised markets with a call this week to put a European rescue package to a vote. The prime minister was in an emergency meeting Thursday after members of his government called for him to step down.

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China remains confident Europe can solve its crippling debt crisis even though it continues to balk at requests for it to use its financial firepower.

President Hu Jintao told reporters Monday his country is closely following developments in Europe as the 17 countries that use the euro grapple with a debt crisis that has seen three countries bailed out and threatening to engulf Italy, the eurozone’s third largest economy .

“We are convinced that Europe has the wisdom and the competence to conquer its momentary difficulties,” he said during an official visit to Austria.

Europe is closely watching comments by Hu and other Chinese officials in the hope the country will use some of its huge cash reserves to help prevent the region’s debt crisis from spilling over into increasingly shaky economies like Italy and Spain.

Beijing so far has promised to help only by continuing business as usual, trading with Europe and stockpiling some of China’s multibillion-dollar trade surpluses in the safest European government bonds.

Eurozone leaders last week presented the broad outlines of a new anti-crisis strategy. At the center of this strategy is an expansion of the eurozone’s bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Facility. Since the currency union’s finances are already stretched, it wants non-European investors to help fund a special investment vehicle that would act alongside the EFSF.

Although many details of that plan have still to be agreed, this investment vehicle could help the EFSF buy up bonds from struggling countries like Italy and Spain or support bank recapitalizations in poorer eurozone countries payday loans.

Getting more resources behind Europe’s main anti-crisis weapon is particularly important if market pressures continue to rise on Italy. On Friday, Rome had to pay record interest rates at a bond auction, indicating that it may soon have to request help from the eurozone to keep its funding costs in check.

No signs of more direct Chinese plans to help have emerged during Hu’s visit, which started Sunday and ends in two days, when he flies to the G-20 summit in Cannes, France for talks expected to focus on the eurozone’s crisis.

Instead, Hu suggested Monday that China remained content to let European Union leaders work on a solution.

Hu, who did not take questions, said he believes that the path to a global upswing lies on greater cooperation among the world’s leading economies.

Hu has been courted by major EU countries as the financial crisis unfolds.

He and French President Nicolas Sarkozy talked Thursday by phone and pledged to cooperate to revive global growth, while the chief executive of the EU’s bailout fund visited Beijing on Friday to talk to potential investors.

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France’s president says the European Union will force banks to raise their capital to higher levels already by 2012 rather than 2019.

Nicolas Sarkozy said Sunday the capital buffers banks have to achieve under the Basel III rules will already be obligatory for big EU banks as of next year.

He did not say how much money banks will have to raise as a result. He was speaking after a summit of the 27 EU leaders.

The Basel III rules require banks to have a capital ratio of 9 percent of risky assets. That is much higher than the 5 percent they needed to pass EU stress tests this summer.

A European official said Saturday that would force banks to raise just over euro100 billion ($137.98 billion).

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

BRUSSELS (AP) _ Greece’s prime minister pleaded Sunday for a comprehensive solution to the European debt crisis that has swallowed his country and is threatening to suck in larger economies, but the continent’s leaders warned the world may have to wait a few more days.

The search for a comprehensive solution to its escalating debt troubles has divided the continent. Increasingly it is pitting not only the poorer countries in the eurozone against their richer neighbors that are tired of bailing them out, but also sparking anger from governments outside the 17-state currency union, who fear being dragged into the mess.

“The crisis in the eurozone is having a chilling effect on all our economies, Britain included. … We have to deal with this issue,” British Prime Minister David Cameron said on his way into the meeting of the 27-country EU. Britain does not use the euro. Later in the day, the leaders of countries the 17 that use the euro will meet on their own.

Cameron’s eurozone counterparts, meanwhile, tried to lower expectations for Sunday’s meetings, saying the real decisions will be made Wednesday at another emergency summit.

“Let’s put the expectations in context: Don’t count on decisions today,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said.

Leaders are in the difficult position of not being able to decide on anything until everything is in place, since each piece of the crisis puzzle affects the others.

The biggest sticking point is how to most effectively use Europe’s bailout fund to make sure Italy and Spain don’t see their borrowing costs spiral out of control as happened with Greece, Portugal and Ireland. Europe doesn’t have enough money to rescue Italy and Spain as it did the other three countries; analysts say it must act now to eliminate the possibility of their collapse.

Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi at a meeting on Sunday morning to reform the country’s economy before it’s too late, according to a German official. He spoke on condition of anonymity to describe private discussions.

While the German and French leaders presented a united front to Italy, their disagreements over how best to use the bailout fund, which is called the European Financial Stability Facility, are causing delays.

France wants the fund to be allowed to tap the massive cash reserves of the European Central Bank _ an option Germany rejects. And weaker economies are wary of agreeing to the other two parts of the grand plan _ bigger bank capital and cuts to Greece’s debt _ without assurance that the bailout fund is ready to provide support.

Until it does, the continuing uncertainty will roil markets and slow growth across Europe and even the world.

Worst off, of course, is Greece, which reeling from several rounds of budget cuts that have sparked a series of strikes and riots.

“Greece has proven again and again that we are making the necessary decisions to make our economy sustainable, and make our economy more just,” Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou told reporters as he headed into Sunday’s meetings. “We are doing what we need from our side … but it’s been proven now that the crisis is not a Greek crisis. The crisis is a European crisis, so now is the time that we as Europeans need to act decisively and effectively.”

To ease the pressure on the country, banks will be asked to accept much bigger losses on the country’s bonds.

Austria’s chancellor said the cut in the value of Greek government bond will likely be raised “in the direction of 40 to 50 percent.”

“A cut in the debt is the right step,” Werner Faymann told Austrian newspaper Wiener Kurier. The comments were confirmed by one of his aides.

Despite massive budget cuts and reforms, a new report has said that Greece’s economic situation is still dire and that worsening economic conditions mean it could take the country decades to emerge from the crisis.

The report from debt inspectors said the eurozone and the International Monetary Fund would likely have to lend Athens more money unless the banks accept a 60 percent writedown of the bonds they hold. That would be on top of the euro110 billion ($300 billion) in rescue loans that have been propping up with country since May 2010.

Another rescue of a similar size was agreed to in July, but it’s now clear that deal did not go far enough. For instance, it called for only a 21 percent cut in Greek bond holdings; leaders are now discussing a much more significant reduction, though an exact percentage has not yet emerged.

The near-consensus among eurozone countries that Greece’s debt will have to be slashed is one of the reasons banks across Europe _ not only in the 17-country eurozone _ will be forced to shore up their capital buffers in the coming months.

A European official said Saturday that new rules agreed by EU finance ministers would see banks having to raise just over euro100 billion ($140 billion). The official was speaking on condition of anonymity because the rules were pending approval from EU leaders.

However, on Sunday it was uncertain whether EU leaders would even be able to sign off on the bank capital rules before a second summit Wednesday. A draft of summit conclusions from Sunday morning only welcomed the progress made by finance ministers, adding that the final decision would be made by yet another finance ministers’ meeting on Wednesday ahead of the second summit.

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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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The Philippine president has announced a 72 billion peso ($1.66 billion) stimulus package to cushion the economy as Asian governments step up efforts to ward off the global fallout from Europe’s debt crisis.

President Benigno Aquino III said Wednesday that the world economic slowdown is already having some impact on growth in Asia, including the Philippines, and the government “is working overtime to make certain that we do what must be done to maintain our economy’s momentum.”

On Tuesday, Indonesia’s central bank lowered its benchmark interest rate by a quarter percentage point to 6.5 percent to offset the impact of turmoil in financial markets and a slowing global economy.

Asia bounced back relatively quickly from the last global recession that was sparked by the 2008 financial crisis, helped in part by China’s massive stimulus spending. But some economists say the region is not as well placed to respond to a new slowdown because inflation is high and a lot of fiscal ammunition has already been spent fighting the last crisis.

Aquino said that his government’s additional spending this year includes 6.5 billion pesos ($149 million) for local infrastructure and poverty alleviation and 10 billion pesos ($230 million) to relocate squatters affected by floods and landslides Payday advance.

Another 5.5 billion pesos ($126 million) will be spent on national infrastructure projects and 6.3 billion pesos ($146 million) to upgrade two of metropolitan Manila’s light rail lines.

“This spending will provide added stimulus to our economy,” he said in a speech at the Foreign Correspondents Association of The Philippines. “The stimulus will be spent on projects that will have high macroeconomic impact, and will help the poor.”

The government’s economic growth forecast for this year has been lowered to a range of 5 percent to 6 percent from the 7 to 8 percent expansion projected in January. Aquino said the target for next year is also 5 to 6 percent growth.

The effects of the stimulus will be felt not just at the end of this year but also in the first half of next year, Aquino said. The spending is being funded from savings and existing loans.

Last year, the Philippine economy galloped to its highest annual growth in more than two decades, expanding 7.3 percent on strong foreign trade and election campaign spending.

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