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South Sudan is negotiating loans to boost the value of its currency and keep its economy afloat as foreign-exchange reserves decline after the country halted oil production, Deputy Finance Minister Marial Awou Yol said.

The East African nation has secured a $100 million line of credit from Qatar National Bank and will receive a $500-million loan within a month from an unidentified provider, Yol said in an interview in Juba, the capital, on May 8. Loans are also being sought from countries including China.

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The price of oil is down another 2 percent as signs of global economic weakness raise concerns about energy demand.

Oil has fallen every day since May 1. The price of benchmark U.S. crude has dropped by 6.7 percent in that time, while Brent crude has declined 5.4 percent.

On Tuesday, benchmark U.S. crude lost $2.31, or 2.3 percent, to $95.63 per barrel in New York. Brent crude lost $2.32, or 2 percent, to $110.84 per barrel in London.

Prices have declined on disappointing jobs numbers in the U personal business card.S. and elections in France and Greece that put Europe’s austerity program in jeopardy. Analysts say benchmark crude could hit $90 by Labor Day.

Meanwhile, the national average for gas is now $3.76, down 17.2 cents per gallon since early April.

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As with fast payday loans, this recently used to be the case, but competitive lenders and higher demand has taken this loan type to mainstay levels.

Furious Greeks punished the two parties that have dominated politics for decades in the crisis-battered country Sunday, leaving its multibillion dollar international bailout _ and even its future in the euro currency _ hanging in the balance.

With more than 83 percent of the vote counted, Greece appeared to be heading toward political stalemate. Nobody won enough votes to form a government, and the two parties that backed the bailout _ the conservative New Democracy and socialist PASOK _ conceded they need to win over adversaries to form a viable coalition.

“I understand the rage of the people, but our party will not leave Greece ungoverned,” said New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras.

New Democracy was leading with nearly 20 percent of the vote, which would give it 110 seats in the 300-member parliament. PASOK, which has spent 21 years in government since 1981 and stormed to victory with more than 43 percent in 2009, saw its support slashed to about 13.5 percent. It will have just 41 seats, compared to 160 in the last election.

The two parties saw their support plummet to the lowest level since 1974, when Greece emerged from a seven-year dictatorship. The outcome showed widespread public anger at the harsh austerity measures imposed over the past two years in return for rescue loans from other European Union countries and the International Monetary Fund. Without the funds, Greece faced a disastrous default that could have dragged down other financially troubled European countries and seen it leave the euro.

Voters who deserted the two mainstays of Greek politics in droves headed to a cluster of smaller parties on both the left and right, including the extremist Golden Dawn, which rejects the neo-Nazi label and insists it is nationalist patriotic. The movement has been blamed for violent attacks on immigrants and ran on an anti-immigrant platform, vowing to “clean up” Greece and calling for land mines to be planted along the country’s borders. The party looked set to win about 7 percent of the vote, giving it 21 deputies in parliament _ a stunning rise for a group that earned just 0.29 percent of the vote in 2009.

Sunday’s other big winner was Alexis Tsipras, the 38-year-old leader of the Radical Left Coalition, or Syriza, who saw his party poised for an unprecedented second place with 16.4 percent and 51 seats _ the first time in nearly 40 years that any party other than New Democracy or PASOK has held the spot.

Turnout stood at just over 64 percent _ a low figure for the country, where voting is officially compulsory, although no sanctions are applied for not casting a ballot.

Negotiations are expected to begin Monday to form a coalition. As first party, Samaras will get three days to seek partners. If he fails the mandate will go to the second party for a further three days, and then to the third party. If no agreement can be reached, the country heads to new elections guaranteed online personal loans.

Both Samaras and PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos, who spent nine months as finance minister, indicated any unity government would have to include more than just their two parties.

But in a note that will likely raise alarm among Greece’s international creditors, Samaras insisted any coalition should renegotiate the terms of the country’s bailout.

“We are ready to take up the responsibility to form a new government of national salvation with two exclusive aims: For Greece to remain in the euro and to amend the terms of the loan agreements so that there is economic growth and relief for Greek society,” he said.

Riding high on his massive gains, Tsipras stuck to his anti-bailout position, saying the agreement should be overturned altogether.

“The people have rewarded a proposal made by us to form a government of the Left that will cancel the loan agreements and overturn the course of our people toward misery,” he said before heading out to meet throngs of jubilant supporters.

More than two years of repeated austerity measures that have included pension and salary cuts and waves of tax hikes have pushed Greece into a deep recession that has seen the jobless rate explode and tens of thousands of businesses close.

Venizelos insisted his party, which was in power from the start of the crisis in late 2009 until a political crisis forced it into an uneasy coalition with New Democracy, had no choice but to impose the spending cuts.

“For us at PASOK, the day is particularly painful,” he said. “We knew that we would pay the price, having taken an emotionally and political unbearable position to take the measures that were necessary.”

He called for a broad coalition of pro-European parties, regardless on their stance on the bailouts.

“A coalition government of the old two-party system would not have sufficient legitimacy or sufficient domestic and international credibility if it would gather a slim majority,” Venizelos said. “A government of national unity with the participation of all the parties that favor a European course, regardless of their positions toward the loan agreements, would have meaning.”

The political leaders, humbled by the drubbing in the polls which saw their combined support drop to about 33 percent, compared to a historical average of 80 percent, will have to work fast to ensure their country doesn’t slide into protracted political instability. Greece’s international creditors are also looking to see whether it will introduce new measures expected in June to ensure the country meets the fiscal targets of its rescue loans.

____

Demetris Nellas and Nebi Qena in Athens and Costas Kantouris in Thessaloniki contributed.

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Myanmar wants the U.S. to lift sanctions faster after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said some restrictions on investment and financial services would be eased, according to an adviser to President Thein Sein.

Iraq’s al-Qaida branch has claimed responsibility for the wave of bombings and other attacks that killed dozens in Baghdad and across the country the day before.

The Islamic State of Iraq says it targeted security forces and government officials in “revenge for the elimination and torture campaigns that Sunni men and women face in the prisons of Baghdad and other cities.”

The daylong series of attacks in 12 cities across Iraq killed 55 and wounded 225 people. The al-Qaida claim was posted on militant websites late Thursday.

In the past two months since the American military pulled out of Iraq, al-Qaida and other Sunni militants have stepped up attacks on Shiites, raising concern of a new surge in sectarian violence.

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

BAGHDAD (AP) _ Bombs and deadly shootings relentlessly pounded Iraqis on Thursday, killing at least 55 people and wounding more than 225 in a widespread wave of violence the government called a “frantic attempt” by insurgents to prove the country will never be stable.

Cars burned, school desks were bloodied, bandaged victims lay in hospitals and pools of blood were left with the wounded on floors of bombed businesses after the daylong series of attacks in 12 cities across Iraq.

The assault demonstrated how vulnerable the country remains two months after the American military left and put the onus for protecting the public solely in the hands of Iraqi forces.

“There was no reason for this bomb. A primary school is here, students came to study and people came to work,” Karim Abbas woefully said in the town of Musayyib, where he saw a car bomb parked near an elementary school kill three people and wound 73. Most of the injured in the town, located about 40 miles (60 kilometers) south of Baghdad, were schoolchildren.

Other Iraqis, fed up with the continued violence, furiously blamed security forces for letting it happen.

“We want to know: What were the thousands of policemen and soldiers in Baghdad doing today while the terrorists were roaming the city and spreading violence?” said Ahmed al-Tamimi, who was working at an Education Ministry office a block away from a restaurant bombed in the Shiite neighborhood of Kazimiyah in northern Baghdad.

He described a hellish scene of human flesh and pools of blood at the restaurant, where another car bomb killed nine people and wounded 19.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the latest attacks, but car bombs are a hallmark of al-Qaida. The Iraqi Interior Ministry blamed al-Qaida insurgents for the violence.

“These attacks are part of frantic attempts by the terrorist groups to show that the security situation in Iraq will not ever be stable,” the ministry said in a statement. “These attacks are part of al-Qaida efforts to deliver a message to its supporters that al-Qaida is still operating inside Iraq, and it has the ability to launch strikes inside the capital or other cities and towns.”

Fifteen of the day’s 26 attacks targeted security forces on patrols, at checkpoints and around government and political offices. Six policemen were killed at their checkpoint in northern Baghdad in a pre-dawn drive-by shooting. A suicide bomber blew up his car in front of a police station in Baqouba, 35 miles (60 kilometers) northeast of Baghdad, killing two and wounding eight.

Such violence undermines the public’s confidence in the ability of their policemen and soldiers to protect everyday citizens, and discourages people from joining or helping the security forces.

All the casualties were reported by local police and hospital officials in the cities where the attacks took place. Most spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.

A statement by the Sunni-dominated Iraqiya political party, the main opposition bloc to the Shiite-led government, called on Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to accept full responsibility for protecting the public.

“If the government fails to do so, then it should resign and the parliament should choose a government capable of confronting the terrorists and impose security and stability in all over Iraq,” the statement said.

Even months before U.S. troops left, extremists launched large-scale attacks every few weeks. The violence now is nowhere as frequent as it was during the tit-for-tat sectarian fighting that almost pushed Iraq into civil war a few years ago. But the attacks appear to be more deadly than they were before American military’s withdrawal in late December.

Days after the American military left, a Dec. 22 wave of bombs targeting Shiites killed at least 69 people. That happened twice more over the following three weeks, killing 78 and 53, respectively. Al-Qaida was blamed for them all.

Until the U.S. troops left, the most sweeping attack of 2011 was in August in a multi-city bombing spree that killed 63.

The renewed potency of the violence points to a dangerous security gap that Iraqi forces have not yet solved without the help of the U.S. military: Gathering intelligence on militants plotting attacks.

Ongoing negotiations between the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and the Iraqi government are addressing, in part, how to supply security forces with enough equipment and training to conduct surveillance and reconnaissance operations.

Turbulence in Iraq’s political system also has fueled sectarian tensions, but there’s no indication so far that it’s led to violence. The day after the U.S. withdrawal on Dec. 18, the Shiite-led government announced an arrest warrant against Iraq’s highest-ranking Sunni politician, Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, on charges he commandeered death squads against security forces and government officials.

Al-Hashemi has denied the charges he calls politically motivated, and many Iraqis fear the case will bring the return of widespread sectarian violence. The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad alluded to that in a statement Thursday calling the terrorist attacks “heinous” acts that “tear at the fabric of Iraqi unity.” Parliament Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi condemned the attacks as an attempt “at igniting strife among Iraqi people.”

Yet in an encouraging sign that Iraq’s government is able to function, Parliament late Thursday approved the nation’s $100 billion operating budget for 2012.

Al-Nujaifi said Thursday’s blast likely sought to frighten diplomats from attending the Arab League’s annual summit, scheduled to be held in Baghdad in late March. The League meeting was canceled in Baghdad last year amid similar fears.

Douglas A. Ollivant, who oversaw Iraq policy at the National Security Council at the White House from 2008 to 2009, said that while security forces may not be able to stop al-Qaida, the violence has come nowhere close to pushing the nation back into war.

“Al-Qaida has been incredibly ineffective in its goal of renewing sectarian violence,” said Ollivant, now senior fellow at the New America Foundation in Washington. “Yes, Iraq has a terrorism problem and it needs to get better at dealing with it. But al-Qaida’s inability to get any traction on their larger strategy is demonstrating that the civil war in Iraq is decidedly over.”

But as the burning, charred cars that littered streets across the country showed Thursday, Iraq’s battle against terrorism and violence is far from over.

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German unemployment dropped more than economists forecast to a two-decade low in January, bolstering economic growth as the euro region

Attention college students: The interest rate on federal student loans is scheduled to double this summer unless Congress acts soon.

Loans taken out for the current school year carried an interest rate of 3.4%, thanks to a 2007 law that phased in rate reductions for subsidized Stafford loans to undergraduate students. But the law did not specify the rate after this year. So unless something is done, rates on new loans will revert back to 6.8% — where they were in 2007.

President Obama urged lawmakers in his State of the Union address Tuesday to stop this rate hike from going into effect. He also asked Congress to extend the enhanced Hope Scholarship program, which increased the maximum tax credit to $2,500. And he wants to double the number of federal work-study jobs.

But it remains to be seen whether this deficit-conscious Congress will act, especially since extending the 3.4% rate would cost $5.6 billion a year, according to Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid.org. All told, Obama’s proposals would total at least $10 billion a year.

While the president has focused on expanding access to college for low- and middle-income children, lawmakers have taken several steps to whittle away at student aid.

5 colleges slashing tuition

Congress has eliminated subsidized loans for graduate students, as well as most discounts. They also cut $8 billion out of the Pell Grant program for low-income students and reduced the income threshold for eligibility for a full Pell Grant.

"[Since] Congress just passed legislation cutting student financial aid funding, it’s unlikely they’ll pass legislation increasing student aid funding," Kantrowitz said.

Raising student loan rates will prove costly, said Lauren Asher, president of the Project on Student Debt. Someone who graduates with $23,000 in debt will pay an additional $4,600 in interest over 10 years.

Two-thirds of college seniors graduating in 2010 had student loan debt, and the average balance was more than $25,000, the project found.

"In this tough economy, people are concerned about the cost of college and the burden of debt to follow," Asher said. 

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Retail sales look poised for a solid finish to the holiday season as consumers hit stores and went online to snap up last-minute gifts, according to data released on Wednesday.

Still, overall sales growth lagged the increase in online spending and some brick-and-mortar retailers struggled. Steep discounts were prevalent throughout the season, tactics that drove sales but could crimp profitability at some chains.

The International Council of Shopping Centers/Goldman Sachs weekly chain store sales index rose 4.5 percent during the week ending December 24, versus a holiday-shortened pre-Christmas Day week in 2010. Redbook Research put the year-over-year gain at 4.3 percent.

Adjusted for the calendar mismatch, the ICSC/Goldman index rose 0.9 percent for the week ending December 24, compared with the prior week.

“The finish is solid and the season itself was good,” said ICSC Chief Economist Michael Niemira. “November was on the soft side but December will be better.”

ICSC is sticking with its holiday sales growth forecast of 3.5 percent, which it issued in September.

“Major players, such as Macy’s (M.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), are fine,” Niemira added. “Specialty stores are likely to be more uneven. Specialty apparel seems to have been hit by abnormally warm weather. Sales were on the slow side and there has been more discounting consequently.”

The biggest shopping malls and regional malls saw the strongest customer traffic since the first week of 2011. Factory outlets remained busy, but less so than the prior week, he said.

Consumers ratcheted down their online spending compared with

earlier in December, but visits to and spending at electronics and department stores increased during the week, Niemira noted.

U.S. consumer confidence rose more than expected in December, hitting an eight-month high, as Americans grew more upbeat about the labor market and their financial situation, the Conference Board said on Tuesday. That followed a report early in December showing U.S. unemployment at the lowest level since March 2009.

However, U.S. house prices are still falling, tempering economic optimism, and some retailers are suffering.

Sears Holdings Corp (SHLD.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said on Tuesday that it will shut as many as 120 stores after poor sales. Borders Group (BGPIQ.PK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Filene’s Basement were among retailers that filed for bankruptcy protection from creditors this year, and shut down, with Filene’s stores set to close shortly.

Part of the problem may be competition with online retailers, who saw faster sales growth this holiday season, suggesting e-commerce took market share from brick-and-mortar stores.

Online spending in the United States reached a record $35.27 billion from November 1 through December 26, up 15 percent versus the corresponding period last year, comScore (SCOR.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) reported.

For the week ending December 25, consumers spent $2.83 billion online, up 16 percent from the corresponding period in 2010, comScore also said.

“E-commerce is going to be awesome this holiday and retail will be mediocre,” said Michael Rubin, head of Kynetic, which owns online retail businesses Fanatics, Rue La La and ShopRunner.

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Firing tear gas and rubber bullets, Egyptian riot police on Sunday clashed for a second day with thousands of rock-throwing protesters demanding that the ruling military quickly announce a date to hand over power to an elected government.

The police battled an estimated 5,000 protesters in and around central Cairo’s Tahrir Square, birthplace of the 18-day uprising that toppled authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak in February. Tear gas filled the air as protesters, many chanting “freedom, freedom,” pelted the police with rocks.

Sunday’s clashes, which come a day after two people were killed and hundreds wounded in similar violence in the capital and other cities, are stoking tensions eight days before the start of the country’s first post-Mubarak parliamentary elections. Public anger has risen over the slow pace of reforms and apparent attempts by Egypt’s ruling generals to retain power over a future civilian government.

“We have a single demand: The marshal must step down and be replaced by a civilian council,” said protester Ahmed Hani, referring Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, Egypt’s military ruler and Mubarak’s longtime defense minister.

“The violence yesterday showed us that Mubarak is still in power,” said Hani, who was wounded in the forehead by a rubber bullet. He spoke over chants of “freedom, freedom” by hundreds of protesters around him.

Rocks, shattered glass and trash covered most of the ground in and around Tahrir early Sunday, while a cloud of white smoke caused by the use of dozens of tear gas shells hung in the air. Several hundred protesters were camping out on the lawn of the square’s traffic island, and protesters manning barricades into the square checked the IDs of anyone entering the plaza.

The windows of the main campus of the American University in Cairo, which overlooks the square, were shattered and stores were shuttered. “The marshal is Mubarak’s dog,” said one of a fresh crop of graffiti in the square.

Yahya el-Sawi, a 21-year-old university student, said he was enraged by the sight of riot police beating up protesters already hurt in an earlier attack by the security forces. “I did not support the sit-in at the beginning, but when I saw this brutality I had to come back to be with my brothers,” he said.

Many of the protesters had red eyes and coughed incessantly. Some wore surgical masks to fend off against the tear gas. A few fainted, overwhelmed by the gas.

Sunday’s clashes, which were mostly on a road leading from Tahrir to the Interior Ministry, appeared likely to grow.

Protesters were using social networking sites on the Internet to call on Egyptians to join them, and there were reports of several demonstrations headed to the square, including one from Cairo University guaranteed approval cash advance loans.

The military, which took over from Mubarak, has repeatedly pledged to hand over power to an elected government but it has yet to set a specific date. According to one timetable floated by the military, the handover will take place after presidential elections are held late next year or early in 2013. The protesters say this is too late and accuse the military of dragging its feet. They want a handover to take place immediately after the end of parliamentary elections in March.

On Saturday, police fired rubber bullets, tear gas and beat protesters with batons, clearing the square at one point and pushing the fighting into surrounding side streets of downtown Cairo.

A 23-year-old protester died from a gunshot, said Health Ministry official Mohammed el-Sherbeni. At least 676 people were injured, he said. Another protester was killed in Alexandria, where clashes also took place, said a security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to journalists.

After nightfall, protesters swarmed back into Tahrir in the thousands, and running battles with the police in the streets took place throughout the night. Acrid smoke of tires set ablaze mixed with the stinging white smoke of tear gas.

The government urged protesters to clear the square.

A member of the military council, Maj. Gen. Mohsen el-Fangari, said protesters’ calls for change ahead of the election were a threat to the state.

“What is the point of being in Tahrir?” he asked, speaking by phone to a private TV channel. “What is the point of this strike, of the million marches? Aren’t there legal channels to pursue demands in a way that won’t impact Egypt … internationally?”

“The aim of what is going on is to shake the backbone of the state, which is the armed forces.”

In a warning, he said, “If security is not applied, we will implement the rule of law. Anyone who does wrong will pay for it.”

Saturday’s confrontation was one of the few since the uprising to involve the police, which have largely stayed in the background while the military took charge of security. There was no military presence in and around the square on Saturday or on Sunday. The black-clad police were a hated symbol of Mubarak’s regime.

Some of the wounded had blood streaming down their faces and many had to be carried out of the square by fellow protesters to waiting ambulances. Human rights activists accused police of using excessive force.

Police arrested 18 people, state TV reported, describing the protesters as rioters.

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China will phase out power-draining light bulbs in an efficiency move certain to impact the global market.

The world’s biggest polluter will ban imports and sales of 100-watt-and-higher incandescent bulbs from Oct. 1, 2012. Lower-watt bulbs will be banned in phases until 2016.

China’s main planning agency says 3.85 billion incandescent light bulbs were produced here last year and 1 billion were sold domestically bad credit pay day loans.

The agency’s statement Friday said 12 percent of China’s total electricity use is for lighting. The move is meant to save energy and curb climate change.

The United States and the 27-nation European Union are phasing out the bulbs beginning next year as well.