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The U.S. ambassador here says the Obama administration remains open to the idea of keeping thousands of American troops in Iraq next year, if asked, despite a spike of deathly attacks on soldiers by Shiite militias.

Ambassador James F. Jeffrey emphasized Saturday that no decision has been made by Washington. Baghdad’s Shiite-led government has not asked to extend the U.S. troop presence, though it is widely expected to do so.

Jeffrey says U.S. troops appear to be the militias’ top target now, but that attacks will continue against Iraqis if the American military leaves.

Fifteen U.S. soldiers died in Iraq in June, nearly all of them killed by Shiite militiamen. It was the bloodiest month for Americans troops in two years.

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As its strike against local building contractors moves into its fourth week, the St. Louis Bricklayers union plans to ask a federal mediator to step in if the contentious impasse continues when the two sides reconvene on Monday.

Business Manager Don Brown of the bricklayers’ Local 1 blames the stalemate on the St. Louis Mason Contractors Association, which Brown accuses of trying to use the economic downturn to loosen the unions’ grip on local construction projects.

“It’s a tactic that hasn’t been tried here before,” Brown said. “They’re trying to get members to resign from the union. It’s telling guys, ‘You can scab on your own union.’”

Association Executive Director David Gillick denies any attempt to bust the union, citing an alliance between the bricklayers and union contractors dating back a century. At issue, Gillick said, is the association’s belief that the future success of regional construction rests on a fundamental shift in the way unions and contractors do business.

“We choose to be union contractors. They choose to be union bricklayers. But if we don’t change the path we’ve been on, the marketplace will change it for us. It won’t be our choice anymore,” said Gillick.

Len Toenjes, president of the Associated General Contractors of St. Louis, said the split between the two parties exemplified a failed reliance on short-term fixes to the complex task of positioning the region to compete in the post-recession economy.

“In order to attract development, we need to be competitive,” Toenjes said. “But striking a reasonable balance is difficult for everybody. And it’s especially hard when two (organizations) that have been doing business for 100 years are suddenly thrust into the global marketplace.”

The public bickering marks an end to a pledge by the union not to negotiate the terms of its next contract in public. Brown said he broke that agreement in response to remarks Gillick made in an interview ten days ago with Charlie Brennan on KMOX radio.

The bricklayers walked off the job when the five-year contract they agreed to in 2006 expired at midnight, June 1. Approximately 500 members of Local 1 haven’t worked since.

Another 200 have remained on projects, part of an “interim agreement” with a handful of contractors who agreed to honor the terms of a new contract retroactively, assuming a settlement can be reached.

Local 1 also hit the pavement five years ago when talks faltered in a resolution of the 2006 pact. That strike lasted only five days.

What separates the tone of the negotiations in 2006 from 2011, said Brown, is the economic climate.

Compensation and work rules are the primary negotiating points separating the two parties. The association is asking for concessions that would peel back salary and benefits by four percent. Local 1 has balked at the proposal, noting that economy-induced declines in construction already slashed the average annual bricklayer salary to $30,702 in 2010.

The hours worked by bricklayers this year have already dropped 38 percent, Brown said. To the union, taking a salary reduction in a depleted construction market makes no sense.

“Even if we agreed to (a pay cut), there still won’t be any residential work out there, because they just aren’t building homes right now, and they won’t start until the banks start releasing money,” said Brown.

The two sides also can’t get together on a rule change that would increase the allowable weight of bricks lifted by workers from 30- to 40-pound masonry blocks.

Brown, citing a study, said a bricklayer hoisting 40-pound blocks 200 times a day would lift the equivalent of five pickup trucks a week or 2 1/2 fully loaded 747 jetliners over the course of a year.

Gillick maintains the 40-pound lift is consistent with union-regulated rules in other jurisdictions, including those in Illinois.

The union and the contractors are in accord on one aspect of the strike: Without an expedited agreement, current projects throughout the region will soon suffer the consequences of the labor stoppage.

Toenjes says some construction sites are already ’seeing an impact.”

And Gillick cautions the situation is “hitting a critical point” as bricklayers are needed to complement the work of carpenters, ironworkers, sheet metal workers and other tradesmen.

“Their patience is running thin, and they won’t be able to let a project dwindle,” Gillick said of general contractors and clients in the region. “They are going to have to make a decision about whether to bring in a union guy or a non-union guy. And in some cases that is already happening.”

On Friday, Day 17 of the strike, neither Gillick nor Brown was optimistic that an agreement might be imminent.

One measure of the distance separating the two men was Gillick’s reaction when asked if he’d agree with Brown to turning negotiations over to a federal mediator.

His answer: Probably not.

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Builders broke ground on more new homes in May, but not enough to signal a recovery in the troubled housing market.

New-home construction rose 3.5 percent from April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 560,000 units per year, the Commerce Department said Thursday.

Economists say the pace of construction is far below the 1.2 million new homes per year that must be built to sustain a healthy housing market. Many credit-strapped builders are struggling to compete with low-priced foreclosures.

Housing permits, a gauge of future construction, rose 8.7 percent last month, to the highest level since December. But apartment and condominium construction accounted for a large portion of that increase. Permits for buildings with five or more housing units jumped to its highest point since October 2008, well before a second wave of foreclosures knocked home prices down further.

The number of single-family homes started in May rose a modest 3.7 percent. It’s at its highest point since January. But the construction pace of single-family homes, which accounts for about 80 percent of all residential construction, is well below the 2010 rate. The last two years were the worst for housing starts on records going back to 1959.

Fewer new homes mean fewer jobs. Each home built creates an average of three jobs for a year and generates about $90,000 in taxes, according to the National Association of Home Builders.

Builders are struggling to compete with millions of foreclosures that are forcing down prices for re-sold homes. The median price of a new home is about 34 percent higher than the median price for a re-sale. That’s more than twice the markup in healthy housing markets.

“The high premium is expected to continue to sway potential buyers to existing homes and away from new ones,” said Christos Shiamptanis, economist at TD Economics.

In some cities, prices are half of what they were before the housing market collapsed in 2006 and 2007. Tougher lending standards have made home loans hard to come by. Many would-be buyers who could qualify for loans are worried prices will fall further. Others are reluctant to put their own homes up for sale when prices are dropping.

Home prices in big metro areas have sunk to their lowest since 2002, the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city index showed last month. Since the bubble burst, prices have fallen more than they did during the Great Depression. It took 19 years for the housing market to regain its losses after the Depression ended.

And this time, prices aren’t expected to come back up anytime soon.

Home building was uneven across the country: It fell 3.3 and 4.1 percent last month in the Northeast and Midwest, respectively, but rose 1.5 percent and 18.1 percent in the South and West. The big gains in the West were largely due to increased apartment construction.

Many foreclosures have been delayed as regulators and state attorneys general work out the details of new lending requirements and penalties for banks. Until those rules are finished, banks won’t ease their stricter lending rules. Most private lenders are requiring 20 percent down payments.

Few people think it makes sense to put their home on the market in this environment. Roughly 92 percent of homeowners say it’s a bad time to sell, according to the latest Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan index of consumer sentiment.

In some badly hit areas, such as Phoenix, Tampa and Las Vegas, a housing recovery could take years.

The homebuilders’ trade group said Wednesday that its survey of homebuilder sentiment fell to 13 _ the lowest level since September. Any reading below 50 indicates negative sentiment about the market. The index hasn’t reached that level since April 2006.

Builders are not hopeful for a turnaround this year. An index that gauges sales expectations over the next six months fell in June to its lowest level on records dating back to 1985.

The weak housing market is weighing on the overall economic recovery.

But housing helps the broader economy in other ways.

Home equity accounts for most of the wealth of typical households. Equity is nearing its lowest point on records going back to the end of World War II. When prices fall, state and local property tax collections dry up and people spend less. Consumer spending fuels about 70 percent of the U.S. economy, more than any other industrialized nation.

In past modern-day recessions, housing accounted for 15 to 20 percent of overall economic growth. This time around, between 2009 and 2010, housing contributed just 4 percent to the economy.

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LM Ericsson AB has signed a deal to buy U.S.-based software development firm Telcordia for $1.15 billion, the Swedish wireless equipment company said Tuesday.

Ericsson said it will buy 100 percent of the shares in Telcordia from private equity firms Providence Equity Partners LLC and Warburg Pincus and expects to complete the acquisition in the fourth quarter 2011.

Telcordia, based in Piscataway, New Jersey, develops mobile, broadband and enterprise communications software and services. It reported revenues of $739 million during the fiscal year, ending January 31 and employs 2,600 people who will now be transferred to Ericsson.

The Swedish company said Telcordia has a leading market position within the operations and business support system field _ producing computer systems that are used by telecommunications operators to handle the growth in mobile and fixed broadband traffic easy payday loans.

“The importance of operations and business support systems will continue to grow as more and more devices are connected, services become mobile and new business models for mobile broadband are introduced,” Ericsson CEO Hans Vestberg said.

The acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals.

Shares in Ericsson rose by 1.8 percent to 88.80 Swedish kronor ($13.99) in Stockholm.

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There are some pretty basic rules about personal finance, and my money mistake involves violating them all. This was no accident mind you. I did it willfully and with no small sense of pleasure. (Keep this article away from young children.)

I was posted to New York at the age of 28 as a business journalist, and intended to live within the somewhat modest means of a newspaper correspondent. And I stuck to my guns, for at least six months. Then I abandoned my guns, hopped over the wall into no man’s land, went AWOL. And in retrospect I’m glad I did, because the investment in my career and the experiences were worth more than the thousands of dollars I figure it cost me.

I blame my fall on the city: Her high rent, irresistible restaurants, the plays, the fashion, the travel beckoning, the fascinating people from all over the world. But for all of that, I might never have strayed.

It’s not hard to keep track of whether you can afford something or not — that’s what bank statements are for. But, I reasoned, this is New York. I will only live here once, and to live and work here and not absorb all its delights would be criminal. The real gamble was that my future, post-New-York self would reap a reward in the form of a higher salary and a better job and that would presumably help me pay down all the debt.

First I gave up the uptown studio apartment that fit my budget and moved to more convenient SoHo on the lower West Side. Then I bought the clothes that kept me in fashion in cutting-edge New York. I shopped smart, sales in out of the way stores.

My new friends liked to dine out (most people I knew in New York used their oven as additional storage space) and pretty soon we were traveling too. Italy, Spain, Italy, the Hamptons, Italy. We travelled together, and an Italian villa back then was a steal — I was practically saving money by going.

Within a few years, I was rich in experience, a billionaire in sights and sounds, a queen of couture. And tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt. The lowest moment, financially speaking, was when I cashed in my RRSP — paid a huge chunk of tax on it, lost the compounding potential, and used the money to pay off a credit card. Or most of it.

Now financial experts would say that’s not the worst move — after all, no investment return will net you the 19 to 29 per cent you pay on credit card debt.

It seems to me I broke every one of the three cardinal rules of personal finance.

Live within your means. As Dickens said: If you spend even a penny less than you earn, happiness follows, a penny more, misery. I certainly did that — minus the misery.

Start saving early. The miracle of compound interest means the sooner you start the less you will need to save later. Throw in the tax benefits of a registered retirement savings plan and you get a real kick to your savings.

I started saving in an RRSP pretty much as soon as I had income after university. I managed, by my mid-twenties, to be maxing out my annual amount. Then I cashed it all out, losing $40,000 and a lot more potential. But there’s more.

Avoid credit card debt. Paying only the monthly minimum on a big balance is the surest route to penury. Though you will find yourself newly popular with credit card companies who will generously raise your spending limit. Knowing this, I dutifully avoided credit debt until I got to New York. Until then I had used it for the inevitable short-term bridging periods incurred by a combination of extreme poverty and an inconvenient need for food.

So there you have it. Money mistakes one through three. But as for the outcome — well, Dickens would not approve. It ended pretty much the way my 28-year-old self thought it would. I got a higher profile, a high paying job in New York and, when that helped me land a better, even higher paying job back in Canada, I paid off my credit card debt in six months.

Was it a mistake? On a straight math basis yes. It was foolish. But would I do the same thing over again? In a New York minute.

Manitoba native Amanda Lang is CBC’s senior business correspondent for TheNational, and is co-host of the Lang & O’Leary Exchange. She has worked for CNN, the Financial Post and the Globe & Mail.

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Police have arrested 14 Greenpeace activists who climbed aboard an oil rig off Greenland’s coast to protest deepwater drilling in the Arctic.

Four Greenpeace members are still onboard the Leiv Eiriksson oil rig, where they have locked themselves in two separate crane cabins, police and the environmental group said Saturday.

The rig is operated by Scottish oil group Cairn Energy, which has temporarily suspended its drilling due to the protest.

Police spokesman Morten Nielsen said those arrested will be taken to Nuuk, the semiautonomous Danish territory’s capital, and kept in detention. “I’m not sure whether we’re making more arrests today,” he said.

The activists launched five inflatable boats from the Greenpeace ship Esperanza early Saturday, bypassing the Danish navy and scaling the giant rig to demand that the company publish its plan for managing a potential oil spill in the freezing waters.

Greenpeace says Cairn Energy is not taking enough precautions to avoid accidents like the BP’s Gulf of Mexico blowout last year, saying the remoteness and the freezing temperatures in the area would make any spill cleanup extremely difficult.

Cairn insisted that it “seeks to operate in a safe and prudent manner” and that Greenland authorities have established stringent operating regulations similar to those in the North Sea quick guaranteed personal loans. It also said it has developed “an extensive emergency response and oil spill response plan” but that is not publicly available after a decision by Greenland authorities.

Cairn last month won permission to drill up to seven oil exploration wells off the Arctic island’s west coast.

Greenland’s government has called the Greenpeace action a publicity stunt that comes at the expense of Greenland’s “legitimate right” to develop its economy.

Earlier this week, two Greenpeace activists were arrested under the rig, hanging just a few meters from the drill-bit and preventing Cairn from starting drilling for four days.

Greenpeace says it has received a legal summons from Cairn’s lawyers for having cost the company up to $4 million for every day it could not drill and could face substantial fines for the security breaches. The lawsuit will be heard Monday in a Dutch court.

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Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and the CEO of Chrysler say it

The International Monetary Fund said it aims to complete the selection of a successor to Dominique Strauss-Kahn by June 30.

Countries will be able to nominate candidates for the managing director’s position between May 23 and June 10, the Washington-based IMF said in a statement today. The board will meet with all candidates if there are fewer than four and with a short list if there are more.

The procedure “allows the selection of the next managing director to take place in an open, merit-based, and transparent manner,” said Shakour Shaalan, the senior member of the 24- person board.

The IMF said the board’s objective is to select the managing director by consensus.

French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde emerged as the leading contender to replace Strauss-Kahn, who was indicted yesterday on charges including attempted rape, as European officials moved to maintain control over the institution.

Officials in emerging markets including Thailand, Russia and South Africa said the next IMF managing director should come from a developing nation even as they failed to unite behind one candidate the way Europe coalesced around Lagarde.

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In case you missed the recent media blitz, this week marked the one-year anniversary of Panera Bread Co.’s experimental pay-what-you-want nonprofit cafe in Clayton fast cash without a hassle.

Yes, one year later, the cafe is still kicking.

Based on its success, Panera’s foundation has transferred two more cafes to the nonprofit model