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A federal judge on Friday dismissed a Utah company’s $1 billion federal antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft Corp. after a jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict.

Novell claims Microsoft duped it into developing the once-popular WordPerfect writing program for Windows 95 only to pull the plug so Microsoft could gain market share with its own product. Novell says it was later forced to sell WordPerfect for a $1.2 billion loss.

The trial has been ongoing in Salt Lake City for two months. Jurors got the case Wednesday morning, but by Friday told the judge they were “hopelessly deadlocked.”

They had expressed confusion to the judge about the complicated case throughout deliberations, even bringing one question to the court that could not be answered. The judge told jurors to simply disregard the question.

Earlier Friday, the judge denied a request from one juror to be removed from the case.

Microsoft lawyers have argued that Novell’s loss of market share was its own doing because the company didn’t develop a compatible WordPerfect program until long after the rollout of Windows 95. WordPerfect once had nearly 50 percent of the market for word processing, but its share quickly plummeted to less than 10 percent as Microsoft’s own Office programs took hold.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates testified last month that he had no idea his decision to drop a tool for outside developers would sidetrack Novell. Gates said he was acting to protect Windows 95 and future versions from crashing.

Novell could have worked around the problem but failed to react quickly, he said.

Novell has argued that Gates ordered Microsoft engineers to reject WordPerfect as a Windows 95 word processing application because he feared it was too good.

Novell’s lawsuit is the last major private antitrust case to follow the settlement of a federal antitrust enforcement action against Microsoft more than eight years ago. The trial began in October in federal court in Salt Lake City.

Novell is now a wholly owned subsidiary of The Attachmate Group, the result of a merger that was completed earlier this year.

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After nearly nine years, 4,500 American dead, 32,000 wounded and more than $800 billion, U.S. officials formally shut down the war in Iraq _ a conflict that U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said was worth the price in blood and money, as it set Iraq on a path to democracy.

Panetta stepped off his military plane in Baghdad Thursday as the leader of America’s war in Iraq, but will leave as one of many top U.S. and global officials who hope to work with the struggling nation as it tries to find its new place in the Middle East and the broader world.

More than 100,000 Iraqis have been killed since the U.S. invasion in 2003, according to the Iraq Body Count website. Bombings and gun battles are still common. And experts are concerned about the Iraqi security force’s ability to defend the nation against foreign threats.

Still, Panetta said earlier this week, the war “has not been in vain.”

Panetta and several other U.S. diplomatic, military and defense leaders participated Thursday in a symbolic ceremony during which the flag of U.S. Forces-Iraq was officially retired, or “cased,” according to Army tradition. The U.S. Forces-Iraq flag was furled _ or wrapped _ around a flagpole and covered in camouflage. It will be brought back to the United States.

“You will leave with great pride _ lasting pride,” Panetta told the troops. “Secure in knowing that your sacrifice has helped the Iraqi people to begin a new chapter in history.”

During a stop in Afghanistan this week, Panetta described the mission as “making that country sovereign and independent and able to govern and secure itself.”

That, he said, is “a tribute to everybody _ everybody who fought in that war, everybody who spilled blood in that war, everybody who was dedicated to making sure we could achieve that mission.”

Iraqi citizens offered a more pessimistic assessment. “The Americans are leaving behind them a destroyed country,” said Mariam Khazim of Sadr City. “The Americans did not leave modern schools or big factories behind them. Instead, they left thousands of widows and orphans.”

A member of the political coalition loyal to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr saw another message in the U.S. withdrawal. “The American ceremony represents the failure of the U.S. occupation of Iraq due to the great resistance of the Iraqi people,” said Sadrist lawmaker Amir al-Kinani.

Panetta echoed President Barack Obama’s promise that the U.S. plans to keep a robust diplomatic presence in Iraq, foster a deep and lasting relationship with the nation and maintain a strong military force in the region.

As of Thursday, there were two U.S. bases and about 4,000 U.S. troops in Iraq _ a dramatic drop from the roughly 500 military installations and as many as 170,000 troops during the surge ordered by President George W. Bush in 2007, when violence and raging sectarianism gripped the country. All U.S. troops are slated to be out of Iraq by the end of the year, but officials are likely to meet that goal a bit before then.

The total U.S. departure is a bit earlier than initially planned, and military leaders worry that it is a bit premature for the still maturing Iraqi security forces, who face continuing struggles to develop the logistics, air operations, surveillance and intelligence sharing capabilities they will need in what has long been a difficult neighborhood payday loans in 1 hour.

U.S. officials were unable to reach an agreement with the Iraqis on legal issues and troop immunity that would have allowed a small training and counterterrorism force to remain. U.S. defense officials said they expect there will be no movement on that issue until sometime next year.

Still, despite Obama’s earlier contention that all American troops would be home for Christmas, at least 4,000 forces will remain in Kuwait for some months. The troops will be able to help finalize the move out of Iraq, but could also be used as a quick reaction force if needed.

Obama met in Washington with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki earlier this week, vowing to remain committed to Iraq as the two countries struggle to define their new relationship. Ending the war was an early goal of the Obama administration, and Thursday’s ceremony will allow the president to fulfill a crucial campaign promise during a politically opportune time. The 2012 presidential race is roiling and Republicans are in a ferocious battle to determine who will face off against Obama in the election.

Panetta acknowledged the difficulties for Iraq in the coming years, as the country tries to find its footing.

“They’re going face challenges in the future,” Panetta said Wednesday during a visit with troops in Afghanistan. “They’ll face challenges from terrorism, they’ll face challenges from those that would want to divide their country. They’ll face challenges from just the test of democracy, a new democracy and trying to make it work. But the fact is, we have given them the opportunity to be able to succeed.”

The ceremony at Baghdad International Airport also featured remarks from Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. Lloyd Austin, the top U.S. commander in Iraq.

Austin is leading the massive logistical challenge of shuttering hundreds of bases and combat outposts, and methodically moving more than 50,000 U.S. troops and their equipment out of Iraq over the last year _ while still conducting training, security assistance and counterterrorism battles.

The war “tested our military’s strength and our ability to adapt and evolve,” he said, noting the development of the new counterinsurgency doctrine.

Over the coming days, the final few thousand U.S. troops will leave Iraq in orderly caravans and tightly scheduled flights _ a marked contrast to the shock and awe that rocked the country on March 20, 2003, as the U.S. invasion began.

Saddam Hussein has been ousted, the reports of weapons of mass destruction largely laid to rest. And the future of a nascent democracy awaits.

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Builders have found a way to make money in a decrepit home market: Apartments.

Permit requests to build apartments jumped to a three-year high last month. In 12 months, they’ve surged 63 percent.

Blame the housing bust, which left many people without the means, the credit or the stomach to buy. More people need apartments. The demand has driven up monthly rents. And apartment-home builders are rushing to cash in.

That said, the overall home market remains depressed. Builders are still struggling. They broke ground on a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 628,000 homes last month, the government said Thursday. That’s barely half the pace that economists equate with a healthy market.

High unemployment, stagnant pay and waves of foreclosures have slowed sales of single-family homes, which make up about 70 percent of the home building market. Apartment construction may be surging, but it’s a small portion of the industry.

More apartment building won’t add enough jobs to reduce unemployment or hasten an end to the housing crisis. Still, it’s contributed to the overall economy’s growth for two straight quarters. And many economists expect apartment construction to grow for at least the next 12 months, as long as the economy avoids another recession.

“You’re not going to see apartments as an economic driver,” said James Marple, senior economist at TD Economics. “But it’s renters who are clearly going to drive the demand for housing.”

It’s also worth keeping the increase in perspective: The growth in apartment construction is coming off extremely low levels. Last year, for example, only 146,000 apartments were built. That was the fewest since 1993. This year’s pace isn’t much more.

By comparison, in 2005, just before the housing market went bust, 258,000 apartments were built. Some signs suggest that builders could match that level over the next few years.

One such sign: Permits for apartment buildings, a gauge of future construction, have jumped more than 60 percent over the past year. That compares with just 6.6 percent growth in permits for single-family construction over the same period.

“The demand is there,” said Mark Obrinsky, chief economist at National Multi Housing Council. “Rents have recovered, much of them to where they were before the recession.”

Bob Champion, who runs a real estate company in Los Angeles, says he has four apartment projects in development. That matches the number he had in 2005.

It’s quite a shift from 2006, when Champion’s company stopped building apartments because the cost of land had skyrocketed.

Champion has raised rents about 4 percent this year. His occupancy rate is 95 percent. As recently as last year, his rents were flat, and he was dangling incentives, like a free month’s rent, to woo tenants.

“People who can’t afford to buy a home, rent,” Champion said. “That’s why the apartment market has stayed healthy.”

Champion won’t likely be building as many apartments next year, though. Land prices have doubled in the past two years, he said. Competition for apartment land has intensified.

For many builders, financing for a project remains a big obstacle. So is time. Apartment projects take an average of 18 months to build.

Still, fewer home buyers mean more people must rent. Nearly 4 million new renting households were created between 2005 and 2010, according to Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. Under normal economic conditions, that’s more than 10 times the number of new renters who would be expected in a five-year span.

Homeownership has fallen more over the past decade than in any other 10-year stretch since the Great Depression. Roughly 65 percent of Americans own homes. That’s down from a peak of nearly 70 percent in the middle of the decade.

As more people have become tenants, landlords have felt emboldened to raise rents.

The average rent in the United States has risen 2.4 percent over the past 12 months to $1,004 a month, according to the real estate data firm Reis Inc. Over the previous year, rents rose just 1 percent. Between 2008 and 2009, they actually fell 2.7 percent.

AvalonBay Communities Inc., based in Arlington, Va., has raised rents by an average 6 percent in the past year. The company earned 11 percent more in rental revenue in the July-September quarter than in the previous quarter.

With nearly 54,000 units, AvalonBay is one of the largest apartment developers in the country. Nearly 96 percent of its apartments had been occupied by the end of September, according to its earnings reports.

The average rent at AvalonBay’s cheapest complex under construction, in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood: $1,715. The builder completed 1,280 more apartments between July and September and started work on 933 others.

At Equity Residential, whose chairman is real estate magnate Sam Zell, rental income jumped 12.7 percent in the July-September quarter over the same period a year before.

Equity Residential is the nation’s largest apartment owner. Nearly 25 percent of its apartments are in Phoenix, Orlando and South Florida, which were hammered by the housing bust and where its average rents are the lowest.

Yet Equity’s properties there are faring well. The average rent for one of the company’s 9,300 apartments in Phoenix rose from $837 last year to $925 this year.

Zell, whose net worth is roughly $5 billion, has publicly extolled the prospects for his apartment business over his office and retail operations.

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Employees are more focused on pay and less on whether their occupation is rewarding, according to a recent survey by compensation specialists Mercer. In previous studies, Mercer found most Canadian respondents said job fulfillment was the key issue.

Yet 47 per cent of survey participants say they are not satisfied with base pay and 42 per cent do not feel they are paid fairly, given their performance and contribution to the organization. At the same time, fewer employees than five years ago understand how their pay is determined, which may contribute to their overall sense of dissatisfaction.

Mercer partner Iain Morrison thinks base pay is a primary concern because  of anxiety about job security and being able to pay for the most basic things. “Since 2008 employees have seen layoffs, pay freezes and reduced availability of training and development,” he says.

The large number of Canadian employees considering leaving their job within six months (36 percent) or who are not looking for work but open to new offers (22 per cent) further underscores high levels of employee disengagement. In fact, employees “sitting on the fence” are more negative about their employment situation than people who are actively seeking new employment.

“You can’t just throw money at these people. You have to find ways to motivate them,” Morrison continues. “If they cannot be re-engaged, it may make sense to try and manage some of them out, because they are the least productive employees and they are not saying anything good about the business.”

After base pay, survey results reveal that Canadian respondents view a good retirement savings or pension plan as the second most important element of the employee value proposition. And somewhat unexpectedly, having a company-provided retirement plan rivals or is more important to younger respondents than having a flexible work schedule.

“Retirement savings have not been on the radar for 25-40 year olds before. But the media has created awareness and employees in their 20s hear their parents close to retirement worrying about pension savings,” says Mercer principal Madeline Avedon.

Overall benefits programs were rated as good or very good by the majority of survey respondents and more than half said they are satisfied with their health benefits. However, 43 per cent want more choice and control to reduce the value of some benefits in order to increase the value of others to meet their needs. About the same number also said they would be willing to contribute towards the cost of new or improved benefits that are important to them.

Also read: Your 2012 raise may be less than inflation and How to improve your odds of getting a raise .

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President Barack Obama has arrived in France to join world leaders at a summit of the Group of 20 industrialized and developing countries, a meeting overshadowed by Europe’s debt crisis and surprise plans by Greece to put a bailout deal to a popular vote.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy (sar-koh-ZEE’) is hosting the two-day meeting in Cannes (kan), France, the city known worldwide for its annual film festival.

Obama was meeting separately Thursday with Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Sarkozy and Merkel helped strike a $130 billion bailout deal for Greece. But the Greek prime minister’s surprising announcement of a December referendum is raising doubts about the deal.

The White House says the U.S. can help guide Europe through its financial crisis but that it’s ultimately Europe’s problem to solve.

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The head of the European Commission says more unification is critical to the EU’s survival.

Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Union’s executive arm, says without “more unification,” there will be “more fragmentation.” He is giving his state of the union address in Strasbourg, France, on Wednesday.

“I think this is going to be a baptism of fire for a whole generation,” Barroso says.

However, he asserts that the EU can summon the leadership and the political will to come up with overall solutions to its crises, which involve the common currency and the borderless travel area.

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

BRUSSELS (AP) _ The head of the European Commission says more unification is critical to the EU’s survival cheap business cards.

Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Union’s executive arm, says without “more unification,” there will be “more fragmentation.” He is giving his state of the union address in Strasbourg, France, on Wednesday.

“I think this is going to be a baptism of fire for a whole generation,” Barroso says.

However, he asserts that the EU can summon the leadership and the political will to come up with overall solutions to its crises, which involve the common currency and the borderless travel area.

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Oswald Gruebel, the chief executive of UBS, has dismissed calls for his resignation as politically motivated, even as the Swiss banking giant raised its estimated loss by a rogue trader to $2.3 billion.

UBS AG had previously put the loss at $2 billion when news of the scandal first broke Thursday.

In a bid to reassure investors, the Zurich-based bank said Sunday it has “now covered the risk resulting from the unauthorized trading” and its equities business “is again operating normally within its previously defined risk limits.”

UBS also confirmed for the first time that the trader, 31-year-old Kweku Adoboli, was already under investigation by the bank when he revealed his actions to authorities Wednesday.

“The loss resulted from unauthorized speculative trading in various S&P 500, DAX, and EuroStoxx index futures over the last three months,” UBS said, adding that the magnitude of the bank’s risk exposure was hidden by fake trades.

Adoboli remains in custody in London, charged Friday with acts of fraud and false accounting dating back to 2008. His next court appearance is Thursday.

The fact that the fraud took place over three years raises serious questions about the bank’s ability to manage its risk. UBS said it has set up a special committee chaired by David Sidwell, the bank’s senior independent director, to investigate the incident.

But speaking for the first time since UBS revealed the loss Thursday, Gruebel told the Swiss weekly Der Sonntag that the loss couldn’t have been prevented.

“If someone acts with criminal energy, then you can’t do anything. That will always be the case in our business,” he said in the interview published Sunday.

But some Swiss politicians and commentators have called for Gruebel’s head to roll over the loss, which is likely to put UBS’s third-quarter results deep in the red. Such a move would signal defeat for the gravel-voiced German, who was brought in more than two years ago to revive the bank’s fortunes after a series of missteps that included vast losses in the U.S. subprime mortgage market and an embarrassing U.S. tax evasion case cash advance loans.

Gruebel told Der Sonntag that he has no intentions of resigning.

“I’m responsible for everything that happens at the bank,” Gruebel told the paper. “But if you ask me whether I feel guilty, then I would say no.”

Gruebel pledged to stamp out risky business practices at UBS when he came out of retirement in early 2009 to take the helm of Switzerland’s biggest bank. UBS had just suffered its biggest losses ever due to mistakes by the very investment unit that is now making headlines again, and had to take a $60 billion bailout from the Swiss government to stay afloat.

Swiss media on Sunday cited unnamed UBS board members saying the 67-year-old Gruebel retains the confidence of major shareholders, including the Government of Singapore Investment Corp. The sovereign wealth fund holds more than 6.4 percent of UBS’s stock, whose value dropped almost 10 percent following the announcement about the fraud.

Gruebel is expected to survive until at least Nov. 17, when he is presents investors with an update on the bank’s activities. Banking experts in Switzerland have suggested the investors day may be used to announce a downsizing or even a spin-off of the investment unit.

In a previous case of rogue trading causing massive losses, the chairman of French bank Societe Generale, Daniel Bouton, stepped down more than a year after the bank revealed that a single trader lost euro4.9 billion ($6.7 billion). Bouton said that repeated attacks on him were becoming a threat to the bank’s health.

So far, it is unclear who could even replace Gruebel.

The only name that has been mentioned is that of Sergio P. Ermotti, chief executive of the bank’s Europe, Middle East and Africa business. Promoting Ermotti would satisfy those who want to see a Swiss at the head of the country’s most important financial institution, to counterbalance incoming chairman Axel Weber, another German and a former president of Deutsche Bank.

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With NATO’s bombing of Libya now in its sixth month, a new sense of urgency is gripping the alliance before two critical deadlines next month.

After months of combat stalemate, the insurgents have made dramatic gains in recent weeks. An offensive from their beleaguered enclave in the Nafuz Mountains resulted in the capture of the strategic Mediterranean town of Zawiya and put them within striking distance of Moammar Gadhafi’s capital of Tripoli.

The rapid advance offers NATO the chance to bring to a conclusion a campaign that has drawn increasing international criticism and caused serious rifts within the alliance.

NATO officials deny there has been a fundamental shift in tactics in recent days to provide close air support to the advancing rebels, saying they continue to be focused on the protection of civilian populations as mandated by a U.N. Security Council resolution.

But they acknowledge that in a new development, alliance bombers are pummeling Gadhafi’s troops holding defensive positions around government-held towns and villages under attack from the advancing rebel forces.

“The persistent and cumulative action of NATO is creating an obvious effect,” NATO spokesman Col. Roland Lavoie said Sunday. “Pro-Gadhafi forces are gradually losing their capabilities to command, to conduct and to sustain” their actions.”

A NATO official said that early in the campaign NATO airstrikes focused on preventing Gadhafi’s troops from reoccupying rebel-held towns. These rebel attacks on regime forces destroyed hundreds of tanks, armored vehicles and guns.

But within a few weeks, Gadhafi’s soldiers switched tactics, abandoning their vulnerable heavy weaponry in favor of civilian trucks armed with machine guns or recoilless rifles, which proved difficult to identify and destroy from the air.

“Now the rebel offensive has put them on the defensive, and they are again bringing out their tanks and heavy artillery,” said the official who could not be named under standing rules.

“This is why we’ve been attacking them even when they are trying to beat back rebel advances,” he said. “We’re still protecting civilians because as soon as the rebels push pro-Gadhafi forces from a town, his troops will turn around and shell the place.”

But analysts note that NATO’s continued claims of simply protecting civilians strains credulity, saying the direct tactical air support to the ragtag rebel forces is enabling their battlefield victories.

“It was inevitable that the mission would spiral and the interpretation of U.N. resolutions would widen,” said Barak Seener, a Middle East expert at the Royal United Services Institute, a British military think tank. “Thus, NATO has bombed government targets, paving the way for rebels to reach Zawiya.”

“Protecting civilian populations now means getting rid of Gadhafi,” Seener said.

Alliance military planners are racing against a deadline next month, when member states must vote on a second three-month extension of the mission. This extension may prove problematic, since support for the bombing campaign has eroded among allies who say it detracts resources from NATO’s main mission, the 10-year war in Afghanistan.

Also in September, the U.N. General Assembly is due to take up the airstrikes, with many members blaming NATO for overstepping the original U.N. mandate in March which only authorized a no-fly zone and the protection of civilians caught up in the civil unrest.

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HSBC said Sunday it will sell 195 retail bank branches, most located in upstate New York, to First Niagara Bank in a deal worth about $1 billion.

The sale is part of HSBC’s strategy, presented to investors in May, to shift focus away from retail banking to commercial and corporate banking, and to target investment in high-growth economies.

HSBC, which is still dealing with the legacy of bad loans in the U.S. from the 2002 acquisition of consumer lender Household International Inc., said in May that it intended to trim its costs by up to $3.5 billion within three years.

The companies expect the all-cash transaction to be completed early next year. First Niagara, a unit of First Niagara Financial Group Inc. of Buffalo, N.Y., said in a statement that it expects to retain most of the 1,900 workers currently employed by the affected banks.

HSBC Bank USA, a subsidiary of British banking company HSBC Holdings PLC, operates more than 470 bank branches in the U.S., including about 370 in New York. It has total assets of $197 billion through its retail, commercial, global and private banking segments and its wealth management divisions.

The 195 banks being sold represent about $15 billion in deposits, and HSBC will receive a premium of 6.67 percent of the deposits transferred when the deal closes, the company said in a statement. Based on May 31 figures, that would be about $1 billion.

When the deal is completed, First Niagara expects to have $38 billion in assets, $30 billion in deposits and 450 branches in Pennsylvania, upstate New York and New England.

The sale involves 183 branches in upstate New York, four in Westchester County, N.Y, two in Putnam County, N.Y., and six in southern Connecticut. The retail banks will remain open during the transition. HSBC will continue to provide commercial banking services in the region.

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Federal health regulators asked the country’s leading medical experts two years ago to recommend ways to improve the government’s system for approving most medical devices, ranging from pacemakers to X-ray scanners. On Friday the experts came back with a surprise answer: Scrap it because it fails to protect patients. Even more surprising, the FDA dismissed the idea.

The Institute of Medicine’s panel said in a report that the U.S. government should abandon the 35-year-old system used to clear medical devices because it provides little assurance that the implants are actually safe.

The 12-member group’s advice, commissioned by the Food and Drug Administration, is not binding. And experts questioned its real-world impact after the FDA immediately distanced itself from the advice it had requested.

The FDA has been working for more than a year to improve the so-called 510(k) process, efforts that would go to waste if the system is abandoned.

“FDA believes that the 510(k) process should not be eliminated, but we are open to additional proposals and approaches,” said the agency’s device director Jeffrey Shuren.

The agency requires that most new prescription drugs go through clinical trials to prove that patients fare better after receiving medication. But through the 510(k) system, medical devices just have to show that they are similar to devices already on the market. Only a handful of truly new devices undergo extensive testing to prove they are safe and effective.

The device industry’s chief lobbying group also dismissed the proposal, saying its conclusions “do not deserve serious consideration from the Congress or the administration,” in a statement.

The IOM panel’s chairman took the reception in stride Friday, saying it would take time to develop a new system to replace the one that has been in place for over three decades.

“This is a public discussion, and it’s going to take time,” said panel chair David Challoner, former vice president of health affairs at University of Florida. “The 510(k) process needs to be modified to make it as good as possible in the interim, but there is logic there that is fundamentally flawed and must to be fixed.”

The report arrives as the FDA fends off criticism from manufacturers who say the agency has become too slow in clearing new devices, driving up costs for companies and forcing some out of business. Despite the relative speed of the 510(k) process, they point out that some devices still get tied up in red tape, ultimately reaching the U.S. market two years after launching overseas.

Latham & Watkins attorney John Manthei, who represents device manufacturers, said even if the FDA doesn’t adopt the recommendations, they could help lawmakers and critics who favor tougher regulation of devices.

“For those who feel like the 510(k) process is inadequate, this report definitely gives those folks ammunition,” said Manthei.

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