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Japan’s response to the nuclear crisis that followed the March 11 tsunami was confused and riddled with problems, including an erroneous assumption an emergency cooling system was working and a delay in disclosing dangerous radiation leaks, a report revealed Monday.

The disturbing picture of harried and bumbling workers and government officials scrambling to respond to the problems at Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant was depicted in the report detailing a government investigation.

The 507-page interim report, compiled by interviewing more than 400 people, including utility workers and government officials, found authorities had grossly underestimated tsunami risks, assuming the highest wave would be 6 meters (20 feet). The tsunami hit at more than double those levels.

The report criticized the use of the term “soteigai,” meaning “outside our imagination,” which it said implied authorities were shirking responsibility for what had happened. It said by labeling the events as beyond what could have been expected, officials had invited public distrust.

“This accident has taught us an important lesson on how we must be ready for soteigai,” it said.

The report, set to be finished by mid-2012, found workers at Tokyo Electric Power Co., the utility that ran Fukushima Dai-ichi, were untrained to handle emergencies like the power shutdown that struck when the tsunami destroyed backup generators _ setting off the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

There was no clear manual to follow, and the workers failed to communicate, not only with the government but also among themselves, it said.

Finding alternative ways to bring sorely needed water to the reactors was delayed for hours because of the mishandling of an emergency cooling system, the report said. Workers assumed the system was working, despite several warning signs it had failed and was sending the nuclear core into meltdown.

The report acknowledged that even if the system had kicked in properly, the tsunami damage may have been so great that meltdowns would have happened anyway.

But a better response might have reduced the core damage, radiation leaks and the hydrogen explosions that followed at two reactors and sent plumes of radiation into the air, according to the report.

Sadder still was how the government dallied in relaying information to the public, such as using evasive language to avoid admitting serious meltdowns at the reactors, the report said.

The government also delayed disclosure of radiation data in the area, unnecessarily exposing entire towns to radiation when they could have evacuated, the report found.

The government recommended changes so utilities will respond properly to serious accidents.

It recommended separating the nuclear regulators from the unit that promotes atomic energy, echoing frequent criticism since the disaster.

Japan’s nuclear regulators were in the same ministry that promotes the industry, but they will be moved to the environment ministry next year to ensure more independence.

The report acknowledged people were still living in fear of radiation spewed into the air and water, as well as radiation in the food they eat. Thousands have been forced to evacuate and have suffered monetary damage from radiation contamination, it said.

“The nuclear disaster is far from over,” the report said.

The earthquake and tsunami left 20,000 people dead or missing.

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For the St. Louis economy, this year looked a lot like the previous 20 or 30, and it’s a rut we really need to get out of.

Job growth lagged the nation. Well-known local companies succumbed to takeovers, without enough new businesses to take their place. Officials argued about strategy while failing to address the region’s deep-seated problems.

Denny Coleman, the president of the St. Louis County Economic Council, has been sounding the alarm about these issues recently, ever since the council commissioned a report on the region’s economic strategy.

One headline from the report, written by consulting firm AECOM, is that within two decades, because of slow population growth, we’ll no longer be one of the 20 largest U.S. metropolitan areas. We’re currently No. 18.

That top-20 ranking automatically confers big-city status. National retail chains want to have a presence in the top 20 markets; advertisers target their messages there. Cities in the next tier are important, but they have to fight harder for attention.

Coleman believes AECOM’s warning should be a wake-up call.

“We have been living off the wealth creation from select legacy companies here for some time,” he said. “While we’ve created some new, significant wealth, the competition in other metro areas is outpacing us.”

Want to talk legacy companies? Savvis, Smurfit Stone Container, LaBarge and Rehabcare were all acquired this year. St. Louis ranks poorly on indicators of the entrepreneurial activity that can replace them with new firms.

Or should we talk jobs? Metro St. Louis officially added 7,800 jobs between October 2010 and October 2011, an increase of 0.6 percent. Howard Wall, an economist at Lindenwood University, thinks that number will be revised to show a loss of 3,900 jobs make quick cash.

Either way, St. Louis is a laggard. Nationally, employment grew by 1.2 percent in the same 12 months, twice as fast as the optimistic St. Louis estimate.

“Don’t we have this conversation every year?” Wall said when I asked about the sluggish local job market.

Yes, we do. And how do St. Louis’ leaders try to break out of this rut? For one thing, they spent years pursuing the “big idea” of a hub for Chinese cargo planes, only to have the Missouri Legislature shoot down the incentives that the plan required. It’s not a good precedent.

Recently, other rifts have been exposed. Mayor Francis Slay called for the Regional Chamber and Growth Association, a private-sector group, to cede its economic development duties to a joint city-county agency.

Coleman hasn’t gone quite so far, but he does accuse the RCGA of “mission creep.” As he sees it, the RCGA should concentrate on marketing the region and recruiting companies that want to expand or relocate.

The jobs of retaining local employers, encouraging startups and improving the work force, Coleman believes, should fall to agencies in each city or county. He says he was surprised when those showed up as objectives in the RCGA’s latest strategic plan. Coleman says he’s encouraged by the appointment of Joe Reagan as the new RCGA president. The region’s economic development structure “can work, but it’s a matter of making sure you have a clear separation of responsibilities,” Coleman says.

Slay, Reagan, Coleman and others clearly have plenty to discuss. Let’s hope they quickly get beyond turf wars.

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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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Further signs of stress emerged Tuesday to indicate that Europe’s most recent summit agreement to get the euro countries to tighten rules against excessive government spending has only made limited progress in pulling the continent out of its debt crisis.

While figures showed that Europe’s banks parked more money at the European Central Bank than they have at any other time this year, Italy’s borrowing rates traded at levels not far from those that forced Greece, Ireland and Portugal into seeking financial bailouts.

The news that overnight deposits by banks to the ECB hit a year high are a sign of distress and mistrust in the system, and come just days after the continent’s banking regulator warned that they need to raise much more capital to plug potential losses from shaky European government debt.

The ECB said banks left euro346.4 billion ($458 billion) with the ECB at a low 0.25 percent interest rate rather than lend it to other banks, indicating they were concerned they might not be paid back. That topped a previous high from Friday of euro334.9 billion.

The rise in their deposits comes in the wake of an agreement by European leaders to forge a new treaty among the 17 members of the eurozone and as many as nine other EU members to toughen rules against accumulating excessive government debts. The treaty won’t be completed until March and tries to address long-term issues, while markets are questioning governments’ ability to pay their debts in the shorter term of the next several months.

“Market sentiment remains cautious regarding the strains in European debt markets,” said Nick Bennenbroek, an analyst at Wells Fargo Bank.

Fears of default have led to elevated yields on bonds issued by Italy, the latest focus of the crisis. Yields on Italian 10-year bonds traded at an elevated 6.66 percent on Tuesday, close to the 7 percent levels that led to the bailed-countries giving up on bond market borrowing. Italy is considered too large to bail out.

Banks have also been under strain because they hold government bonds and could suffer losses in case of a default. They are also being pressed by the European Union to find money to increase their financial buffers against losses.

Shares in Germany’s Commerzbank AG fell over 5 percent Tuesday amid speculation the bank might need more government support after the European Banking Authority last week said it was euro5.3 billion short of new capital requirements. The bank has said it won’t take more government help.

Italy did manage to raise euro7 billion ($9 online cash advance.4 billion) in a bond auction Monday, though the relatively strong demand was boosted by a bank association promotion waiving fees to buy the bonds.

Investors remain worried about the future of both Italy and the wider 17-nation eurozone despite an EU deal last week to tighten controls on spending. While that deal will boost longer-term budget discipline, it does little to lower current debt and exposed deepening political division.

Last Friday’s deal also does not fix the deeper imbalances within the eurozone, such as wide gaps between countries with competitive economies and trade surpluses and those which have poor business environments that limit growth and ability to pay debt.

The impact of the agreement to work out a new debt treaty has been blunted by Britain’s decision not to join and questions about how it would be enforced. EU officials sought an accord among all 27 EU states, but Britain did not join the agreement after its request to shelter its financial services sector from what Britain considers burdensome regulation was rejected.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso urged British Prime Minister David Cameron not to block EU institutions such as the European Court of Justice for supporting and helping enforce the treaty.

Barroso said “it is the European institutions that are the best guarantee that the interest of all European states, including the U.K., will be fully respected.”

There are other potential hitches. Through the new intergovernmental treaty, the participating countries can agree to go beyond the rules in the current EU Treaty _ but can’t sign up to new rules that contradict existing ones.

That is set to cause problems for one of the central summit decisions _ creating more automatic sanctions for budget sinners.

Under the current EU Treaty, the European Commission can declare a country to be in excessive deficit _ a move that forces the country to spell out in detail how it will bring down its deficit and debt or face sanctions _ only if a qualified majority of EU countries agree.

The summit decisions aim to simplify this procedure, by giving the commission the right to declare a state to have an excessive deficit unless a qualified majority of countries vote against it.

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Steinhauser contributed from Brussels. Frances D’Emilio contributed from Rome.

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MEMC Electronic Materials Inc. will slash 1,300 jobs — almost 20 percent of its workforce — and cut production as it copes with plunging prices for polysilicon, the key raw material in solar wafers and semiconductors.

The O’Fallon, Mo.-based company will eliminate 250 U.S. jobs by next spring, including 70 of 830 positions at the company’s corporate headquarters in O’Fallon, spokesman Bill Michalek said. MEMC will idle a polysilicon plant in Merano, Italy, and may close it permanently. It will reduce capacity at a plant in Portland that it acquired last year; and limit the ramp up of its newest silicon wafer plant in Kuching, Malaysia.

Officials said the actions were necessary to align the scope of operations with fast-changing markets that have been increasingly defined by a flood of Chinese-made polysilicon and a slowdown in solar and semiconductor demand.

“It is clear we must adjust our business model,” Ahmad Chatila, MEMC’s chief executive, said on a conference call with analysts and investors. “We believe these actions will strengthen MEMC in the near term and position us for more profitable growth in our core businesses.”

MEMC expects the restructuring to reduce annual operating expenses by more than 15 percent and boost cash flow by $200 million a year.

Theodore O’Neill, a New York-based alternative energy analyst at Wunderlich Securities, said the actions were necessary. But he’s not convinced it will insulate the company from the polysilicon prices that continue to spiral downward.

“The company is doing what I think they have to do,” he said. “My concern is they’re chasing a rabbit down a hole.” On Thursday, O’Neill cut his rating on MEMC shares to “sell” from “buy” and lowered his price target on the stock to $3 from $11.

The polysilicon boom has gone bust in only a few years as manufacturers around the globe simultaneously raced to add production capacity. The result: Prices that topped $400 a kilogram in 2008 have fallen below $40. They have plunged 45 percent just this year.

Meanwhile, the solar energy market in Europe has suffered as subsidies have begun to dry up. And demand for semiconductors has waned, too. Unlike in past years when consumers snapped up LED televisions and iPads, “we don’t have any hot consumer electronic that’s pulling massive amounts of polysilicon through the sales channel,” O’Neill said.

MEMC isn’t alone among polysilicon producers. “Other vendors in the solar supply chain will be forced to take similar action” in 2012, an analyst at Gilford Securities predicted in a research note on Thursday.

Last month, the International Trade Commission agreed to investigate a complaint by seven solar manufacturers that Chinese competitors were dumping products to injure competitors by driving down prices. MEMC was not among them, and is part of a coalition that believes the case could spark a trade dispute and raise prices for the entire industry.

Low-priced Chinese solar products were also cited by California-based Solyndra Inc. in its September bankruptcy. The case has been scrutinized by Republicans in Congress because the company received a half-billion-dollar federal loan guarantee from the Obama administration.

But just as falling prices have hurt solar wafer producers, they have benefited consumers and generated business for U.S. solar installers such as Clayton-based Microgrid Energy, which has seen its volume of solar work triple from last year.

“Probably once a month we see prices come down,” said Marc Lopata, Microgrid’s president.

Lopata said costs for installed solar energy systems have fallen by about 25 percent from a year ago to $6 a watt or less, depending on the size. And with rebates and tax incentives, consumers are getting about 60 percent back.

MEMC said it will combine its struggling solar materials unit, where 45 percent of jobs are being eliminated, with its SunEdison solar development unit under a single management team at the end of the month to squeeze out efficiencies. In some instances, SunEdison will buy solar wafers from other manufacturers rather than use those made in-house.

The company said it will take charges totaling as much as $1.38 billion in the fourth quarter. More than half of the amount is related to the restructuring plan announced Thursday, with the rest a product of likely goodwill impairments and deteriorating business conditions.

Weak solar and semiconductor markets also prompted MEMC to lower its fourth-quarter earnings forecast by 5 cents to 10 cents a share, excluding the charges. The company said revenue could be $239 million less than expected as some of its SunEdsion sales in Europe could get pushed back to 2012.

Shares of MEMC, which had lost nearly two thirds of their value over the past year, fell sharply in early trading Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange but closed down just a penny at $4.20.

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Sale, schmale.

Used to be, customers would come running when stores cut prices. But these days, more Americans are becoming blase about bargains.

Jennifer Beasley recently left a Toys R Us in Cary, N.C., unimpressed by the retailer’s offers that day of 50 percent discounts on things like a $150 Sylvania tablet computer and a $45 My Baby Alive Doll.

“The sales just aren’t as good this year,” says Beasley, 30, who has three children. “It’s almost not worth getting up.”

People have been shopping more than ever this holiday season, largely because of a flood of sales. But Americans have become so used to deep discounts that they expect each sale to be bigger and better than the last. That means retailers will likely have to keep slashing prices, which could hurt their bottom line.

“I think they’re going to have to continue to do the kind of `come on’ pricing that you saw on Black Friday,” or the day after Thanksgiving, says Alison Paul, head of consulting firm Deloitte’s U.S. retail practice.

Merchants already are rolling out big holiday sales. The Body Shop is letting customers spin a wheel of chance to win different discounts, including offers of “buy three, get three.” The Gap is selling many of its pajamas, kids’ hoodies and men’s cardigans for 50 percent off. And Target has Barbie, Thomas the Tank Engine and many of its other toy brands for “buy one, get one half off.”

But shoppers are yawning at deals that once excited them.

“The ads and the sales _ I think it’s all hype,” says Karen Finch of Gresham, Ore., who is waiting to buy a tablet for her son until closer to Christmas Day because she thinks the discounts on Amazon.com _ 48 percent off a $500 Blackberry version, for instance _ aren’t good enough. “There’s no substance.”

To be sure, consumers’ perceptions of deals don’t always jibe with reality. Most retailers decline to discuss their pricing strategy because of competitive reasons, but research by analysts at Jefferies & Co. and other firms found that many deals this year are as good as _ if not better than _ last year’s.

For instance, American Eagle offered 40 percent off everything all day on Black Friday _ better than the 20 percent off until noon that it offered for the past two years, according to Jefferies analysts. The average discount at Best Buy on Black Friday was almost 45 percent, up from about 34 percent last year. The average discount at Wal-Mart was about 47 percent, better than last year’s average of 43 percent.

And anyway, what shoppers say and do often are two different things. Consumers told Deloitte in September that they planned to spend about 5 percent less on Christmas this year. But the reality so far is different: Americans spent $52.4 billion over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, the highest total ever recorded for that period and 16 percent greater than last year, according to the National Retail Federation.

“You can’t always listen to what they say,” says Allen Adamson, managing director at the branding company Landor Associates. “What counts is what they do at checkout.”

Indeed, Atty Zschau of Portland, Ore., has been disappointed with the holiday sales she’s seen so far this year. But instead of going home empty-handed on Black Friday, she shelled out $800 _ full price _ for a Dell laptop that will be shared among her family.

“We’re normally `deal’ people,” says Zschau, an acupuncturist. But, “All the stuff that was on sale was not what we wanted.”

The discontent with discounts comes at a time when many Americans are struggling with job losses and stagnant wages. Many shoppers simply have less money to spend this holiday season: The median U.S. household income was $49,445 last year, down from $50,303 two years before.

And deals just don’t seem as good if the iPad tablet computer you want is still outside of your budget. A $1,000 TV marked down 20 percent might seem like a good deal for a shopper who has $800 to spend. But it’s not such a fab find for someone with only $700 in his pocket.

“Discounts are supposed to mean, `I can get it,’” says Michael Norton, a Harvard Business School professor specializing in consumer psychology. “So if you can’t get it, it doesn’t feel like a very good discount.”

Cost-conscious shoppers also have a long memory about the better sales they’ve seen in the last few years, says Alison Jatlow Levy, retail strategist with consulting firm Kurt Salmon. For instance, teen retailer Aeropostale offered discounts on Black Friday of 50 percent off everything and another 20 percent off until mid-afternoon. But that may not have been enough for Aeropostale shoppers who remember that the chain slashed prices up to 70 percent all day in previous years.

“Customers probably remember that last year things were 60 percent off, and this year maybe they’re only 25 or 40 percent off,” Levy says of some store discounts. “But those things probably weren’t 60 percent off until closer to Christmas.”

Rebecca Walden of Birmingham, Ala., learned that lesson the hard way. Last year, she and her husband stayed up late on Thanksgiving night buying Christmas gifts online for their daughter, who was then one-years-old. They were patting themselves on the back about the discounts of 10 to 20 percent off they got on toys like a rocking horse, a play kitchen and a set of 150 building blocks. That is, until they found many of those same items on sale for half off later in the season.

Walden, 33, decided not to repeat that mistake. So she’s done virtually none of her Christmas shopping yet. She’s waiting it out for a deal on a few items, like a sale on a Wiggles guitar, which generally runs at least $65.

“I’m not convinced they’ve hit rock-bottom prices yet and Christmas is still several weeks away,” Walden says. “I think the phrase is `playing chicken.’”

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Sarah Skidmore reported from Portland, Ore. Christina Rexrode reported from New York.

Follow AP retail coverage at http://www.twitter.com/AP_Retail.

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They were lined up 300 deep before the store opened at 8 a.m.

Fans of Maple Leaf Gardens and Loblaws came to see how Canada