Gas prices still climbing

As motorists can attest, there's no relief from rising gasoline prices. AAA East Central reported that for the fifth straight week, prices are up, climbing 4.5 cents to $2.566 per gallon at self-serve pumps. AAA said the national average price has risen 33 cents in the past month. The automobile club also said that California, where gasoline is above $3 a gallon, often is viewed as a barometer of where prices are headed in other parts of the country.

US Airways doles out checks

US Airways delivered checks totaling $58.7 million to its employees yesterday as part of a new profit-sharing program, while flight attendants picketed in front of US Airways headquarters in Tempe, Ariz. to protest lack of progress on contract talks and a recent breakdown of the airline's computerized reservation and ticketing system. The company said the reservation problems would be "99 percent fixed" by the end of this week.

AK Steel pact approved

Union workers at AK Steel's Middletown (Ohio) Works overwhelmingly approved a contract offer that would end a nearly 13-month-old lockout, Machinists union officials said yesterday. The agreement, which takes effect tomorrow and runs through September 2011, would send some 1,750 union employees back to work. The new contract gives most workers a raise, while also requiring them to help pay for their health benefits.

Terror behind banana peels

Chiquita Brands International was charged yesterday with doing business with a terrorist organization. Court documents filed yesterday are an indication the company has settled a lengthy Justice Department investigation into its financial dealings with terrorist groups in Colombia. Federal prosecutors said the company and several unnamed high-ranking corporate officers paid about $1.7 million between 1997 and 2004 to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, which the United States designated a terrorist group in 2001. The payments were made to protect company employees. Details of the settlement were not included in court documents.

Also in business ...

Mylan Laboratories said it received tentative approval from the Food and Drug Administration to market the generic version of Abbott Laboratories' Depakote tablets, which are used to treat migraine headaches and certain epileptic disorders ... GlaxoSmithKline's French unit was fined $13.2 million for hindering the use of generic drugs through a "predatory" pricing policy, French regulators said. Regulators ruled that in 1999 and 2000 the Glaxo unit sold injectable Zinnat below cost to freeze generic drug manufacturers out of the hospital market.