Disruptions to continue on Amtrak Boston-N.Y. runs

Amtrak officials said they were bracing for continued disruptions today in Boston-New York service after a Bronx tanker truck fire shut down all trains between New Haven and New York yesterday afternoon. The fire damaged electric lines used by 35 daily Amtrak trains, including high-speed Acela service and conventional trains. Amtrak riders were able to use the Metro-North commuter railroad between New Haven and Grand Central Terminal in New York, several blocks from Amtrak's Penn Station that serves trains to Philadelphia and Washington. Amtrak said it was maintaining limited, heavily delayed trains between Boston and New Haven and couldn't say if service will return to normal today. (Peter J. Howe)

Company loses UK ruling about Cerezyme discount

A long-running dispute between Genzyme Corp. and the British government has ended with a British agency's ruling that the company must offer home-care providers a 7.2 percent discount on its flagship drug, Cerezyme, the company said. The ruling marks a rare setback for Genzyme's long-standing policy to offer no discounts on its enzyme-replacement drugs like Cerezyme, which treat rare genetic diseases and can cost more than $200,000 a year per patient. The dispute began in 2003 when the British Office of Fair Trading fined the company and said its price for Cerezyme unfairly prevented other providers from giving patients the drug through home infusions. Genzyme said it would not appeal the decision, which was handed down last week. (Stephen Heuser)

S&P lowers rating on airline's terminal bonds

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services dropped its rating deeper into junk-bond status on $497.6 million worth of bonds issued to pay for bankrupt Delta Air Lines new Terminal A at Logan International Airport in Boston. The Wall Street firm cut the special facility revenue bonds issued by Delta through the Massachusetts Port Authority to CCC-. Delta has agreed to keep making payments on the bonds through Dec. 30. But S&P analyst Laura Macdonald said the firm fears Delta may seek bankruptcy court permission to skip a $9 million payment due Jan. 1, default on the bonds, and force a renegotiation of its lease on the 18-gate terminal, which opened in March. Delta had no comment. Massport has no legal obligation to repay the bonds and expects that either Delta or other airlines, if Delta shrinks service, will keep Terminal A gates occupied. (Peter J. Howe)

Raytheon, Lockheed win Army launcher order

Raytheon Co., the world's largest missile maker, and Lockheed Martin Corp. received a $110 million order from the US Army for more launchers used to fire antitank missiles in Iraq. The order covers production of 901 launchers and 101 training systems, the companies said. Production will be done in Orlando, Fla., and Tucson, and will be completed by September 2008. The joint venture is controlled 60 percent by Waltham-based Raytheon and 40 percent by Maryland-based Lockheed, the world's largest defense company. The venture has received orders valued at more than $2 billion since being formed in 1993, a Lockheed spokeswoman said. (Bloomberg)

Barnstable Patriot paper sold to Ottaway chain

Cape Cod's oldest newspaper has been sold to Ottaway Newspapers for an undisclosed sum. The weekly Barnstable Patriot, with a circulation of 4,500, was founded in 1830 and has 13 employees. They will remain with Ottaway, a subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co. Ottaway also owns The Cape Cod Times, whose offices are located a block from the Patriot's. (AP)

THE NATION
Sovereign profit nearly doubles in third quarter

Sovereign Bancorp Inc., the holding company for the 650-branch Sovereign Bank, said third-quarter profit almost doubled amid strong growth of deposits and commercial loans. Net income in the quarter was 46 cents a share, the Philadelphia company said in a statement of preliminary results. Earnings in the same period last year were 24 cents a share. The company, which will report its full third-quarter results Oct. 18, said profit from operations was 49 cents a share. Sovereign Bancorp was expected to earn 46 cents, the average estimate of 17 analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial. (Bloomberg)

Regulators say realtors' policy stifles competition

US antitrust enforcers, amending a suit against the National Association of Realtors, said the trade group's revised policy on Web listing of properties is still anticompetitive. The new claim, filed by the Justice Department in federal court in Chicago, said the policy continues to let brokers ''opt out" of providing their properties to a multiple listing service, or MLS, thus giving traditional agents an advantage over discount brokers. (Bloomberg)