Cruise lines to reimburse passengers for fuel charge

The cruise line Royal Caribbean Cruise Ltd. has agreed to reimburse passengers for fuel surcharges that were not adequately disclosed, the Florida attorney general said. The settlement affects 300,000 bookings - the number of customers involved was not available - and will return $21 million to people who made trip deposits as of Nov. 15. Royal Caribbean and Carnival Corp. said in November they would start billing passengers to offset rising fuel prices - $5 per person, per day - for voyages beginning Feb. 1. Attorney General Bill McCollum received more than 300 complaints about the surcharges, which other cruise operators also added, and launched an investigation into whether customers were made aware of the fee when they made their bookings. The settlement involves only Royal Caribbean. (AP)

The federal government is reducing by 13 percent peak-hours flights out of New Jersey's Newark Liberty Airport to blunt New York City-area airline delays that routinely spread nationwide. Newark will be limited to 83 flights per hour during peak periods starting in early May, Department of Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said. The airport handled about 95 flights per hour during last summer's peak. The 83-flight cap is the same one that starts Saturday at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. (AP)

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., the largest underwriter of mortgage-backed bonds, is eliminating 5 percent of its workforce as credit markets remain frozen and the US economy slows, a person briefed on the plan said. The cuts will affect all divisions and regions, according to the person, who declined to be identified because the firm hasn't disclosed the reductions. Based on Lehman's employee count at the end of November, about 1,400 jobs will be lost. Chief executive Richard Fuld already eliminated almost 3,900 positions, mostly in units that made home loans, following the collapse of the US subprime mortgage market last year. A Lehman spokeswoman declined to comment. Shares fell $3.38, or 7.3 percent, to $42.98. (Bloomberg)

Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., maker of the Grand Theft Auto video games, was sued by a shareholder demanding that the company seriously consider a rejected $2 billion takeover offer from Electronic Arts Inc. Investor Patrick Solomon also asked a judge to enforce stockholders' rights to elect directors at an annual meeting scheduled for April 10, in a March 7 complaint in Delaware Chancery Court in Wilmington. Electronic Arts, the world's largest video-game publisher, offered $26 a share for its rival on Feb. 6. Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick later said the price undervalues the company. (Bloomberg)

Federal health regulators raised safety concerns about an experimental biotech drug from Amgen designed to treat a blood-clotting disorder. The Food and Drug Administration said studies of Amgen's Nplate showed a range of adverse reactions, from bone-marrow abnormalities to dangerous blood clots. The FDA will today ask a panel of outside experts whether the drug should be approved and, if so, under what conditions. The agency is not required to follow its panel's recommendations. (AP)

Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., the largest independent US film studio, and Apple Inc. will allow purchased DVDs to be transferred to iTunes for viewing on mobile devices. The companies will initially offer special-edition and high-definition versions of "Rambo" on May 27, Lions Gate said. To transfer the film to iTunes, consumers need only to insert the DVD into a computer and enter a code, Lions Gate said. Films can be transferred only to one iTunes library. News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox and Viacom Inc.'s Paramount studios have similar agreements with Apple. (Bloomberg)

Neither the chief executive of Hershey Co. nor the man he replaced received a bonus in 2007 after a disappointing year in which the nation's largest candy maker struggled to sell its chocolate and cope with rising costs. David J. West received compensation valued at $4.4 million from Hershey after taking over as president in October and CEO in December from Richard H. Lenny, who abruptly said he was going to leave. Lenny, who also served as chairman until Jan. 1, received compensation valued at nearly $6.2 million in 2007, down from the $6.6 million he received in 2006. (AP)