NATIONAL

British Airways, Korean Air fined in price-fixing probe

Two major airlines were fined $300 million apiece Thursday after admitting they conspired to fix prices on international flights. They agreed to help prosecutors investigate other airlines.

British Airways PLC, Britain's largest airline, and Korean Air Co., South Korea's national carrier, pleaded guilty to antitrust conspiracy charges. They acknowledged colluding with rivals over cargo rates and fuel surcharges, which were added to fares in response to rising oil prices. That meant higher costs for international shippers and passengers.

"Any anticompetitive behavior is to be condemned at British Airways or at other companies. It will not be tolerated, and we remain vigilant in this respect," British Airways Chief Executive Willie Walsh said in a statement released after the federal court hearing in Washington, D.C.

Korean Air released a statement saying it was "committed to antitrust compliance" and was taking steps to make sure the conduct was never repeated.

GOOD MORTGAGE NEWS Rates on 30-year mortgages sank this week to their lowest point since late May, providing a ray of sunlight for would-be home buyers.

Freddie Mac, the mortgage company, reported Thursday that 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages averaged 6.52 percent. That was down from 6.62 percent last week and was the lowest rate since the week ended May 31, when rates stood at 6.42 percent.

GREAT CIRCLE IN RED Great Circle Family Foods LLC, once Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc.'s largest franchisee, has filed for Chapter 11 protection.

Despite selling off a number of shops and "significantly" cutting debt, Great Circle said it continues to have "an unmanageable amount" of debt that it's unable to pay.

UNITED MAINTENANCE United Airlines is considering spinning off most of its maintenance operations, a published report said Thursday.

Such a move would include the carrier's huge repair base at San Francisco International Airport and would affect 2,800 employees based mostly in the Bay area, the Chicago Tribune said.

X-BOX PROBLEMS Microsoft will send out replacement parts for its Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel after 50 reports that the video game controllers overheated and released smoke when plugged in, the software maker said Thursday.

The $130 steering wheel- shaped controllers mimic the physical sensations of race car driving for games such as "Forza Motorsport 2."

RUSSIA BUYING BOEING PLANES Russian airline Atlant-Soyuz is buying four Boeing 737-700 passenger jets, the companies said Thursday at Russia's biggest air show. The catalog price of the order is $249 million.

LOCAL

Auditor settles with Adelphia in lawsuit for $167.5 million

Auditing firm Deloitte &

Touche will pay $167.5 million to a trust set up to pursue litigation on behalf of Greenwood Village-based Adelphia Communications Corp. after a bankruptcy court approved a settlement between the auditor and the collapsed cable company.

The deal settles a lawsuit Adelphia filed against Deloitte in 2002, as well as a series of claims Deloitte filed in Adelphia's bankruptcy case.

Meanwhile, Deloitte has dropped a lawsuit against Adelphia's founding Rigas family. John Rigas and his son Timothy, who were convicted in 2004 of pocketing more than $2 billion from Adelphia for their personal use and misleading investors about the company's true finances, reported to prison this month.

CSU NAMES NeoTREX HEAD Terry Opgenorth, who spent two decades at Abbott Laboratories, is joining Colorado State University as chief operating officer of NeoTREX, a venture devoted to getting CSU's cancer research to the market. The school said it named a new cancer research "supercluster" to develop treatments against cancer.

ECONOMY

New jobless-benefit claims drop by 2,000

Fewer people signed up for jobless benefits last week, an encouraging sign that most businesses aren't resorting to big layoffs amid a housing slump and the painful credit crunch.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that new applications filed for unemployment insurance dipped by 2,000 to 322,000 for the week ended Aug. 18. It marked the first drop in new claims in roughly a month.

The showing was a bit higher than the 320,000 analysts were forecasting. Still, the level of claims suggested that the employment climate remains in fairly good shape despite problems in housing, tighter credit and turmoil on Wall Street in recent weeks.

"The main message here is at least so far there is little contagion effect from Wall Street," said Ken Mayland, president of ClearView Economics. "As long as the number is below 350,000, it is generally consistent with a decent economy and a relatively healthy labor market."

The four-week moving average of claims, which smoothes out week-to-week volatility, rose to 317,750 last week, up 4,750 from the prior week.

THIS JUST IN...

• Forest City Stapleton Inc., developer of the Stapleton redevelopment project, appointed Walter Mathews IV to assistant general counsel in the legal department.

• Denver-based SysTest Labs, a quality assurance, independent verification and validation solutions company, named Robert A. Mitchell as vice president of government services.

• Kathryn Wilson, a counselor at Denver-based JohnstonWells Public Relations, received the 2007 William Oxley Thompson Award from the Ohio State Alumni Association for her outstanding career achievement and civic involvement.

• McClain Finlon, an advertising agency headquartered in Denver, hired Mara Pierro, Nicole Thompson and Brett Nichols as managers.

• Pro-Build Holdings Inc., a professional building materials supplier, appointed George Finkenstaedt to senior vice president of corporate development. Bill Myrick, senior vice president for strategic initiatives, was given the additional responsibility of supply chain.

• Keller Williams Realty's Northern Colorado Market Center Fort Collins office added agent Sue Gooch, the Greeley office added Brenda Joseph, and the Loveland office added Tony Mendoza and Greg Pollak.

• InspireSmart Solutions Inc., a Denver-based Web solutions company specializing in the automotive and beauty industries, appointed Suzanne Brock to director of marketing.

• Boulder-based Mix1, maker of all-natural protein and antioxidant drinks, hired Brian Link as a regional sales manager. In addition, the company has entered into a partnership with Loveland-based American Eagle Distributing, making Mix1 products its first nonalcoholic beverage set.

• The Daniels Fund board approved $11.6 million in funding to a variety of organizations throughout Colorado. Programs serving the homeless were the biggest recipients.

• Philosophy Communication, based in Denver, has been retained by Families First and the Kit Faragher Foundation to provide public relations, marketing and media services.

• The Colorado School of Mines established the John and Sharon Trefny Institute for Educational Innovation to support school curriculum and educational research.

Rocky staff and wire reports

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