WORLD

WORLD
Oil prices are down amid quiet trading
LONDON -- Crude oil futures sagged Friday, becalmed by extremely light trading ahead of the Christmas holiday weekend.
Brent crude for February delivery fell 60 cents to $40.11 a barrel on London's International Petroleum Exchange.
The New York Mercantile Exchange was closed Friday for a public holiday. On Thursday light, sweet crude for February delivery closed at $44.18 per barrel, down 6 cents. Prices had plunged a day earlier after the U.S. government reported a surprise increase in supplies of oil and distillate fuel, easing fears of a shortfall should the winter turn especially cold.
Lack of significant oil news helped keep the market flat on Friday. Analysts have said they expect little change in prices between now and the new year.
PENNSYLVANIA
Executive's bonuses
WASHINGTON -- Aramark Corp. chairman and chief executive Joseph Neubauer received total compensation of about $2.2 million for the 2004 fiscal year ended Oct. 1, a 19.5 percent decrease from the previous year.
In the prior year, the executive received total compensation of $2.7 million. Both compensation amounts exclude stock option grants.
The Philadelphia-based food services company said Thursday Neubauer received an $800,000 bonus in fiscal 2004, compared with the previous year's $1.5 million bonus, according to a proxy filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Tax appeal settlement
MIDDLETOWN, Pa. -- The company that owns the defunct part of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant would get a $1.07 million refund of back taxes under a proposed tax appeal settlement.
In 2001, Dauphin County officials reassessed all taxable land in the county, fixing the worth of the defunct part of the plant at $16.2 million.
The Lower Dauphin School District would have to refund $756,826 under the settlement. Its superintendent said that it was too soon to tell if the settlement would require a tax rate increase.
Dauphin County and Londonderry Township have lower tax rates and would give smaller refunds.
FirstEnergy Corp. owns the unused section of the plant and would get the refund if the settlement is approved. AmerGen Nuclear owns the working part and is not seeking a refund, but would pay less money in future taxes under the settlement.
Vindicator wire services