Briefly

UPS cancels order for superjumbo plane

PARIS -- Airbus was left with an empty order book for the cargo version of its much-delayed superjumbo plane after UPS Inc. said Friday it would cancel its order for 10 A380s. The move comes just a week after UPS, the world's largest shipping carrier, and Airbus announced a revised agreement that gave either party the right to terminate the order. In a statement, Atlanta-based UPS said it decided to cancel after it learned Airbus was diverting employees from the freighter program to work on its passenger plane program. UPS said the final cancellation decision will be formally presented to Airbus on the first date specified under last week's agreement. The announcement by UPS comes four months after rival FedEx Corp. also scrapped its 10-plane order, and leaves Airbus with no orders for the superjumbo freighter -- dealing a new blow to its A380 program, whose two-year delay cut $6.6 billion off profit forecasts for 2006-2010. Airbus still has orders for passenger versions of the A380.

EMI rejects $4.1 billion takeover proposal

LONDON -- Music company EMI Group PLC said Friday that it rejected a nonbinding $4.1 billion takeover proposal from Warner Music Group. London-based EMI, which announced last week that it had been approached by former suitor Warner, said that the 2.1 billion pound, or 260 pence ($5.06) per share offer, was inadequate based EMI's own value and the lack of benefits from joining with Warner. Shares in EMI closed 4.5 percent higher at $4.79 on the London Stock Exchange. EMI, which has Norah Jones, Coldplay, Robbie Williams and the Beatles back catalog on its books, said it was focused on a restructuring program it announced in January when it surprised the market with the first of two profit warnings. Warner's top U.S. names include Madonna and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Oil prices drop as traders watch stock market

NEW YORK -- Oil prices settled lower Friday as traders watched the stock market decline even further, renewing concerns that economic growth may stall. The tenuous stock market saga overshadowed tightening gasoline supplies that helped push oil's Thursday settlement price to a more than two month high. Light, sweet crude for April delivery fell 36 cents to settle at $61.64 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier, the contract fell to an intraday low of $61.35 after the Dow Jones industrials dropped by more than a 100 points. On Thursday, crude oil rose 21 cents to settle at $62 a barrel -- its highest settlement price since Dec. 22 -- following a rally in gasoline futures, which rose on reports of a glitch at a Valero Energy Corp. refinery. Valero said operations at its Port Arthur, Texas, refinery were normal, despite the reported outage of a unit. Gasoline failed to hold onto gains it made Thursday and slipped less than a penny to settle at $1.9018 a gallon.

BBC showing clips on YouTube

LONDON -- The British Broadcasting Corp. began showing excerpts from its news and entertainment programs on the YouTube video-sharing Web site Friday, becoming the first international broadcaster to ink a major deal with the Google Inc.-owned portal. In an agreement that analysts described as a key step for both the BBC and YouTube, the British broadcaster is offering three branded channels on the site, including one showing up to 30 news clips a day. The deal gives the BBC access to millions more viewers and gives YouTube the credibility of the venerable British broadcaster. BBC director general Mark Thompson said the broadcaster hopes to drive extra traffic to its own Web site and bring in commercial revenue to supplement the license fee levied on British taxpayers.

Investigators allege insider trading

DALLAS -- Federal regulators charged Friday that unknown investors pocketed more than $5.3 million in illegal profits from insider trading before TXU Corp. announced it had agreed to be sold for $32 billion. The Securities and Exchange Commission said the insider trading was done through foreign brokerage firms to conceal the investors' identities. SEC lawyers in Fort Worth filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Chicago seeking restitution and civil fines against unknown defendants who bought options on TXU shares last week. The SEC said the options allowed the defendants to buy shares when they hit prices ranging from $57.50 to $62.50. The shares jumped from $60.02 to $67.93 Monday, when TXU announced the sale.

-- From wire reports