Business news in brief

Cephalon Inc., Frazer, said it was abandoning its attempt to get its drug Nuvigil approved as a treatment for jet lag after the Food and Drug Administration issued another complete response letter. The company in March also had received a complete response letter, an indication that the FDA wanted more information. Nuvigil already is approved to treat narcolepsy. This time, Cephalon said, it was evident the agency would not approve the drug for the additional use. - Roslyn Rudolph

DuPont Co., Dupont, said its seed division, Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc., bought two seed companies that had been distributing seed under Pioneer trademarks for undisclosed prices. The acquired companies are Seed Consultants Inc. in Washington Court House, Ohio, and Terral Seed in Lake Providence, La. Pioneer, which is based in Des Moines, Iowa, is expected to have $5 billion in sales of agricultural seeds this year. - Harold Brubaker

Hill International, a Marlton project management firm, said it received contracts for an amusement park in Vietnam and an enhanced rail transportation system in the United States. One contract, for three years and valued at $16.9 million, is for Hill to manage construction of a $600 million, 1,700-acre amusement park in southern Vietnam. The other contract is a joint venture to enhance freight transportation between Mid-Atlantic ports and Midwestern markets for the National Gateway project. The contract is for two years and is worth $11.4 million. - Roslyn Rudolph

Herley Industries Inc., a Lancaster defense and medical industry contractor, said it received an order from the Japanese Ministry of Defense for more than $1 million worth of high-performance antennas. The equipment will be installed in reconnaissance fighter aircraft operated by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force. - Harold Brubaker

NFI, a private Cherry Hill provider of trucking and other logistics services, said its 2010 revenue exceeded $900 million, an increase of 11 percent from 2009. The rise was aided by NFI's purchase of IPD Global Inc., a Canadian company that transports perishables throughout North America, NFI said. NFI, which has 5,600 employees, operates nearly 2,000 tractors and more than 7,200 trailers. - Harold Brubaker

The price of crude oil futures for February delivery fell 51 cents to settle at $91 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Analysts blamed the drop on China's decision over the weekend to raise its benchmark lending rate. Higher interest rates will only cool off China's economy and, thus, cut the country's appetite for energy. Still, U.S. investment banks including J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley see a return to $100-per-barrel oil in 2011 because world oil demand is expected to increase. - AP

American International Group Inc. said it obtained $3 billion in credit pledges, another step in its recovery from the nation's 2008 financial meltdown. The New York insurance giant said it will be able to tap the facilities once it finishes paying back its government bailouts. AIG received the biggest government rescue - $182 billion - of any financial company during the crisis. There are 36 banks participating in the credit lines for AIG. The agreement builds momentum for AIG, which earlier this month raised $2 billion by selling notes. - AP

New international banking rules were proposed by an influential global regulatory panel that would give investors a better idea of when chief executive officers and other high-paid executives get bonuses even when their companies are lagging. The panel, affiliated with the Bank for International Settlements in Switzerland, said its plan would require banks to reveal whether a bonus is linked to a firm's performance and to provide other details aimed at preventing lenders from hiding irresponsible risks. - AP

The Treasury auctioned $29 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 0.180 percent, up from 0.130 percent last week. It was the highest rate on the three-months bills since Aug. 10, 2009. An additional $28 billion in six-month bills was auctioned at a discount rate of 0.225 percent, up from 0.185 percent last week. The six-month rate was the highest since May 17. For a $10,000 bill, the three-month price was $9,995.45 and the six-month bill sold for $9,988.63. - AP

The Federal Reserve said the average yield for one-year Treasury bills, a popular index for making changes in adjustable-rate mortgages, held steady at 0.30 percent last week, unchanged from the previous week. - AP

The Treasury also sold $35 billion of two-year notes at a yield of 0.74 percent, the highest since May's 0.769 percent. The bidding indicated slightly stronger demand for the notes than in the last two-year auction in November, when the yield was 0.52 percent. - Bloomberg News

Apple Inc. was sued over claims that applications for the company's iPhone and iPad transmit users' personal information to advertising networks without customers' consent. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in San Jose, Calif., claims Apple iPhones are encoded with identifying devices that allow advertising networks to track what applications users download and how frequently they're used. An Apple spokesman did not return a phone call seeking comment. - Bloomberg News

General Electric Co. and two Russian companies said they formed joint ventures to build and sell health care and power equipment in Russia. The deal is part of a broader strategy by GE, Fairfield, Conn., to boost overseas growth, the company said. - AP