Business news in brief

Shares of

Hill International Inc.

, the Marlton construction-management contractor, jumped 59 percent on hopes that contracts to house more than one million Iraqis would more than compensate for the firm's loss of business due to the war in Libya. Hill shares closed $2.57 higher, at $6.93. Hill and its HillStone International L.L.C. affiliate said they had been awarded contracts to supply homes for Iraq's National Investment Commission.

- Joseph N. DiStefano

Mace Security International Inc.

, Horsham, said the federal court in Vermont had accepted the guilty plea of the company's defense-spray subsidiary to a felony charge involving waste storage. The unit, Mace Personal Defense Inc., Bennington, Vt., will pay a $100,000 fine for storing hazardous waste without a permit from 1998 to early 2008 in violation of the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. As part of the plea deal, the government dismissed an indictment against the company. Mace makes personal-defense products, including its namesake spray, and electronic surveillance products.

- Paul Schweizer

Teleflex Inc.

registered to sell $250 million worth of debt securities. The Limerick maker of medical devices said it had not set the timing of the sale or the price and interest rate on the notes. It intends to use about half the proceeds to repay older, higher-cost debt, with the rest to go toward capital expenditures, possible acquisitions, and general corporate purposes.

- Paul Schweizer

Continental Airlines

was fined $120,000 and

US Airways Group Inc.

$45,000 for violating U.S.

Transportation Department

price-advertising rules. Airfare advertising must state the full ticket price, including surcharges, taxes, and fees. US Airways said that any consumer confusion had been "inadvertent" and that it immediately had revised its website to address the department's concerns and "fully cooperated."

- Linda Loyd

US Airways Group Inc.

on Thursday began daily nonstop service year-round to Quebec City from Philadelphia International Airport. Flights leave Philadelphia at 9:30 a.m., 2:49 p.m., and 8:35 p.m. Return flights depart Quebec City at 6:25 a.m., 12:15 p.m., and 5:30 p.m. From Philadelphia, US Airways serves 36 cities in Europe and the Middle East; 14 in Latin America and the Caribbean; and 5 in Canada.

- Linda Loyd

Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

, New York, received a subpoena from the

Manhattan District Attorney's Office

seeking information on the firm's activities leading into the credit crisis, according to two people familiar with the matter. The subpoena relates to the report by the U.S. Senate's permanent subcommittee on investigations on Wall Street's role in the collapse of the financial markets; it said Goldman Sachs had misled buyers of mortgage-linked investments, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the inquiry isn't public. The Associated Press also reported the allegations based on anonymous sources. The Senate subcommittee, led Sen. Carl M. Levin (D., Mich.), used the firm as a case study in a report released in April. At the time, Levin said Goldman Sachs had also misled Congress about the firm's bets on the housing market. The firm has said its testimony was truthful. "We don't comment on specific regulatory or legal issues," David Wells, a company spokesman, said Thursday, "but subpoenas are a normal part of the information-request process, and, of course, when we receive them, we cooperate fully."

- Bloomberg News

Moody's Investors Service

said it was reviewing the ratings of

Bank of America Corp.

,

Citigroup Inc.

, and

Wells Fargo & Co.

for possible downgrades. The banks' ratings are already in the middle of the investment-grade corporate credit ratings. That's under the assumption that the U.S. government would keep them from failing in a crisis, but Moody's said Thursday that the "too big to fail" assumption might no longer be true. Moody's senior vice president Sean Jones said the Dodd-Frank Act makes clear the government "does not want to bail out even large, systemically important banking groups."

- AP

The executive editor of the

New York Times

, Bill Keller, will step down this summer and be replaced by managing editor Jill Abramson, 57, who will become the first woman to hold the Times' top editing post. Keller, 62, will stay on as a full-time writer for the New York Times Magazine and the newspaper's Sunday opinion and news sections, the Times said. Dean Baquet, an assistant managing editor and the Washington bureau chief, will succeed Abramson as managing editor. The Times said the changes would take effect Sept. 6.

- AP

The White House said no official U.S. government e-mail accounts had been accessed during what

Google Inc.

alleges was Chinese hacking of its e-mail systems. Obama spokesman Jay Carney said the FBI was investigating Google's allegations but had no comment on whether China was involved. Google says personal Gmail accounts of several hundred people, including senior U.S. government officials, military personnel, and political activists, were exposed.

- AP

Daily-deal site

Groupon Inc.

filed paperwork for its hotly anticipated initial public offering of stock. The regulatory filing sets the potential value of the IPO at $750 million.

- AP

A judge granted

Borders

an extension to file its reorganization plan under bankruptcy protection, but a sale of some stores appeared more likely. Borders now has until October to file a plan with the court, but Borders lawyer Andrew K. Glenn said he expected to file a motion in two to four weeks about selling the company. The plan was originally due June 16.

- AP