ALSO...

In a potential blow to farmers and agriculture groups, the House Ways and Means Committee voted 21 to 17 to narrowly defeat a measure to preserve the ethanol tax break, worth billions of dollars a year to U.S. farmers. . . . USA Waste Services Inc. said it has acquired or will acquire assets from Browning-Ferris Industries Inc. and Allied Waste Industries Inc. for a total of $312 million in cash and stock. . . . Authorities raided the European headquarters of agribusiness giant Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. and other non-European Union companies in a price-fixing investigation involving amino acids used in animal feed. . . . Defense giant Lockheed Martin Corp. is in talks with Airbus Industrie aimed at a broad collaboration on future military and commercial projects, executives of both companies acknowledged. Neither side is considering a merger or any cross-ownership arrangement, the Washington Post reported. . . . Xerox Corp. named G. Richard Thoman, IBM Corp.’s No. 2 executive, as president and chief operating officer, making him heir apparent to Xerox Chairman and Chief Executive Paul Allaire. . . . Chubb Corp. has agreed to sell a substantial portion of its Bellemead Development Corp.’s commercial real estate properties to PW/MS Acquisition I LLC for $758 million. . . . Dillon Read & Co. said it was exiting the municipal bond business, joining a growing list of firms leaving the field. . . . Centennial Technologies Inc., whose founder is in jail on charges of insider trading, restated its earnings for almost four years to show losses instead of profits. The Wilmington, Mass.-based maker of computer memory cards said its previous sales figures were allegedly inflated by its former chief executive, Emanuel Pinez, who has been charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission with insider trading, has denied any wrongdoing.