                                ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Friday, October 18, 1996               TAG: 9610180041
SECTION: BUSINESS                 PAGE: B-6  EDITION: METRO

IN BUSINESS

ADM board refuses offer to resign DECATUR, Ill. - Archer Daniels Midland Co. Chairman Dwayne Andreas offered to resign Thursday, and his son and another top executive left the company over a price-fixing scandal that damaged ADM's reputation and cost it a $100 million fine.

``I am the one in charge, and as Harry Truman said, the buck stops with me,'' Andreas told more than 700 people gathered at company headquarters for ADM's annual meeting, two days after ADM pleaded guilty to federal price-fixing charges.

Andreas' offer to resign was rejected, said Brian Mulroney, the former Canadian prime minister who headed a panel of directors that negotiated the guilty pleas.

ADM pleaded guilty Tuesday to fixing prices of citric acid, which is used in foods and detergents, and of the livestock feed supplement lysine. The giant grain and soybean processor agreed to cooperate with ongoing Justice Department price-fixing probes.

- Associated Press

Mortgage rates up

WASHINGTON - Thirty-year, fixed-rate mortgages averaged 7.88 percent this week, up from 7.86 percent last week and the highest since 8.06 percent Oct. 3, according to a national survey released Thursday by the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp.

On one-year adjustable-rate mortgages, lenders were asking an average initial rate of 5.62 percent, down from 5.68 percent. Fifteen-year mortgages averaged 7.39 percent, up from 7.38 percent.

- Associated Press

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by CNB