Also. . .

* The U.S. Postal Service expects to sort and deliver more than 20 billion cards, letters and packages during this holiday season, a 3% increase from last year. During the holiday season between Thanksgiving and Christmas, or Nov. 23 to Dec. 25, the postal service expects to handle 150 million pieces of mail a day, up from 100 million daily during the rest of the year.

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* U.S. farm exports rose in the recent fiscal year for the first time since 1996, reflecting unexpected demand for meat, a statistician at the U.S. Department of Agriculture said. An estimated $50.9 billion in U.S. farm goods were sold for export in the year to Sept. 30, up $400 million from what the government had forecast in August. Sales rose 3.7% from a five-year low of $49.1 billion in fiscal 1999.

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* The Justice Department formally approved settling its antitrust lawsuit against Northwest Airlines Corp. and Continental Airlines Inc., after Northwest agreed to sell most of a controlling stake in Continental. The department had praised the Nov. 6 plan in which Northwest agreed to sell 6.7 million Continental Class A shares back to the fifth-largest U.S. carrier for $450 million. The transaction will leave Northwest, the fourth-largest U.S. airline, with 2.6 million Class B shares, an equity stake of less than 5%.