OMAHA — ConAgra Foods Inc. has agreed to pay a $45 million civil fine as part of a settlement with federal regulators who had accused the company of using improper accounting to help it meet Wall Street expectations between 1999 and 2001, a company spokeswoman said Wednesday.

ConAgra has already recorded charges totaling $47.7 million in anticipation of settling with the Securities and Exchange Commission, spokeswoman Stephanie Childs said.

The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil complaint in U.S. District Court in Denver on Tuesday, accusing ConAgra of “improper, and in certain instances fraudulent” accounting in fiscal 1999 through 2001.

As a result, the SEC alleged, ConAgra misreported profits between the first quarter of fiscal 1999 and the third quarter of fiscal 2001.

The company did not admit or deny the SEC charges as part of the settlement.

Nanotech labeling called unnecessary 

WASHINGTON — Food, drugs, medical devices and cosmetics that contain minuscule engineered particles don’t necessarily need special labeling to alert consumers, a federal task force recommends.

The Food and Drug Administration should consider each product using nanotechnology on a case-by-case basis, an agency task force said in a report being issued Wednesday.

The FDA is considering how it should regulate these products, which are made with tiny particles measured by the nanometer, or billionth of a meter. By comparison, a human hair is about 80,000 nanometers across.

Submicroscopic nanoparticles increasingly crop up in FDA-regulated products like sunscreens, glare-reducing eyeglass coatings and antimicrobial wound dressings.

General Dynamics stock advances sharply

FALLS CHURCH, Va. — Defense contractor General Dynamics Corp. stock rose sharply after it reported earnings above market expectations and raised its financial expectations for the rest of the year.

General Dynamics employs 140 people at its plant in Lincoln,

Profit from continuing operations rose to $518 million, or $1.27 per share, from $420 million, or $1.03 per share, last year. The latest quarter included a tax benefit of $18 million, or 5 cents per share.

That result exceeded analysts’ forecast of $1.17 per share, according to Thomson Financial.

Revenue rose 11 percent to $6.59 billion in the quarter from $5.93 billion in 2006. Analysts had expected $6.58 billion in the recent quarter.

Rivals of Facebook sue to shut it down

BOSTON — The owners of ConnectU, a social networking Web site. are trying to shut down Facebook.com, charging in a federal lawsuit that Facebook’s founder stole their ideas while they were students at Harvard.

From staff and wire reports