Local & State

Midlands

Owen Steel has role in new tower at Trade Center site

Columbia’s Owen Steel will fabricate the steel for a new 71-story tower about to be built at the World Trade Center in New York City, company president David Zalesne confirmed Monday. Construction is beginning soon on Tower 3, Zalesne said, at the site of the worst terrorist attack in the history of the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. Owen also provided 10,000 tons of steel to create the backbone of the World Trade Center Memorial and Museum. Crews on Monday lifted the final steel beam of 4 World Trade Center into place, the first such milestone since the 16-acre site was decimated, The Associated Press reported. That tower is expected to open late next year and will house commercial offices and serve as the headquarters of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the trade center site.

Nation & World

Oxygen systems to be restored to jet restrooms

NEW YORK Federal aviation officials will order airlines to put oxygen systems back in jet restrooms, reversing a decision to remove them because of fears that terrorists could use them to start a fire during flight. The Federal Aviation Administration said Monday that restoring the oxygen systems will “eliminate a hazard that could jeopardize flight safety.” The FAA used similar language to explain the 2011 order telling airlines to remove oxygen systems from restrooms. The rule covers about 5,500 planes.

Merkin to compensate investors

LOS ANGELES Money manager and Bernard Madoff associate J. Ezra Merkin will pay $410 million to compensate investors after losing more than $1.2 billion of their money to Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman on Monday called the agreement one of the largest of its kind. As part of the deal, Schneiderman will drop civil charges against Merkin accusing him of misleading clients on Madoff’s involvement in their investments. Merkin managed four funds — Ariel Fund, Gabriel Capital, Ascot Fund and Ascot Partners. New York officials said he surreptitiously funneled more than $2 billion in assets to Madoff while personally raking in hundreds of millions of dollars in management fees.

Problems sideline system for considering Web addresses

NEW YORK The organization in charge of creating additional Internet address suffixes to rival “.com” has suspended the Web-based system it set up to help decide the order in which it will review new address proposals. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers shut the system indefinitely over the weekend after confirming reports of “unexpected results.” ICANN says network delays and the system’s response to “differing circumstances” caused problems. Even before the technical issues emerged, participants had complained that the system was overly complicated. People proposing a new suffix had to specify a target date and time, and then return to the website at that time to hit a “Generate” button as close to the target as possible. Those with the closest matches would get their proposals considered first.

Kristy Eppley Rupon, The Associated Press and Los Angeles Times contributed.