New York City: Donald Trump to sell Empire State Building

An investor group that has the lease on the Empire State Building has agreed to purchase the building from real estate magnate Donald Trump and his partner for $57.5 million, Trump’s spokeswoman said Tuesday.

The spokeswoman, Norma Foerderer, confirmed reports that Empire State Building Associates, which is controlled by real estate investor Peter Malkin, will buy the 102-story landmark. Malkin’s group already has a lease on the building through 2076.

The terms of the deal apparently give Trump and his partner, Japanese billionaire Hideki Yokoi, more than $6 million of the sale’s proceeds, plus additional expenses.

Washington, D.C.: FDA panel rejects drug for common cold

An advisory committee of the Food and Drug Administration voted 15-0 Tuesday against approval of a drug to treat the common cold, saying safety concerns outweigh the potential benefit of knocking a day or so off the illness.

There was widespread agreement among members of the FDA’s Antiviral Drugs Advisory Committee that the drug, Picovir, was proven in studies to be effective against colds, at least in relatively healthy people who don’t smoke.

But given how widely such a drug would be used, committee members said it needed to pass the most stringent safety requirements. They were concerned that Picovir appears to interfere with birth-control pills, possibly enough to cause unwanted pregnancies, and may interfere with some other common drugs as well.

Ohio: Second hole found in nuclear reactor cap

A second hole has been found in a steel cap that covers a nuclear power plant’s reactor vessel, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Tuesday.

The hole is smaller than one found two weeks ago that federal inspectors said was the largest ever discovered on top of a U.S. nuclear plant reactor. The holes at the Davis-Besse nuclear plant in Toledo do not pose a safety threat, agency spokesman Jan Strasma said.

After the first hole was found, the regulatory commission alerted the nation’s 102 other commercial nuclear plants to watch for similar problems. Strasma said Tuesday no other plant had found problems.

New York City: Crime drop continues

In continuation of a decadelong trend, violent crime in New York City is down again.

The latest New York Police Department statistics show 85 murders were reported through March 17 down 39.7 percent from the same period last year. In Manhattan, only 11 murders were recorded, compared with 28 last year.

Overall violent crime murder, rape, robbery, felony assault, burglary, grand larceny and auto theft was down by 7.9 percent. The numbers were down 18 percent compared with 2000, and 65.4 percent compared to 1993.

California: Mob hits suspected as lake yields corpses

Authorities have recovered the bodies of three men believed dumped by the mob in a deep lake and searched for more corpses on Tuesday.

Two bodies were pulled Sunday from beneath a bridge over New Melones Lake, a reservoir in the Sierra Nevada foothills. A third body was found Monday under a second bridge over the lake.

All three were recovered by a remotely operated submersible vehicle and brought to the surface by divers.

FBI spokesman Nick Rossi said more bodies could be submerged in the water more than 200 feet deep.

The lake is about 110 miles southeast of Sacramento.