Also

* Consumer advocacy group Public Citizen asked the Food and Drug Administration to ban Abbott Laboratories’ diet drug Meridia, linking the anti-obesity medicine to 29 deaths in the United States. Abbott’s anti-obesity prescription drug also is under fire by health officials in Europe, who linked the medicine to two deaths and adverse side effects in hundreds of people.

* SI Technologies Inc., a Tustin sensor and control system maker, reported that second-quarter net income rose to $166,000, or 5 cents a share, from $19,000, or 1 cent a share, a year earlier. Revenue fell 17% to $8 million, reflecting ongoing weakness in capital equipment markets, primarily in North America and Europe, the company said.

* Empire State Associates, an investor group that holds the lease on the Empire State Building, has agreed to buy the building from real estate magnate Donald Trump and his partner for $57.5 million.