MySpace ads focus on Internet dangers

Popular online social networking hub MySpace.com said Monday it will begin displaying public service ads aimed at educating its users, many of them teens, about the dangers posed by sexual predators on the Internet.

MySpace, a division of News Corp., enables computer users to meet any of more than 60 million members. Users put up profiles that are searchable and can include photos of themselves and such details as where they live and what music they like.

But MySpace’s features and popularity with teens has raised concerns with authorities across the nation. There have been scattered accounts of sexual predators targeting minors they met through the site.

The ads were slated to begin running Monday on MySpace and through a host of News Corp. outlets, including other Fox Interactive Media Web sites, the 28 Fox Networks Group broadcast networks, Fox All Access radio and the New York Post.

•Alcoa Inc., the world’s largest aluminum producer, said Monday it has formed a joint venture with a Chinese engraving company to make aluminum brazing sheets near Shanghai, China.

Alcoa is investing more than $95 million and will be the managing partner in the venture, with a 70 percent stake. The remaining share will be held by Shanxi Yuncheng Engraving Group.

The investment will enable Alcoa to supply up to 50,000 metric tons of aluminum brazing sheet, primarily to auto makers in Asia, the company said. It will be produced in Kunshan City, near Shanghai.

•Union workers at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. accepted a new contract with higher wages and a limited increase in employee contributions to health care costs.

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local 776 approved the three-year deal Sunday with 82.5 percent of those present voting in favor, according to a union statement. The 3,700 union members build F-16, F-22 and F-35 fighter jets at the Fort Worth plant.

•Office Depot Inc. disclosed Monday that Chairman and Chief Executive Steve Odland received a grant of 600,000 restricted shares in 2005 valued at $11.5 million.

According to a proxy filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Odland received the shares on March 11, 2005, the date of his appointment as the Delray Beach, Fla.-based office supply retail chain’s chief executive and chairman.