FDA seizes some import prescription drug orders

CHICAGO -- The Food and Drug Administration has seized prescription drug orders sent from abroad to more than 50 customers of I-SaveRx, a multistate program to import cheaper prescription drugs from Europe and Canada. The drugs, which were stopped at airports, included cholesterol lowering Lipitor and bone-strengthening Fosamax. Customers learned of the seizure through letters from the FDA, which said the drugs did not have the proper labeling or were not federally approved. FDA Associate commissioner William Hubbard denied that the agency, which opposes drug imports, stopped the shipments in an effort to shut down I-SaveRx.

Chertoff hears complaints on first responder money

WASHINGTON -- Senators on Wednesday took issue with the Homeland Security Department's budget request for next year, contending it would cut money dramatically for authorities in sparsely populated states who are the first to respond to an emergency. Secretary Michael Chertoff said the money needed to go instead to areas under the highest threat from potential terrorists. The Bush administration is seeking $34.2 billion for the department for the budget year that begins Oct. 1. The head of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee indicated the spending plan would be a tough sell on Capitol Hill because of cuts as high as 80 percent in grants for small states.

Police: Parents forced teen to sleep in cage

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A couple were arrested on neglect charges for allegedly forcing their malnourished 17-year-old adopted son to sleep in a locked cage. The teenager was wearing a diaper and weighed just 49 pounds when he was found. Wilson and Brenda Sullivan were ordered jailed Wednesday on $200,000 bail. Acting on a tip to a child abuse hot line, child welfare workers went to the Sullivans' home Jan. 10. The teenager was 4-foot-6 and weighed as much as a 6 1/2-year-old, his physical and emotional growth stunted by abuse, investigators said.

Pentagon deadline on reimbursement missed

WASHINGTON -- The Defense Department hasn't developed a plan to reimburse soldiers for equipment they've bought to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan despite requirements in a law passed last year, a senator says. The Pentagon had no immediate comment. Soldiers serving in Iraq and their families have reported buying everything from higher-quality protective gear to armor for their Humvees, medical supplies and even global positioning devices. Under the law, the Defense Department had until Feb. 25 to develop regulations on the reimbursement, which is limited to $1,100 per item.

Survivor of smuggling attempt called 911

HOUSTON -- With people dying around him, a Honduran immigrant who survived the nation's deadliest human smuggling attempt described Wednesday how he grabbed a cell phone and made two futile calls to 911 for help. "We are in a trailer ... ahead of Harlingen and Sarita. We're in a trailer," the panicked voice of Matias Rafael Medina Flores was heard in Spanish on a recording of the second call. Both 911 calls -- filled with static -- cut off before he could tell authorities the exact location of the trailer. The testimony came in the smuggling trial of Tyrone Williams, who is accused of abandoning the truck in south Texas and causing 19 immigrants to die in May 2003. Williams, 34, could get the death penalty if convicted.

'60 Minutes' staffer on Bush report sues CBS

NEW YORK -- A veteran "60 Minutes" staffer sued CBS on Wednesday for alleged age discrimination and defamation, charging that the network used the flawed report on President Bush's National Guard service as an excuse to try to ease her out. Esther Kartiganer, 67, filed the lawsuit on the last day that Dan Rather, the newsman who presented the Bush report, appeared as anchor of the CBS evening news after 24 years. Kartiganer said in court papers that her defamation claim is based on a statement by Leslie Moonves, CBS chairman and chief executive officer, on the network's Web site.