FBI raids Minn. money-transfer companies

MINNEAPOLIS -- Federal agents have raided three money-transfer businesses in Minneapolis.

FBI spokesman E.K. Wilson confirms that agents served search warrants at three money-transfer operations. He wouldn't elaborate on the investigation. The general manager of one business, Mustaqbal Express, says about 15 FBI agents spent more than four hours at his business on Wednesday.

Abdirahman Omar says the agents had a search warrant and said they were investigating documentation of money transfers. He says they took about 10 boxes of documents and copied computer hard drives.

Omar says the search warrant covered records for transfers to Somalia, Eritrea, Kenya, Sudan and other African nations. The other businesses searched were Quran Express and Aaran Financial.

Doctors: Thyroid drug can hurt liver, kill kids

A pill used for thyroid disease can cause fatal liver failure in children and should no longer be used to treat them, two doctors warn.

Doctors usually first try either propylthiouracil or methimazole to treat children with Graves' disease, the most common cause of an overactive thyroid. Other treatments are surgery and radioactive iodine.

But over the past 60 years, reports have popped up linking the use of propylthiouracil in children to liver failure, sometimes fatal or requiring a liver transplant.

Propylthiouracil, or PTU, is also a primary treatment for adults with Graves' disease, but there appear to be fewer liver complications in adults, according to Donald R. Mattison of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Heartburn drugs no help with asthma

Asthma patients using powerful acid reflux drugs even though they don't have heartburn should stop taking them, lung experts say. It turns out the medicine doesn't improve asthma symptoms, as had been thought. Estimates are that 2.5 million to 5 million Americans with asthma also have gastroesophageal reflux, in which acid or food rises from the stomach into the throat, without any obvious heartburn symptoms.

Doctors believed that because of the apparent link between the two conditions, prescription medicines to treat acid reflux would reduce asthma flare-ups, breathing trouble and emergency room visits.

Medical guidelines call for doctors to treat asthma patients for reflux disease if they have symptoms of it -- and to consider testing and treating if they don't. Among the most popular treatments for severe heartburn are expensive prescription drugs called proton pump inhibitors, including Nexium and Protonix, which are meant to reduce stomach acid and ulcers.

Cops seek killer of 8-year-old Calif. girl

TRACY, Calif. -- Police have served more than 15 search warrants in their attempt to hunt down whoever killed an 8-year-old girl and stuffed her body in a suitcase, but say they "don't want to rush to judgment" and so far have no suspects in the case.

Sgt. Tony Sheneman said everyone has been cooperative, but he declined to give many details about who was questioned and why, and what was seized during searches of a local church and mobile home park this week. "We feel a great deal of pressure. We want to find who is responsible for this," Sheneman said Wednesday. "We don't want to rush to judgment, and we don't want people tried in the press."

Sandra Cantu was last seen alive March 27, when she was caught on a surveillance video skipping down a street near her home at Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park. A massive search ended Monday when her body was discovered stuffed in a suitcase that was dumped into a pond only a few miles from her home.

"There's a monster out there," said Jose Chavez, Sandra's grandfather.

Sandra's cause of death has not been revealed. An autopsy has been completed, but results were pending, said Les Garcia, a spokesman for the San Joaquin County coroner's office.

Cops say N.C. man kills two, dies in shootout

RALEIGH, N.C. -- A man killed his girlfriend and later started a shootout in the woods with sheriff's deputies that killed a lawman and left the gunman dead, investigators said Wednesday.

Craven County sheriff's Capt. Joe Heckman said suspect Clarence Douglas Phillips, 43, died at a nearby hospital from gunshot wounds sustained during the shootout in neighboring Lenoir County. He said deputies found Phillips' girlfriend, 49-year-old Cynthia Tillett Knighten, dead in her Craven County home.

Authorities identified the slain officer as Lenoir County Sheriff's Det. Allen Pearson. Another officer remained in serious condition Wednesday evening. Heckman said Phillips had a history of domestic issues and that deputies believe Phillips shot Knighten, but it wasn't clear.

Appeals court rules Noriega can be taken to France

ATLANTA -- A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that Manuel Noriega can be taken to France to face money laundering charges, rejecting the former Panamanian dictator's bid to return to his native country after serving a drug sentence in the U.S.

A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals turned back Noriega's claims that the Geneva Conventions treaties regarding prisoners of war require him to be returned to Panama.

Noriega attorney Jonathan May of Miami said an appeal was likely.

"We've always said this case would wind up in the Supreme Court," May said.

Noriega has been in U.S. custody since his capture shortly after U.S. troops invaded Panama in late 1989 to oust him from power. Convicted of drug racketeering in 1992 in the U.S., Noriega was later declared a prisoner of war by U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler.