Around the Nation

Medicine May Not Fight All Flu Cases, CDC Says

ATLANTA -- Government health officials said Friday that a leading flu medicine, Tamiflu, might not work against all cases of the flu this year. The most common flu bug right now is overwhelmingly resistant to the drug, they said.

The alert is "an early heads-up" for doctors. If current trends continue, they may need to change how they treat patients this flu season, said Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Health officials say they are not too worried, for several reasons. First, it is early in the flu season, and it is not clear whether this strain will dominate through the next several months. Second, not many people take antiviral medications for the flu.

Third, the flu vaccine seems well matched against the circulating bugs.

The flu causes 200,000 hospitalizations and 36,000 deaths annually, according to official estimates. The elderly, young children and people with chronic illnesses are considered at greatest risk.

Remains Match DNA Of Florida 3-Year-Old

ORLANDO -- Skeletal remains found in the woods are those of the Florida 3-year-old who has been missing since June, but they do not reveal any clues about how she was killed, a county medical examiner said Friday.

A utility worker discovered the remains last week, less than half a mile from where the girl lived. DNA tests confirm that they match Caylee Anthony's genetic profile, said the medical examiner, Jan Garavaglia.

Caylee's mother, Casey Anthony, 22, was indicted in October on charges of first-degree murder and other offenses, even though no body was found. She has insisted that she left the girl with a babysitter in June, but she did not report her missing until July.

It took authorities several days to analyze the remains, and some tests are still being completed. Some of the bones were as small as a pebble and had been scattered, authorities said. The bone fragments did not reveal any trauma before death, Garavaglia said, but exactly what happened to the girl remains a mystery.

Illegal Hiring Results in Fine

IFCO Systems North America will pay a $20.7 million fine for employing as many as 6,000 illegal immigrants from 2003 to 2006, the largest civil settlement in a U.S. work-site enforcement case, federal authorities announced. The logistics company avoided criminal prosecution under the deal, which stems from April 2006 raids that caught 1,182 illegal immigrants working at 40 IFCO pallet services plants in 26 states. The fine includes $2.6 million in back pay and penalties relating to overtime violations for 1,700 workers and $18.1 million in forfeitures. Nine IFCO employees have pleaded guilty to criminal charges in the case and four managers are awaiting trial on a felony indictment. IFCO accepted responsibility for the unlawful conduct of employees and agreed to cooperate with authorities in the ongoing investigation, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Andrew T. Baxter, acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of New York.

Fisheries Rule Change Pulled

The National Marine Fisheries Service withdrew a proposed rule that would have lifted a requirement that environmental impact statements be prepared for certain fisheries-management decisions. Officials at the fisheries service said the rule would not have significantly lessened safeguards: The main impact would have been to limit reviews of "experimental" new fishing techniques. But environmentalists had criticized the rule as a giveaway to the fishing industry. Federal officials said that there was not enough time to finish work on the rule before the Bush administration leaves office.

-- From Staff Reports and News Services