Tennessee: Blood quarantine cuts supply in 4 states

Red Cross officials begged for blood Monday after quarantining a blood supply used in four states while investigators tried to figure out why a mysterious white substance is showing up in blood bags.

The quarantine affects 70 percent of the blood supply in the Red Cross’ Tennessee Valley Region, which includes parts of Tennessee, Illinois, Kentucky and Missouri. The 1,200 units represents about a two-day supply.

The Red Cross in Nashville began examining its supply after white particles showed up last week in 110 units of blood in the Southern Region, which serves Georgia and part of northern Florida. On Sunday, Tennessee Valley officials found similar white particles in 10 units of blood.

An investigation by the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has focused on bags manufactured by Baxter International Inc. in Deerfield, Ill.

Philadelphia: Study recommends ephedra restriction

Ephedra, an herb found in weight-loss and bodybuilding supplements, is unsafe even when taken in recommended doses and should be restricted, according to doctors who studied reports of bad reactions to the herb.

U.S. poison control centers reported 1,178 adverse reactions to ephedra dietary supplements in 2001, said the study, which was to be posted on the Annals of Internal Medicine’s Web site, www.annals.org, today.

Ephedra accounted for 64 percent of all adverse reactions involving herbs, even though it is found in fewer than 1 percent of all herbal products sold.

The Food and Drug Administration has reports of nearly 100 deaths of people who had taken the herb, a stimulant that can quicken a person’s heart rate and cause their blood vessels to constrict.

Salt Lake City: Kidnapped girl’s family announces new reward

The parents of Elizabeth Smart announced a new $10,000 reward Monday for information about their missing 14-year-old daughter and asked for help in their search for a handyman known only as “Emanuel.”

The parents released a sketch of “Emanuel,” a man they said worked around their home two years ago. The late Richard Ricci, who remains a suspect, was also a handyman who worked for the Smarts.

Elizabeth’s sister, Mary Katharine, came to her parents, Ed and Lois Smart, recently and said “Emanuel” bore some resemblance to the man who took Elizabeth from their room at gunpoint eight months ago.

Pennsylvania: Charges allege phone harassment

A man was arrested on charges he made harassing and lewd telephone calls to 20 women who had been in auto accidents or suffered deaths in their families, police said.

Charles Baenig, 55, who was charged with 232 counts related to stalking and harassment, was being held in Dauphin County Prison in lieu of $500,000 bail, officials said. He was arrested Thursday following a more than two-year investigation by Derry Township police.

Police have identified 20 victims in five counties. Baenig, of Mechanicsburg, would call the women after a car crash, funeral or other “traumatic event,” according to police. It was unclear how the women were chosen.

Baenig would begin by sympathizing with the women about the loss of a loved one or by telling them he had helped them at the scene of an accident while they were unconscious, police said.

He then changed the topic to “lewd, lascivious or obscene behavior” and would make repeated calls, police said.