Washington, D.C.

Second drug approved for erectile dysfunction

The government approved sale of a second pill to treat erectile dysfunction Tuesday, setting the stage for a fierce battle with Viagra in the billion-dollar-plus impotence market.

The new drug, Levitra, is in the same family as Viagra. Both work by targeting an enzyme important for maintaining an erection. The Food and Drug Administration approved Levitra on Tuesday.

Until now, the blue, diamond-shaped Viagra pills have been the only oral prescription drug available for an estimated 30 million American men who suffer some degree of impotence.

Levitra, made by Bayer AG and marketed by GlaxoSmithKline, recently began selling in Europe. A third impotence pill — Cialis, from Eli Lilly & Co. and Icos Corp. — also has European approval and is expected to hit U.S. pharmacies later this year.

Washington, D.C.

Navajo landowners underpaid for pipelines

Companies paid private landowners near the Navajo reservation in the Southwest nearly 20 times what Navajos got for the right to build pipelines across their land, a court-appointed investigator reported Wednesday.

Such discrepancies and the destruction of records related to the deal are a failure of the Interior Department’s legal duty to American Indian landowners to ensure fair payment for the use of their land, the report said.

“It is doubtful,” wrote the investigator, Alan Balaran, whether Navajos “are receiving ‘fair market value’ for leases encumbering their land. It is certain they are denied the information necessary to make such a determination.”

Balaran was appointed by a federal judge to investigate document destruction in a class-action lawsuit on behalf of an estimated 500,000 American Indians.

Detroit

Father accused of shooting children

A father allegedly shot and killed three of his children and wounded another before setting their home on fire and fleeing on a bicycle, authorities said.

Anthony Lamar Bailey, 37, was apprehended Wednesday as he walked on a freeway overpass. He was named in a warrant charging him with several counts, including first-degree murder, arson and assault with intent to commit murder.

Firefighters found the children in the basement of their burning home and believed Bailey fled on bicycle after the blaze started before 9 p.m. Tuesday.

Sharnice, 11, her 3-year-old sister Ayana and 1-year-old brother Lamar died at the scene, said Deputy Police Chief Tara Dunlop.

The surviving child, Antonia Bailey, 9, was taken to Sinai-Grace Hospital in critical condition, said Officer Christopher Cole. She was expected to survive, Dunlop said.