Washington -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning of potentially life-threatening side effects of skin numbing products.

The products, known as topical anesthetics contain lidocaine, tetracaine, benzocaine and prilocaine in a cream, ointment or gel. The FDA is concerned the anesthetic drugs, if used improperly, may cause life-threatening side effects, such as irregular heartbeat, seizures, breathing difficulties, coma or even death.

The agency said two women died using topical anesthetics before laser hair removal. When skin temperature increases, the amount of anesthetic reaching the blood steam is unpredictable, the FDA said Friday.

The agency is advising consumers not to apply heavy amounts of topical anesthetic to large areas of skin and to avoid wrapping the treated skin with plastic wrap or applying heat from a heating pad to treated areas.

Albany, N.Y-- UnitedHealth Group Inc., the No. 2 U.S. insurer, agreed to pay the largest settlement ever by a health insurance company for allegedly defrauding customers.

UnitedHealth agreed to pay $350 million in a case that centers around Ingenix, the country's largest billing information provider, the New York Daily News reported Friday.

Ingenix is supposed to provide insurers with "usual and customary" rates for medical treatments, but instead provided them with figures that allowed companies make smaller payments to customers, the newspaper said.

United also agreed to spend $50 million and Aetna, the third largest insurer, has agreed to provide $20 million to a nonprofit group that will set up a new billing data base.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo called the billing discrepancy "blatant fraud," the report said.

Stockholm, Sweden, January 16: Evidence suggests that the world's two major psychotic disorders, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, are highly heritable and may share a common genetic nature.

Toronto, January 16: A recent report by UNICEF indicates that pregnant mothers and newborn babies suffer from a high risk of death in developing countries. The report was released by UNICEF in Johannesburg.

New York, January 16: The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has accused Coca Cola Co of falsifying health benefits of its 'Glacéau VitaminWater' range of beverages.

Washington, January 15: A new study suggests that the doctors can reduce the patients’ death rates and complications during and after major operations by just following a simple surgical safety checklist.

Battle Creek, Mich. -- Kellogg is pulling Austin and Keebler peanut butter crackers off U.S. store shelves while it investigates the source of the peanut filling.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has indicated that peanut butter produced by Peanut Corporation of America is being investigated as a source of a multistate Salmonella outbreak. The company is one of several peanut paste suppliers Kellogg used in Austin and Keebler branded peanut butter sandwich crackers.

The Battle Creek, Mich., company said it has not received any consumer illness complaints about the products but is recalling Austin and Keebler branded Toasted Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers, Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich Crackers, Cheese and Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers, and Peanut Butter-Chocolate Sandwich Crackers as a precaution.

Indianapolis -- U.S. drug maker Eli Lilly is close to settling criminal and civil charges that it promoted a drug, Zyrexa, for unauthorized uses, sources said.

The company is expected to settle the claims for $1.4 billion, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

The company was charged with promoting the drug, an anti-psychotic, for use among children and the elderly, although it was not approved for use with those categories of patients.

For the elderly, the company promoted the drug to nursing homes to calm patients and make "nursing time and effort" easier, court documents claimed.

Court filings say it was also promoted for use among hard-to-control children.

Among the elderly, the drug could be life threatening, increasing the risk of heart failure, the Times reported. Among children, the drug's side effects of causing severe weight gain and metabolic disorders is elevated, the Times said.

Washington -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said a safety review has yet to find conclusive evidence of any link between certain asthma drugs and suicide.

The agency last March announced that it was reviewing data that raised concerns about a possible association between the use of Singulair and behavior/mood changes, suicide, suicidal thinking and suicidal behavior.

The FDA has urged both healthcare professionals and patients to report side effects from the use of drugs Singulair, Accolate, Zyflo, and Zyflo CR to the FDA's MedWatch Adverse Event Reporting program.

The review was initiated by post-marketing reports of neuropsychiatric events associated with montelukast, zafirlukast and zileuton being reported to FDA's Adverse Event Reporting System.

Atlanta -- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said preliminary evidence suggests peanut butter may be the source of a Salmonella outbreak.

As of Monday, 410 people infected with the outbreak strains of Salmonella Typhimurium have been reported from 43 states. The infection may have contributed to three deaths, the report said.

Peanut Corp. of America, which makes peanut butter for bulk distribution to institutions, food service industries and private label food companies, recalled peanut butter produced in its Blakely, Ga., processing facility this week after the Minnesota Department of Agriculture Laboratory found Salmonella Typhimurium in an open 5-pound container of King Nut brand creamy peanut butter.

The peanut butter is also sold under the brand name Parnell's Pride.