Brand

The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday cautioned consumers against using quinine for leg cramps, warning that the drug could cause severe side effects, including death. Quinine, sold in this country under the brand name Qualaquin, is approved for treatment of uncomplicated malaria, but has a long history of use as a remedy for leg cramps, especially at night. In many countries, it is sold over the counter. Studies have shown that it can reduce the incidence of cramps by one-third to one-half but that as many as one in every 25 users can suffer serious side effects.

With the unofficial start of summer just days away, it's time to stock up on sunscreen. Does it matter which one you buy? Consumer Reports tested some popular brands, and found that it does, but the best choices are not necessarily the most expensive. Of the 18 popular products Consumer Reports tested , none rated excellent in all four categories: UVA and UVB protection, UVB protection after being in the water, and staining fabrics. All Terrain Aqua Sport lotion rated best, scoring 88 of 100 possible points.

BMW has been striving to reconcile its dueling images for years. Best known for its luxurious, sport-oriented cars, the German manufacturer's motorcycles are only beginning to shed their reputation as wheels for safety-conscious old men, thanks to exciting new bikes like the S 1000 RR and K 1600 LT. At this weekend's International Motorcycle Shows event in Long Beach, BMW is likely to confuse its image even further when its first scooters make...

Katy Perry's upcoming 3-D documentary may be titled "Part of Me," but the pop singer said it would "show everything" about her life, including her breakup six months ago with former husband Russell Brand. "Sometimes people think that we're perfect, and we know we're not perfect at all," Perry said Tuesday. "And I think it's important to start breaking down the idea that to achieve your dream you have to always be perfect or flawless or live in kind of like some fantasy world."

First of three parts Tiffany Lee wanted a car. She was weary of the two-hour bus ride to her job at a UCLA Health System clinic. She hated having to ask friends to drive her 7-year-old son to his asthma treatments. But as a single mother with three children, bad credit and a $27,000-a-year salary, she couldn't find a bank or dealership willing to give her a loan. Then a friend steered her to Repossess Auto Sales in Hawthorne. Another buyer might have balked at the deal she was offered.

"Oh, you mean the guy with the 70-year-old head and the 20-year-old body-builder body? That picture has got to be Photoshopped." Dr. Jeffry Life smiles when I tell him about the general reaction I get about the famous picture of him with his shirt off, the shot that turned a mild-mannered doctor in his mid-60s into a poster boy for super-fit aging and controversial hormone replacement Appearing in medical-clinic ads in airline magazines and...

If you buy something from online auctioneer Property Room, you don't have to wonder if it was stolen. That's because it probably was. Property Room, started by a former police detective, gets its items from law enforcement property rooms nationwide. Most of its inventory of jewelry, bicycles, computers, furniture, tools, car stereos, cameras, sports equipment, portable music players and things that could best be categorized under miscellaneous -- or bizarre -- was seized from crooks.

Watching Alzheimer's disease steal away the memory, talents and very selves of its victims is hard enough for the people who love them. Now, a new pill formulated by a respected pharmaceutical company and approved by the Food and Drug Administration will do little to help most patients and will bring misery to some, say two medical investigators. The drug, Aricept 23 mg, is no more effective on the whole than the disappointing ones already on the market - but is more likely to cause gastrointestinal problems, wrote Drs. Steven Woloshin and Lisa Schwartz of Dartmouth Medical College in an article published Thursday in the medical journal BMJ. The new formulation was devised to serve commercial objectives, they say, and was approved despite a poor showing in company-sponsored tests.

Finally, something for the ladies? The Axe brand from Unilever, which made a name for itself with risque ads featuring women chasing men who doused themselves with its body spray, is rolling out a fragrance for women. The Anarchy line has his and her versions, and will hit store shelves accompanied by a slew of suggestive commercials that imply pursuit goes both ways (as long as you smell nice). In one TV spot, a female cop chases a masked jewelry thief down alleyways while both shed  clothing during the pursuit.

In the video to Pitbull's latest chart-topper, "Give Me Everything," he pours a glass of Voli vodka, careful to display the label; in the lyrics and video for his single, "Rain Over Me," he hails the vodka as the new "it" drink. In both clips, the bottle takes center stage as the rapper is swarmed by flashing neon lights, svelte models and crooning pop wingmen. Name-check references to the high life of liquor or drugs is nothing new to rap — a study released just weeks ago from the University of Pittsburgh and Dartmouth University found that for every hour that American teens listen to music, they hear more than three references to brand-name alcohol in rap/R&B/hip-hop lyrics.

Build-a-Bear Workshop was introducing a line of stuffed animals called smallfrys and wanted to reach moms through Facebook. One video used in the online promotion showed a woman pulling up to a fast-food window. Her young daughter requests "a smallfry. " When her mom suggests a fruit cup or celery sticks, the daughter says, "Mom, order me a curly-haired bunny in a purple sequined bathing suit. " The 45-second smallfrys spot came not from a traditional advertising agency but from Poptent Inc., a "crowdsourced" video production studio that has built a global community of 50,000 writers, directors, cinematographers and animators to create commercials for Build-a-Bear, American Airlines, Dell, Intel, Jaguar, General Mills and others.

Toyota Motor Corp.and Volkswagen are leading a charge of import brands in U.S. auto sales, eating into market-share gains made by the Detroit automakers over the last year. The domestic automakers sold 530,000 vehicles in April, accounting for 44.8% of the market. That share was down from 46.5% in the same month last year, according to Autodata Corp. Asian brands sold 536,000 vehicles in April, accounting for 45.3% of the market. That's up from a share of 44.9% a year earlier.

Collective Brands Inc., which owns footwear brands such as Sperry Top-Sider and Keds as well as the retailer Payless ShoeSource, will be split in two by multiple buyers in a purchase valued at $2 billion, including debt. Wolverine Worldwide, Blum Capital and Golden Gate Capital formed an acquisition company to buy Collective for $21.75 a share. The deal was unanimously approved by Collective's board and is expected to close by early in the fourth quarter. The price represents a 104% premium on Collective's 30-day average stock price before Aug. 24, when the company first announced that it was looking into a strategic and financial shift for its operations.

Judging from the plethora of eye-catching eyewear that's been getting face time over the last few years - be it on the European ready-to-wear runways or in the adjoining office cubicle - it's clear that glasses have gone from nerd necessity to chic accessory. It's a shift reflected in the current look-at-me trends - retro, vintage-inspired frames, chunky tortoise shells and geometric shapes that attract rather than deflect attention - and reinforced by the laundry list of fashion-focused brands with a presence in the eyewear arena.

Samsung Electronics Co. became the world's largest cellphone brand for the first time, overtaking longtime market leader Nokia Corp. In the smartphone segment, Samsung remained in second place behind Apple Inc., according to market research firm IHS ISuppli. The South Korean electronics giant shipped 92 million cellphones worldwide in the first quarter, compared with 83 million for Nokia. While Samsung's shipments declined 13% from the fourth quarter of 2011, Nokia's dropped 27%. In the smartphone segment, Apple shipped 35 million units in the first quarter, compared with 32 million for Samsung.

Swiss food and nutrition giant Nestle plans to shell out $11.9 billion to buy Pfizer's nutrition unit, whose products include baby formula brands SMA and Promil. The division is expected to reel in $2.4 billion in sales this year and gets 85% of its revenue from emerging markets, whose large and rapidly growing populations are a key target for Nestle. Pfizer has the fifth-largest infant formula business in the world, according to research group Euromonitor International, ranked behind Nestle, Mead-Johnson Nutrition Co., Groupe Danone and Abbott Laboratories, respectively.

With 380 million eggs under recall, consumers may be anxious about eating any egg or food product containing eggs. Here's the upshot: Thoroughly cooked eggs are safe, but cross-contamination could be a problem. Here's more about the recall and food safety. Which eggs are included in the voluntary recall? The recall issued Aug. 13 covers eggs from Wright County Egg in Iowa packaged under the brand names Lucerne (Safeway's store brand), Albertsons, Mountain Dairy, Ralphs, Boomsma's, Sunshine, Hillandale, Trafficanda, Farm Fresh, Shoreland, Lund, Dutch Farm and Kemps.

As Miss Teen South Carolina reminded us so memorably in 2007, "Some people in our nation don't have maps. . . ." So true. But you can't blame the National Geographic Society. For more than a century, the House That Grosvenor Built has been one of the world's most ambitious educational and scientific organizations. These are the people who brought us unforgettable documentary films about Jacques Cousteau and Robert Ballard, Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey. The society's flagship publication, National Geographic magazine, remains the platinum standard of glossy-book journalism: lucidly written, beautifully photographed and humanely informed, a study in elegance.

As liquor sales boom, Beam Inc. is expanding its spirits empire, paying $605 million in cash to buy the Pinnacle Vodka and Calico Jack rum brands from White Rock Distilleries. Beam's long list of products already include Jim Beam and Maker's Mark bourbon, Courvoisier cognac, Canadian Club whiskey and Skinnygirl Cocktails (which saw a 388% boom in volume sales last year, according to research group Technomic). What it doesn't have are vodka flavors such as Atomic Hots, Cake, Gummy and Whipped Cream.

U.S. Travel Assn.'s Daily Giveaways features a new discount -- or two, or three, or more -- on hotels, car rentals, entertainment and other travel services each day until May 11. Today's deal (Monday) offers savings on hotel packages in the form of loyalty points at Ramada, Super 8, Days Inn, Wyndham and Wingate by Wyndham properties. The deal: Here's how this offer works: Start by signing up for free at Wyndham Rewards loyalty program . On the Daily Getaways website, click on "today" and you'll see the price for loyalty points and the redemption value for a future stay.