Warning

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.

NEW YORK - Facebook Inc.'s bungled stock-market debut made it clear that big money still rules Wall Street. But this time, the small money got a look at how Wall Street really works - and that could spell trouble for the financial industry. Millions of small investors have trimmed their investments in stocks after seeing their 401(k) accounts pulverized by the market plunge in 2008-09. The May 2010 flash crash - in which $1 trillion briefly vanished from the stock market - served as another flashing yellow caution sign.

A word of a warning to parents of adolescents, from the nation's poison centers: Yes, you've secured your medicine chest and your liquor cabinet; but a new thrill-seeking activity among teens might make you consider locking away the cinnamon shaker as well. In the first three months of 2012, the nation's poison centers have had 139 calls -- close to three times as many as were received in all of 2011 -- seeking help and information about the intentional misuse of cinnamon. At least 122 of those calls arose from something called the "cinnamon challenge" -- a game growing in popularity among teens in which a child is dared to swallow a spoonful of ground or powdered cinnamon without drinking any water.

Scientists dissecting the remains of the disastrous 1980 explosion of Mt. St. Helens in Washington state say that crystal formations trapped in volcanic rocks hold important clues about when a magma-loaded mountain is about to blow - a discovery that could help volcanologists make more accurate predictions about future eruptions. The findings, published in Friday's edition of the journal Science, link the movement of underground magma to earthquakes, gas emissions and other warning signs that are more accessible to experts who monitor active volcanoes above ground.

A newly declassified document has added to long-standing questions about whether Henry Kissinger, while secretary of State, halted a U.S. plan to curb a secret program of international assassinations by South American dictators. The document, a set of instructions cabled from Kissinger to his top Latin American deputy, ended efforts by U.S. diplomats to warn the governments of Chile, Uruguay and Argentina against involvement in the covert plan known as Operation Condor, according to Peter Kornbluh, an analyst with the National Security Archive, a private research organization that uncovered the document and made it public Saturday.

The U.S. State Department issued a new state-by-state warning for travelers to Mexico that details the more violent areas of the country but also points out popular places such as Cabo San Lucas and Mexico City where travel advisories aren't in effect. The warning announced Wednesday gives specific cities and states, with a map of the country, where gun battles and drug trafficking violence are likely to occur. Mexican tourism has been under a cloud for the last six years since gruesome killings related to drug cartels scared off visitors to many parts of the country.

Texas issued a strong warning Tuesday for students who want to party on spring break: Don't go to Mexico . The Department of Public Safety warning cites violent crime from battling drug cartels as reasons to avoid traveling anywhere south of the border -- even to popular tourist destinations that weren't included in a recent U.S. State Department warning. "The Mexican government has made great strides battling the cartels, and we commend their continued commitment to making Mexico a safer place to live and visit," the statement from Director Steven C. McCraw says in part.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- It's like Russian roulette for Midwesterners: There's a storm coming, so you stick your head out the back door to get a gander at it. Most of the time there's no danger, which is why so many people do it. But it's a habit weather officials are trying to stop. As a highly volatile system moves into the lower Midwest - with "likely" tornado-producing storms expected to barrel through Kansas and Oklahoma and then Nebraska later Saturday evening - the National Weather Service could be looking at the first true test of its new, stronger-worded warning system intended to send Midwesterners to their basements a little sooner.

The state of Texas is warning Americans to avoid travel to the Mexican border town of Nuevo Laredo this holiday weekend because of an anticipated surge in drug cartel violence aimed at Americans. In a news release   Saturday, the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Webb County Sheriff's Office said their sources indicated that the Zetas drug cartel was "planning to target U.S. citizens who travel to Nuevo Laredo this weekend. "  Steven C. McCraw, the department's director, also said in the statement:  "According to the information we have received, the Zetas are planning a possible surge in criminal activity, such as robberies, extortions, car-jackings and vehicle theft, specifically against U.S. citizens.

Psychological researchers who want to study what makes people sad might do well to hop a Virgin Atlantic flight. The bold airline in the Richard Branson kingdom is launching an "emotional health warning" for films carried in-flight that it says might make passengers cry, according to a news release. The warning flashes before the movie selected on the in-flight entertainment system. It warns passengers "of a sensitive disposition to cry, weep, sob, wail, howl, bawl, bleat or mewl.

BERLIN - If it seems to German Chancellor Angela Merkel that the world is against her, she may be right. Her insistence that debt-ridden European nations cut their way out of financial crises helped cost her conservative political party two state elections this month, exposed her to criticism as an inflexible taskmaster across the Eurozone and unleashed a torrent of anti-austerity venting that has toppled like-thinking national and regional leaders...

WASHINGTON - The Congressional Budget Office warned that the country could be thrown into a recession if Congress tries to reduce the nation's deficit quickly with a combination of budget cuts and higher taxes scheduled to take place at the end of the year. The nonpartisan budget office laid out the stark choices Tuesday over what has been called the coming fiscal cliff as congressional leaders square off in an expected partisan showdown from now through December. The office warned that the growth of the nation's gross domestic product - the value of goods and services produced - would slow to just 0.5% next year if Congress did nothing.

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- Vice President Joe Biden brought the Obama campaign's Bain Capital offensive to Ohio Wednesday, framing the election as a choice between economic philosophies that would have stark consequences for the middle class. Speaking at a local manufacturer, Biden said there was "life and hope in the heartland" as a result of the administration's pro-manufacturing policies, which he said would do more to build a lasting economy than the profit-at-all-cost approach of firms like the one Mitt Romney headed.

The ratings agency Standard & Poor's warned on Tuesday that it could downgrade California's financial outlook if lawmakers don't pass a credible budget plan this year. A final budget is due June 15, and lawmakers' task has become increasingly difficult as the state's deficit has swelled to nearly $16 billion. "We could change the outlook to negative or lower the rating if we believe the state's credit quality weakens through the budget process," said a report from Standard & Poor's.

WASHINGTON — An anxious wife drove Brian McNamee to hold on to evidence of Roger Clemens' steroid use for self-protection, the former trainer testified at the former pitcher's federal perjury trial. "She kept saying in the midst of a battle royale, 'You're going to go down if something ever happens,' " McNamee said. So as a measure of insurance, McNamee said, he held on to a beer can filled with a used needle, a syringe and a glass steroid ampule he had fished out of Clemens' recycling bin in 2001.

SACRAMENTO - Gov. Jerry Brown released a plan to close California's rapidly growing deficit by switching state offices to a four-day week, slashing welfare benefits and healthcare for the poor and relying on a variety of short-term fixes - all in the hopes that voters will give the state some breathing room by raising taxes in November. The governor, who unveiled his revised budget proposal in the Capitol on Monday, is facing a nearly $16-billion budget gap, far larger than the $9.2 billion he predicted in January.

Virginia Tech did not violate federal law in its email response time that notified students of a campus rampage that left 33 people dead, the worst mass shooting by a gunman in U.S. history, a judge ruled Friday. The Department of Education had fined the university $55,000 for waiting more than two hours after the first round of gunfire to send out an email warning students, teachers and others to take cover. But the department's chief administrative judge, Ernest C. Canellos, found that the university did not violate a law requiring timely warnings of safety threats and overturned the fine.

President Obama abruptly left debt negotiations with congressional leaders Wednesday at the White House when a top Republican said there was no longer time to engage in the large-scale deficit reduction discussions the White House is now seeking as part of a vote to raise the nation's debt ceiling. The flare-up came at the end of the nearly two-hour session during which House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) told the president that Congress should instead consider a series of debt ceiling votes based on spending cuts that already have been identified.

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Jerry Brown warned Californians on Thursday to brace for another round of difficult budget cuts as he hand-delivered boxes of petitions to election officials requesting that his proposed tax hike be placed on the November ballot. Brown, who is expected to unveil his revised budget proposal Monday, said he needed far more than the $4.2 billion in spending reductions he asked for in January. And he continued to raise the specter of even deeper wounds to public schools, colleges and other state services if his bid for tax hikes fails.