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.

After remarks by Magic Johnson and U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, it was Wendy Greuel's turn to remind a few dozen black supporters at a South L.A. rally on Saturday that African Americans could swing the mayoral election Greuel's way on Tuesday. "They always underestimate this community," Greuel, the city controller, told the crowd outside her Crenshaw Boulevard office. "They've always underestimated me too. And what do we do? We prove them wrong. " While Greuel cast herself as the underdog in Tuesday's runoff, her rival, Eric Garcetti, warned volunteers in Westchester not to take victory for granted in a contest that remains fluid to the end. "We're ahead, but we're not winning," the city councilman told them on a break from making phone calls to voters who might need some prodding.

MEXICO CITY - Mexico's giant Popocatepetl volcano may generate lava flows, explosions of "growing intensity" and ash that could reach miles away, the National Center for Disaster Prevention said Monday. Officials were preparing evacuation routes and shelters for thousands of people who live in the shadow of Popocatepetl, located 40 miles southeast of Mexico City. Officials have created a 7.5-mile restricted zone around the cone of the volcano. Popo, as the volcano is known, has displayed a "notable increase in activity levels" in the last few days, including tremors and explosive eruptions, according to a statement from the federal government.

MARAAT NUMAN, Syria - Each morning, after saluting the Syrian flag and before the warplanes take off, soldiers at army bases across Syria are given political orientation. During the lectures, conscripts and career officers alike are repeatedly told that opposition forces are fueled by sectarian hatred and want to tear the country apart. The message - of a war waged by Sunni Muslims against Syria's Alawite and Shiite minorities - is well understood. To Syrian soldiers, "It has essentially become sectarian; the Sunnis fight out of fear and the Alawites fight out of conviction," said Muhammad Zinedden, a Sunni conscript who defected in February from the 17th Engineering Regiment in Raqqa province.

Security researchers Nick DePetrillo and Don Bailey have discovered a seven-digit numerical code that can unlock all kinds of secrets about you. It's your phone number. Using relatively simple techniques, this duo can use your cellphone number to figure out your name, where you live and work, where you travel and when you sleep. They could even listen to your voice messages and personal phone calls — if they wanted to. "It's really interesting to watch a phone number turn into a person's life," DePetrillo said.

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.

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency  issued a public warning to star U.S. women's soccer goalie Hope Solo after she tested positive for a banned substance found in a prescribed medication she took. Solo, whose goalkeeping helped the U.S. reach the final of last year's Women's World Cup, will compete as scheduled in the upcoming Summer Games in London. USADA said in a statement released Monday that Solo, 30, submitted on June 15 a urine test positive for Canrenone, which is found on the  World Anti-Doping Agency  prohibited list.

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.

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.

WASHINGTON - Five days before two bombs tore through crowds at the Boston Marathon, an intelligence report identified the finish line as an "area of increased vulnerability" and warned Boston police that homegrown extremists could use "small-scale bombings" to attack spectators and runners at the event. The 18-page report, similar to others sent to police and first responders before major events in the Boston area, was written by the Boston Regional Intelligence Center, which is funded in part by the Department of Homeland Security and helps disseminate intelligence information to local police and first responders.

A makeup artist and longtime friend of Michael Jackson said Thursday that in the days before his death the singer was paranoid, repeated himself continuously and was so cold she bundled him in a blanket, put him in front of a space heater and hugged him to try to stop the shivering. Karen Faye, who had known Jackson for 27 years, said she took her concerns to an AEG executive five days before Jackson died of an overdose of the anesthetic propofol at his rented Holmby Hills mansion.

The Food and Drug Administration is warning physicians that women who suffer migraine headaches and are pregnant or may become pregnant should not use the drugs valproate or valproic acid to prevent the severe headaches, in light of new evidence showing those taking the drugs during pregnancy have children with lower IQ scores than women who do not take them. That warning represents a strengthening of a boxed warning that already appears on these prescription medications, which are used to control epileptic seizures, to treat bipolar disorder, and to prevent and relieve migraine headaches.

The nearly 3 in 10 white girls of high school age who use indoor tanning beds likely will soon come face-to-face with a new and stiffer warning aimed at young people eager to get that sun-kissed glow in a hurry: Don't. Faced with mounting evidence that indoor tanning greatly increases cancer risk among younger users, the Food & Drug Administration proposed Monday to require tanning booths and beds to carry a warning encouraging young people not to use the devices. Businesses that use devices and beds that use UV-A and UV-B rays to promote tanning currently are required to post signs warning consumers about health risks that come with their use. But the devices themselves are exempt from pre-market review.

An environmental group has warned that a federal agency's plan to designate 98.4 acres as critical habitat for an endangered plant in western Riverside County is inadequate and could result in the extinction of the species. In response to a lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service earlier this month designated the small area just west of Lake Elsinore as critical habitat for Munz's onion. The wildlife agency also rejected the center's request for it to protect habitat for the endangered San Jacinto Valley crownscale, which inhabits portions of the San Jacinto River flood plain near Hemet.

CAIRO - President Mohamed Morsi casts himself as a leader navigating a landscape bristling with conspiracies by corrupt businessmen and shadowy figures plotting from inside a vast bureaucracy his Islamist inner circle has been unable to tame. While protesters march, workers strike, students rally and the economy is in a scary tailspin, the president's more serious nemesis may lie behind the scenes in what is known as the "deep state. " The courts, police, army and intelligence agencies were shaped over decades by the secular rule of deposed autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

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.

I have one question. Why doesn't the Stars & Stripes display the surgeon general's warning about cigarette smoking? After all, the real race sponsor is a tobacco company, but the name stamped on the boat is a product name. By law, we see this warning in all cigarette advertising including ads in magazines and on roadside billboards. Why not on moving billboards as well? JANICE CORNFORTH Cardiff

BEIJING -- The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff said Wednesday in Beijing that he is expecting more provocations from North Korea in the coming years and a heightened risk of confrontation. Gen. Martin Dempsey, who was speaking to reporters at the U.S. Embassy at the end of his visit here, said North Korea had become progressively more provocative with the rise of Kim Jong Un, who took over after the death of his father in December 2011. "We are no longer in a period of cyclical provocations -- where a provocation occurs and then there is a period of time when concessions are made....

The Los Angeles City Council approved a plan Tuesday to begin moving away from coal-fired energy, despite warnings from a Department of Water and Power watchdog that the shift could cost more than $650 million. Like many utilities, the city-owned DWP gets more of its power from coal than from any other source. But last month, after a lengthy campaign by environmentalists, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and utility officials announced a plan to end the city's reliance on coal two years ahead of a state-mandated deadline.