MDs: Don’t take cinnamon challenge

MDs: Don’t take cinnamon challenge

CHICAGO

Don’t take the cinnamon challenge. That’s the advice from doctors in a new report about a dangerous prank depicted in popular YouTube videos but which has led to hospitalizations and a surge in calls to U.S. poison centers.

The fad involves daring someone to swallow a spoonful of ground cinnamon in 60 seconds without water. But the spice is caustic, and trying to gulp it down can cause choking, throat irritation, breathing trouble and even collapsed lungs, the report said.

Published online today in Pediatrics, the report said at least 30 teens nationwide needed medical attention after taking the challenge last year.

The number of poison-control-center calls about teens doing the prank “has increased dramatically,” from 51 in 2011 to 222 last year, according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers.

Possible suspect identified in Colo. shooting

DENVER

Denver police on Sunday pointed to a YouTube video they say shows a possible suspect in the weekend shooting at a marijuana celebration that injured two people and scattered a crowd of thousands.

The shooting Saturday took place during the outdoor celebration of the first 4/20 counterculture holiday since Colorado legalized marijuana.

Denver police spent much of Sunday scanning video taken at the event.

Police spokesman Sonny Jackson told The Denver Post that the suspect is shown in the video walking in a crowd away from the scene of the shooting as sirens wailed in the background.

Hezbollah told to withdraw fighters

BEIRUT

The Syrian opposition called on Hezbollah to withdraw its fighters from the country, as activists said regime troops supported by gunmen linked to the Lebanese Shiite militant group battled rebels Sunday for control of a string of villages near the Lebanon-Syria border.

The Syrian National Coalition — the main Western-backed opposition group — warned that Hezbollah involvement in Syria’s civil war could lead to greater risks in the area, and urged the Lebanese government to “adopt the necessary measures to stop the aggression of Hezbollah” and to control the border to “protect civilians in the area.”

hRocket launched

ATLANTIC, Va.

A company contracted by NASA to deliver supplies to the International Space Station successfully launched a rocket Sunday in a test of its ability to send a cargo ship aloft.

About 10 minutes after the launch from Wallops Island on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles declared the test a success after observing a practice payload reach orbit and safely separate from the rocket.

The Sunday launch comes after two previous attempts were scrubbed.

Associated Press