Cheerleading injuries increase, study finds

A study published Tuesday in the journal Pediatrics estimates 208,800 young people ages 5 to 18 were treated at U.S. hospitals for cheerleading-related injuries during the 13-year period. Most of the injuries were suffered by 12- to 17-year-olds; nearly 40 percent were leg, ankle and foot injuries.

Almost all the patients in the study were treated at emergency rooms and released. But because researchers used only ER data, the true number of those injured is even greater, because many kids are treated at doctors' offices or by team trainers, researchers said.

The increase in injuries is probably because the stunts are increasingly difficult, the researchers said. Cheerleading has "evolved from a school-spirit activity into an activity demanding high levels of gymnastics skill and athleticism," the study said.

Yonkers, N.Y.

Pair in plane crash rescued from river

A student pilot and his instructor were rescued from the Hudson River on Monday after their single-engine plane crashed off the Yonkers city pier, police said.

They were pulled from the water by New York City police and Coast Guard divers, who jumped from rescue helicopters.

When rescuers arrived, Yonkers police said, one man was clinging to the wreckage and the other was swimming with the aid of a seat cushion. They were in the water for 15 to 20 minutes.

Both men suffered hypothermia but were in stable condition at a hospital, New York Police Department spokesman John Sweeney said.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Jim Peters said the Piper Warrior's engine malfunctioned.

Doctor: Iraqi baby likely to be disabled

An Iraqi infant brought to the United States for treatment of severe birth defects is "interactive and playful," with good mental function but will likely wind up using a wheelchair, her doctor said Monday.

Dr. Roger Hudgins, a pediatric neurosurgeon who agreed to take the case, said 3-month-old Noor al-Zahra probably will be paralyzed or have weakness in her legs after surgery to repair spina bifida, a birth defect in which the backbone and spinal cord do not close before birth.

The child left Baghdad in a military transport plane Friday, accompanied by her grandmother and father, and arrived in Atlanta on Saturday. U.S. troops discovered the baby three weeks ago during a raid of a house in Abu Ghraib, a poverty-stricken district west of Baghdad. Noor probably will need one or two months in the United States to complete the medical repairs and recovery before returning to Iraq

Also

Former U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson said Monday he has filed paperwork to run for the congressional seat held by former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas. Lampson, a conservative Democrat, represented an adjacent district for eight years until redistricting that DeLay engineered cost him enough Democratic votes that he lost to U.S. Rep. Ted Poe, R-Houston, in 2004.

Compiled from The Associated Press