Breath-holding record: Magician David Blaine is helped out of a water-filled sphere where he set a new world record for breath-holding at 17 minutes and 4.4 seconds during a live telecast of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” in Chicago, Wednesday. He looked relaxed and said the record was “a lifelong dream.” The previous record was 16 minutes and 32 seconds, set Feb. 10 by Switzerland’s Peter Colat, according to Guinness World Records. Before he entered the sphere, Blaine inhaled pure oxygen through a mask to saturate his blood with oxygen and flush out carbon dioxide. Guinness says up to 30 minutes of so-called “oxygen hyperventilation” is allowed under their guidelines. Next, Blaine said he plans to try to break the world record for staying awake./ AP-Yonhap
