SILVER SPRING, Maryland — Members of a U.S. advisory panel agreed with a Food and Drug Administration analysis that found antidepressant use raises the risk of suicidal thoughts and behavior in adults up to age 25, the panel’s chairman said on Wednesday.

The panel also agreed the risk starts to decline beyond age 30, said panel chairman Dr. Daniel Pine. The committee still was discussing if new warnings should be added to the medicines, which include Pfizer Inc.’s Zoloft and Eli Lilly and Co.’s Prozac.

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON — President George W. Bush said on Wednesday he would not be rushed into deciding how to change his Iraq policy after delaying his speech on the subject from next week to January.

Bush, speaking after talks with top Pentagon officials, vowed that “we are not going to give up” on his goal of trying to make Iraq a stable democracy.

Source: Reuters

HAVERHILL — If a fight or other problem were to happen in a Consentino Middle School hallway, chances are the principal or another school official could see what was happening and respond in seconds.

Video surveillance, like you might find at a department store or gas station, has come to Consentino.

Big Brother is watching, and students are aware of what it means to them.

“I found out about it last year,” eighth-grader Matthew Tavares said. “I thought the cameras on the hallway ceilings were smoke detectors at first until I was in the assistant principal’s office and saw a television. A camera was pointing down my hallway.” (more…)

Despite a tepid embrace from the White House, the Iraq Study Group’s recommendations will help shape President George W. Bush’s new policy if only because of their popular support, analysts said on Wednesday.

While saying he will take the report “very seriously,” Bush has all but rejected its appeal to engage Iran and Syria directly over Iraq and has been cool to the idea of withdrawing many U.S. troops from combat by early 2008 if possible.

Bush has not ruled out the group’s proposal to organize a regional support group for Iraq but he has made clear he will not be bound by the 10-member panel’s recommendations and has commissioned his own internal review of U.S. Iraq policy. (more…)

Think deep recession likely regardless of Fed’s actions

Two analysts who have reconstructed money supply data after the Fed stopped publishing it argue a coming dollar collapse will set the stage for creating the amero as a North American currency to replace the dollar.
The reconstructed M3 data – the broadest measure of money – published on econometrician Gary Kuever’s website, NowAndFutures.com, shows M3 increased at a rate of 11 percent in May, compared to 9 percent when the Federal Reserve quit publishing M3 data earlier this year.

Asked why the Fed decided to stop publishing M3 data, Kuever told WND, “The Fed probably wants to hide how much liquidity is being pumped into the market, and I expect the trend to keep pumping liquidity into the market will continue, especially since the economy is slowing down.” (more…)

It should come as no surprise that cellphone calls may be tapped by law enforcement.

But authorities also can use cellphones to eavesdrop on suspects, even when the devices are off.

The FBI converted the Nextel cellphones of two alleged New York mobsters into “roving bugs,” microphones that relayed conversations when the phones seemed to be inactive, according to recent court documents.

Authorities won’t reveal how they did this. But a countersurveillance expert said Nextel, Motorola Razr and Samsung 900 series cellphones can be reprogrammed over the air, using methods meant for delivering upgrades and maintenance. It’s called “flashing the firmware,” said James Atkinson, a consultant for the Granite Island Group in Massachusetts. (more…)

North Korea has indicated it is ready to “deal in specifics” about giving up its newly proven nuclear arsenal when it returns to six-party disarmamant negotiations next week in Beijing, the top US negotiator said Wednesday.
But Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill predicted “very tough negotiations” when the talks resume on Monday after a 13-month break and said there were no guarantees the process would achieve its goal of dismantling North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.

“I’m not here to predict success or express optimism,” said Hill, who has held two rounds of preliminary talks with the North Koreans since they agreed to return to the negotiating table after carrying out their first test of a nuclear bomb on October 9. (more…)

The incoming Democratic chairman of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee promised on Wednesday to combat what he denounced as President George W. Bush’s war-time trampling of American rights.

“We have a duty to repair real damage done to our system of government over the last few years,” Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont said in outlining his panel’s agenda for the 110th, Democratic-led Congress, which is set to convene on January 4.

“Americans’ privacy is a price the Bush administration is willing to pay for the cavalier way it is spawning new databanks. But privacy rights belong to the people, not to the government,” Leahy said.

Leahy made the comments in a speech entitled, “Ensuring Liberty and Security Through Checks and Balances,” to be delivered at the Georgetown University Law Center. (more…)

Surveillance cameras are sprouting up in more and more places, forming an ever more powerful tool for solving crimes after they happen. But what about using them to prevent or stop criminal and terrorist acts? This requires that someone, or something, watch these rapidly multiplying video feeds 24-7.

And that’s the problem. Paying people to adequately monitor dozens, or even hundreds, of surveillance cameras can be highly expensive. Plus, humans tend to get bored and lose focus staring at security TV monitors hour after hour, day after day. Computerized monitoring would seem to be the obvious answer, but creating software programs that can recognize suspicious activities or suspect individuals has proven highly difficult.

However, Rama Chellappa, a professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering of the University of Maryland’s A. James Clark School of Engineering, is developing a real-time computer monitoring system that provides some answers to this problem. Chellappa’s artificial intelligence system can reliably monitor surveillance images to detect certain suspicious movements or suspect individuals and alert human security personnel. (more…)

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration warned Wednesday against threats by terrorist groups and other nations against U.S. commercial and military satellites, and discounted the need for a treaty aimed at preventing an arms race in space.

Undersecretary of State Robert G. Joseph also reasserted U.S. policy that it has a right to use force against hostile nations or terror groups that might try to attack American satellites or ground installations that support space programs. President Bush adopted a new U.S. space policy earlier this year.

“We reserve the right to defend ourselves against hostile attacks and interference with our space assets,” Joseph said in prepared remarks to the George C. Marshall Institute. (more…)

Awash in a sea of petrodollars, Saudi Arabia is expected to spend tens of billions of dollars in the coming years revamping its military forces, according Forecast International’s most recent Middle East defense market analysis.
“The Saudis are essentially engaged in a whole-scale overhaul of the structure of the regular armed forces, and a major upgrade of the paramilitary National Guard, which is the prime internal security force,” said Tom Baranauskas, Forecast International’s Middle East analyst. From best initial estimates, the Saudis will be spending about $40 billion on these procurements, but the total could go as high as $60 billion.

Signed or pending big ticket programs include Typhoon fighters for the Air Force, helicopters for all of the services, armored vehicles for the National Guard, new frigates for the Navy, and a multibillion-dollar security barrier for the entire length of the border. Notably, the Saudis are spreading the wealth around, with British, French and U.S. suppliers looking to benefit the most from the arms-buying spree. The intent is to prevent the country from becoming dependent on any one supplying nation. (more…)

From PP: If you factor in the number who have died after being airlifted out the total far exceeds the numbers quoted here.

NEW YORK — With four more deaths reported today, at least 2,939 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to the Associated Press count. The AP count is six higher than the Defense Department’s tally, which often gets updated.

The most often cited number for those killed in America on Sept. 11, 2001, is 2,973, leaving the Iraq tally just 34 short.

At the current rate, the 9/11 number will be eclipsed within a week. (more…)

The politically sensitive trade deficit with China swelled to a record $24.4 billion in October, as imports from there surged to $29.3 billion, also a record.

The trade gap with China for the first 10 months of the year totaled $190.6 billion, keeping it on track to easily surpass last year’s record of $202 billion.

“It looks as if our deficit with China will be about $240 billion this year, about a 15 percent increase,” said Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors.

The galloping trade deficit with China is one of the main reasons for top-level meetings on Thursday and Friday in Beijing. U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is leading a team of Bush administration cabinet officials and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke for talks with senior Chinese officials on trade and economic concerns. (more…)

A violent solar explosion sent a dangerous wave of radiation through space late Tuesday, prompting NASA to order the crews of Discovery and the International Space Station to take shelter overnight, according to Local 6 News partner Florida Today.

The solar flare erupted around 9:40 p.m., unleashing enough radiation to disrupt radio communications on Earth and in orbit while endangering astronauts circling 220 miles above the planet.

NASA flight surgeons and agency radiation experts determined that the burst of highly energetic particles approached a limit that made preventative action prudent, Florida Today reported. (more…)

Screening embryos for genetic conditions allowed; sex selection not permitted

LONDON, United Kingdom — British researchers would be permitted to create human/animal embryo hybrids using test tube technology, under sweeping new proposals to be introduced by government health officials this week, the Sunday Telegraph reported yesterday.

Known as “chimeras”, the embryos would be produced by combining human and animal genetic material within a laboratory setting–the North East England Stem Cell Institute has already requested permission to create an embryo that is part human and part cow.

“The overarching aim is to pursue the common good through a system broadly acceptable to society,” British Health Minister Caroline Flint said in a report on the policy changes obtained by the Sunday Telegraph. (more…)