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Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of HealthDay:

Tougher Drunken Driving Penalties Sought

Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) on Tuesday called for those who drink and drive to also be charged with child endangerment if a minor is in their vehicle.

"Driving intoxicated with kids in the car is a form of child abuse, pure and simple," MADD's national president, Wendy Hamilton, says in a statement. "It must not be tolerated by lawmakers, communities, or family members."

The group cited a recent report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finding that 2,335 children were killed in automobile crashes involving drinking drivers between 1997 and 2002; nearly seven in 10 of them were riding in the vehicle of the drinking driver. The study also found that 32 percent of children were buckled up.

In addition to seeking the establishment of child endangerment laws, MADD is also recommending more awareness of the issue among lawyers, judges, and law enforcement officials; the revocation or suspension of a license if the violation involves a child; and a mandatory provision in a separation or divorce agreement prohibiting either parent from driving with a child while under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

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Restricting Calories May Extend Life

Older people who eat a low-calorie diet may reap a benefit even greater than a slimmer waistline -- it may extend their lives, according to a new study.

In apparent proof that it's never too late to begin eating healthier, a strict low-calorie diet increased the life span of aged mice by more than 40 percent, the Associated Press reports of the University of California research.

While prior studies have shown that healthier eating can extend lab animals' lives, the new research was performed on 19-month-old mice -- the human equivalent of about 60 to 65 years, the AP reports. The better diet appeared to immediately slow the aging process, allowing the low-cal diet mice to live up to six months longer than litter mates fed a standard diet.

While study results on lab mice often mimic those later performed on people, it's still unproven that calorie restriction would similarly affect older humans, the researchers stress.

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World Population Growth Slowing

A declining global birth rate and the worsening death toll from AIDS are helping to slow the world's population growth, the U.S. Census Bureau says.

The global population is expected to be about 9.1 billion by 2050, the bureau forecasts. While that's a jump of nearly 50 percent from actual figures recorded in 2002, it represent a significant decline in the growth rate, the Associated Press reports of the bureau's projections.

The wild card, especially in the developing world, is how many people make use of contraceptives and family planning services, the bureau says.

In 2002, the global population rate was 2.6 children over the average woman's lifetime. The projections assume that rate will drop below two children per woman by 2050, the AP reports.

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FDA Urges Caution on Antidepressant Use

U.S. health officials are urging doctors and parents to keep a close eye on people, especially children, who are taking antidepressants because the drugs could cause serious side effects, including suicidal thoughts.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday sent letters to the manufacturers of 10 popular antidepressants, requesting them to incorporate more stringent and highly visible warnings on their labels, HealthDay reports.

The action amounts to a "just-in-case" caveat, since health experts have been unable to state categorically whether the drugs or the condition they treat could cause these behavioral changes.

The new labels would apply to both pediatric and adult usage of bupropion (Wellbutrin), citalopram (Celexa), fluoxetine (Prozac), fluvoxamine (Luvox), mirtazapine (Remeron), nefazodone (Serzone), paroxetine (Paxil), sertraline (Zoloft), escitalopram (Lexapro), and venlafaxine (Effexor).

Prozac is the only drug approved for use in children with major depressive disorder, yet doctors are at liberty to -- and do -- prescribe many others to kids.

The action is the culmination of months of review and deliberation since June 2003, after concerns were raised that Paxil and other similar drugs might contribute to increased suicidal thoughts and actions, particularly in young people.

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Pesticide Ban Leads to More Normal Babies

Pregnant women who were heavily exposed to two pesticides in a pair of New York City neighborhoods are having babies who are more normal in size again now that the pesticides have been banned, The New York Times reports of a Columbia University study.

School researchers say women in Manhattan's Harlem and Washington Heights areas were having significantly smaller babies before the bans on the pesticides chlorpyrifos and diazinon. These infants, on average, were 6.6 ounces lighter and one-third of an inch shorter than infants born to women who had no traces of either insecticide in their blood, the researchers say.

Study director Dr. Frederica Perera tells the newspaper that the results are significant because birth weight tends to be a good predictor of physical and mental development later in life.

The two pesticides, once abundant in over-the-counter insecticides and in products used by professional exterminators, were banned in stages for indoor use by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency beginning in 2000. Total indoor bans on both pesticides didn't take place until the end of 2002, the newspaper says.

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New Bird Flu Outbreaks in Indonesia, South Korea

While reported cases of avian (bird) flu have been ebbing in countries such as China and Thailand, new outbreaks in Indonesia and South Korea show the health threat is far from over, a United Nations agency says.

South Korea announced it was culling 400,000 more chickens and ducks after confirming the first new bird flu infections there in six weeks, the Associated Press reports. So far, the country has found 19 farms hit by the disease, and more than 5 million fowl have been killed there in an attempt to stop the outbreaks.

In Indonesia, government resources are being stretched thin as new outbreaks are being reported in southern Sumatra and West Kalimantan, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization says. And the disease is strongly suspected in four more areas.

Indonesia had been criticized for waiting months before acknowledging its bird flu outbreaks; it has since culled an estimated 2.5 million chickens, the AP reports.

The severe strain of bird flu that has affected at least eight Asian countries has jumped to humans in Vietnam and Thailand, killing at least 24 people.

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