Global health experts said on Tuesday that the UN General Assembly should devote a special session to mental illness and drug abuse that may wreak havoc in global societies and economies.

“The time has come for recognition at the highest levels of global development, namely the UN General Assembly, of the urgent need for a global strategy to address the global burden of MNS disorders,” said the article in PLoS Medicine.

Lead authors were Vikram Patel from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Judith Bass from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in the United States.

“Depressive disorders markedly increase the risk for noncommunicable diseases such as diabetes, coronary artery disease, stroke, and dementia,” said the article.

“Conflict, displacement, poverty, gender-based violence, and other social determinants of ill health increase the risk for MNS disorders,” it added.

According to an international study, children who get more exercise also tend to do better in school.

The findings come as schools in the United States, in general, cut physical activity time in favor of more academic test preparation.

Amika Singh, who worked on the study, said, “Maybe it’s an activity break, stand up every half an hour in class and do something,” said Singh, from VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam.

“It might mean going to school by bike … Any kind of physical activity you can think of. It doesn’t mean only the physical education standard class.”

The findings were published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

Anti-Wall Street demonstrators in encampments around the United States spent Thanksgiving serving turkey, donating time in solidarity with the protest movement, and confronting police.

“We are thankful that we are, first and foremost, in a country where we can protest,” said the Rev. Cecil Williams, the founder of Glide and a fixture in the city’s activist community.

From news.yahoo.com:

About 200 protesters surrounded a group of about 30 officers and began shouting in the park where the Occupy movement was launched Sept. 17.

“Why don’t you arrest the drummers in the Thanksgiving parade?” a protester hollered.

A van rolled up with more officers, but they stayed back as protesters eventually decided to call off the drumming and return to their food. Tensions have run high at the park since campers were evicted Nov. 15.

“And we are thankful that we believe that there are things that could be worked out and that we have a sense of hope. But we know that hope only comes when you make a stand,” Williams added.

A new study has revealed that dreams are a gateway for grappling the inner turmoil human beings face in their lives.

The Daily Mail reported scientists have found that dreaming is essential to cope with emotional stress.

From in.news.yahoo.com:

The team studied 35 healthy young adults, divided into two groups. All of them viewed 150 emotional images, twice and 12 hours apart, while an MRI scanner measured their brain activity.

Half of the participants viewed the images in the morning and again in the evening, staying awake between the two viewings. The remaining half viewed the images in the evening and again the next morning after a full night of sleep. Those who slept in between image viewings reported a significant decrease in their emotional reaction to the images.

The MRI scans showed that sleep caused a dramatic reduction in reactivity in the amygdala, a part of the brain that processes emotions.

The leaders of Europe will discuss in detail a comprehensive solution to the euro zone crisis at a summit on Sunday.

France and Germany said in a joint statement that no decisions will be adopted before a second meeting to be held by Wednesday at the latest.

From news.yahoo.com:

The communique, issued after French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke by telephone on Thursday, said that Paris and Berlin wanted negotiations to start immediately with the private sector for an agreement on the sustainability of Greece’s debt.

“The President and the Chancellor affirmed their complete agreement to provide a global, ambitious response to the crisis currently facing the euro zone,” the statement said.

“France and Germany said that all of the elements of this ambitious, global response will be examined in a detailed manner during Sunday’s summit so they can be definitively adopted by the heads of state and government in a second meeting on Wednesday at the latest,” the statement said.