NEWS BRIEFS

Tropical Storm Gamma could threaten Florida

MIAMI - Tropical Storm Gamma - the 24th storm of the busiesthurricane season on record - formed on Friday off the coast ofCentral America, and forecasters said it could threaten Florida bythe beginning of next week, perhaps as a hurricane.

Tropical storm warnings were issued for the coast of Belize andthe Bay Islands of Honduras. Mexico issued a tropical storm watch forthe eastern Yucatan Peninsula, which was hit hard in October byHurricane Wilma. Six to 15 inches of rain were possible.

The long-term track from the National Hurricane Center indicatedthat Gamma may take a path similar to Wilma's and head northeasttoward the Florida Peninsula. Wilma sliced across the southernportion of the state Oct. 24, causing widespread power outages andmore than 20 deaths.

Tamiflu is safe, U.S. agency asserts

WASHINGTON - Tamiflu is a safe and effective treatment for theflu, federal health advisers said Friday, finding no direct linkbetween the drug and the deaths of 12 Japanese children.

"Kids die of influenza, both in Japan and the United States, andif you give a drug to people who are at risk of dying, there will bepeople who die who got the drug," said Dr. Robert Nelson, chairman ofthe Food and Drug Administration's Pediatric Advisory Committee."There is no signal the drug is doing it, as opposed to the disease."

The Pediatric Advisory Committee, which often meets in obscurity,found the world watching on Friday because it was conducting aroutine review of a drug that could play an important role in apossible pandemic caused by bird flu or another superflu strain.

Cisco Systems buying Scientific-Atlanta

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Betting that video will drive the future ofnetworking, Cisco Systems Inc. agreed Friday to buy the cabletelevision technology company Scientific-Atlanta Inc. in a $6.9billion deal that would create a one-stop shop for sending TV overthe Internet.

The acquisition is expected to help fuel the revolution in how TVis distributed and watched - a change that's accelerating astelephone companies barge into the domain of cable operators andbegin offering programming over fiber-optic networks using thelanguage of the Internet.

Bombers not targeting wedding, terrorist says

AMMAN, Jordan - The Mideast's most feared terrorist sought Fridayto justify a triple suicide bombing on Amman hotels that killed 59civilians, insisting he did not deliberately target a wedding partyand appealing to Muslims to believe that he was not attacking them.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, took anunusually defensive tone in an audiotape posted on the Internet,seeking to shore up support after widespread anger over the civiliandeaths, even among sympathizers.

Still, the Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi made clear he was not aboutto stop the bloodshed, warning he will attack more tourist sites inJordan and threatening to behead King Abdullah II.

Compiled from wire reports