US Days as a Superpower Numbered, Record Anti-Trust Fines Logged for 2012, Minors Held in Detention in Afghanistan: P.M. Links

• The National Intelligence Council predicts that the United States will lose its status as the world's superpower by 2030. It doesn't, however, predict that China will take its place, much to the dismay of those who still think about the background setting of Joss Whedon's Firefly.

• The federal government recorded a record $1.13 billion in criminal fines from anti-trust cases, mostly coming from Asian-based companies.
• A report shows that the United States has held hundreds of minors in Afghanistan in detention, potentially in violation of an international treaty. That's something to keep in mind when drug warriors try to bring up violations of international treaties in response to legalizing marijuana.
• Software magnate John McAfee now wants to return to the United States to try to stay out of the custody of authorities in Belize, where he is still wanted for questioning in the shooting death of a neighbor.
• A member of Seal Team Six, the same group that raided Osama bin Laden's compound and took him out, was killed in Afghanistan during the rescue of an American doctor kidnapped by the Taliban.
• That fiscal cliff is so serious that President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner finally got together to actually talk about it for a bit, before the president went back to campaigning for tax hikes for the rich.
• Syrian rebels are claiming Assad's regime may have already used chemical weapons.
• Support Reason's 2012 webathon today.

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