The Weekly Roundup: An impossible task

For the past two weeks I have attempted a weekly round up of news/events/current issues --- and failed miserably. It's not for a lack of trying as there is certainly no shortage of things going on in the world. Too much, in fact, to choose only ten or twelve items to focus on in a blog entry. How do you selection items? How can you prioritize them? It's tricky.

For instance, this past week there were at least three political stories that made the news: the elections in Pakistan, Kosovo declaring independence, and the ongoing crisis in Kenya. So do I overlook Iraq? Sri Lanka? Chad? East Timor? Zimbabwe? (and the list could go on...) Oh, and Castro resigned, which really isn't going to affect your travel plans but made a big media splash.

On the health front, a couple more people died of avian influenza in China and Indonesia. How does that compare to the yellow fever outbreak in South America? Or the reemergence of tuberculosis? Or the ongoing risk of dengue fever or contracting a form of hepatitis? When you've seen the rates of HIV, AIDS, and cancer... it's hard to maintain perspective.

And let's talk about the weather... Tropical cyclones Ivan and Nicholas hit this past week, but in any given week there is at least one tropical cyclone striking somewhere in the world. Severe cold weather and harsh conditions are making life difficult in parts of China and the Middle East, though they get less media coverage than severe winter storms in the U.S.

And airplanes... I have seen the whole gamut this week from airline mergers to plane crashes, emergency landings and incidents of discrimination (actual or perceived). Not to mention potential transportation strikes...

Bottom line: Every story is important to someone. If you want to see what has happens in the news this week, check out this page at AllSafeTravels.

In the meantime, I'm switching tactics and will instead provide a weekly report of interesting stories I read during the past week. Watch for my first post coming this week.