I watched the 2pm news earlier after lunch just now. Oh dear... What's happening to the world? There were basically about 8-9 news bulletin and none of them, oh yes, NONE of them were good news... All are reports on something bad...

1) Iran nuclear program. Invasion by U.S.? Any move by U.S. and suicide bombers would be sent to the United States? That would really send the entire Middle East region into chaos. Iran had been at war with Iraq for 8 years from 1980-1988. Come on, surely not another war to add to the already conflicting world we have? Sigh... Violence begets violence. When will it all ends?

2) Sri Lanka. Violence has erupted over the past week and killed 63 so far in the Northern and Northwestern areas of the country, strongholds of the Tamil Tigers, further upsetting any improvement to peace plans being made... Sigh.

3) Nepal. Opposition parties urged people not to pay taxes and declared an economic war. Food and fuel supplies are in shortage in the country. Another mass protest set on this coming Thursday. Sigh. This looks like the stage set for an impending emergency state to be annoucned anytime.

4) Turkey. A bomb blast went off in Istanbul, injuring several. What's up this time, man?

5) China. Beijing's resident woke up today to find the city shrouded under a cloud of sand. Sand storms had started last week. I simply hope it would not continue...

The countries I love are simply in a mess. Sigh. And the coutnry I'm going to go has a sand storm raging every now and then?! It seems like there's nowhere in the world that's really safe and perfect right now for travel. Or at least, the countries I love...

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Yeah! The rain has stopped! Time to go running!