As swine flu is said to have taken the lives of 81 victims so far worldwide, Mexico and the United States are particularly on edge. But in the age of globalization and quick international travel, the rest of the world is now also concerned about the potential for a global flu pandemic. Doctors in the UK, France, Israel, Spain, and New Zealand are now also treating people who may have contracted the illness.

The swine flu, which is said to have originated in Mexico, already has confirmed outbreaks in the US. The World Health Organization warned of the possibility of a global pandemic, and members are to meet on Tuesday to decide if the alert level should be raised.

According to New Zealand's health minister Tony Ryall, 13 students returned from Mexico yesterday were tested for swine influenza, and 10 had positive results. He says that the cases are "likely" to be swine flu, and the results have been sent to the WHO lab in Melbourne, Australia.

An Iranian court has convicted an American journalist of spying, and has sentenced her to eight years in prison, says her father. Roxana Saberi, 31, was arrested in January for buying a bottle of wine and has been detained since in a notorious Tehran prison. She was convicted on Wednesday, but her family was not notified of the decision until Saturday. Saberi was tried in a Revolutionary Guards court, which operates in total secrecy.

Roxana's father, Reza Saberi said:

"She told me she had been tricked into believing that she would be released if she cooperated. We are very shocked and we were not expecting it."

He added that the family would appeal. Reza Saberi also told National Public Radio, his daugther's employer, that "under pressure she had made some statements" but that she later repudiated any confessions.

US officials have deemed the charges against Saberi as "baseless." Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has already called for her to be released.

Born to a Persian father and Japanese mother in Fargo, North Dakota, Saberi moved to Iran six years ago, where she filed freelance reports for NPR, the BBC, and Fox News. She also has dual citizenship in Iran and the United States.

Upon returning home from his 8-day tour of Europe and the Middle East, President Barack Obama has been greeted with some pretty harsh criticism over photographs and video footage which show him bowing to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia during the G20 Summit. While the mainstream media has largely ignored this major political gaffe, it has not gone unnoticed.

The Washington Times called the bow a "shocking display of fealty to a foreign potentate", which runs contrary to a long-held American tradition of not deferring to royalty.

The Times continued:

"By bending over to show greater respect to Islam, the US president belittled the power and independence of the United States. Such an act is a traditional obeisance befitting a king's subjects, not his peer. There is no precedent for U.S. presidents bowing to Saudi or any other royals."

One can't help but wonder why Obama did not bow to Queen Elizabeth when meeting with her in England, but saw it befitting to show reverence to the royal head of a Muslim nation that is the home of 15 of the 19 September 11th terrorists.

The Weekly Standard reiterated the tradition, stating:

"American presidents do not bow before foreign dignitaries, whether they are princes, kings, or emperors."

President Barack Obama took a surprise detour from his tour of Europe, and flew to Iraq today. He landed just hours after a car bomb exploded in a Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad. The White House has mad no advance announcements of Obama's visit due to security concerns.

His surprise visit came at the end of an eight-day long overseas trip that included NATO and economic summits in Europe. Obama had spent the past two days in Turkey, where he flew out of this morning.

Today's trip to Iraq was Obama's third to the country of Iraq, and his first since taking office in January. Having been in office for 11 weeks now, Obama has announced plans to withdraw most US combat troups from Iraq on a 19-month timetable. As many as 50,000 soldiers may remain in the country at the end of the 19 months to perform counterterrorism duties.

Roxana Saberi, 31, has been working as a journalist in Iran, but went missing after she was imprisoned for purchasing a bottle of wine, said her father on Sunday. The former Miss Dakota beauty queen called her father in Fargo, ND from an Iranian jail on Feb. 10 to tell him she'd been arrested on January 31.

It has been three weeks now since her call, and her father, Reza Saberi, said he has no clue what has happened to his daughter since then.

"We haven't heard anything. She said that she had bought a bottle of wine and the person that sold it had reported it and then they came and arrested her. She called from an unknown place and said she's been kept in detention," he said.

Buying or selling alcohol is illegal in Iran.

Roxana is a U.S. citizen, but also carries and Iranian passport. She moved to Iran six years ago to complete her master's degree and work as a freelance journalist. Her press credentials were revoked by the Iranian government more than a year ago, but Roxana continued to report short news stories from Iran.

She grew up in North Dakota, and in 1997 was crowned Miss North Dakota and competed in the Miss America pageant. Her father said that she had planned to move back to Fargo this year.

Tour may scrap the event in the future.

Larry Scott, the Womens Tennis Association's Tour chief executive, claims that the tour's governing body could consider pulling out of the Dubai Tennis Championships after the United Arab Emirates refused to allow Israeli players into the country. Shahar Peer was denied entry into the UAE, effectively barring her from participating in this week's tournament.

Scott claims that although the event will go ahead as planned this year, the WTA will not just accept and will seriously consider their future association with the UAE and the Dubai Tennis Championships:

"We don't want [the decision to proceed with the tournament] to be interpreted as complacency and accepting what has happened, because it's not. We will take a decision about what is to be done only after consultation with the players and tournament directors. We don't have a timetable on this yet. This is a shock and it has to be digested."

Scott continued, adding:

"I knew there was an issue they would have to get over - that they don't have official relations with Israel, while there are security concerns as well.

On Sunday it was revealed that Shahar Peer, a 21-year-old Israeli tennis player was denied a vista by the United Arab Emirates, effectively barring her from participating in this week's Dubai Tennis Championships. The 48th ranked women's tennis player in the world, Peer is said to have applied for a visa for the UAE months in advance, and had been assured by the tournament that she would be granted entry.

The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) said that it was "deeply disappointed" by the UAE's decision. The WTA also hinted that they may scrap the event in the future, which would be a huge blow to the UEA and the Gulf, where huge amounts of money and time have been invested in bringing world-class sports and tourists to the region.

The event's organizer, Dubai Duty Free, which is owned by the UAE, issued a statement confirming that Peer had not been granted a visa. However, they failed to provide any kind of an explanation. Without explaining their actions, it will inevitably be assumed that the decision was made in response to Israel's recent actions in Gaza.

The WTA has a rule that no host country should deny a player the chance to compete at a tournament for which she has qualified. Through her ranking - 48 - Peer was entitled to play in Dubai.

An online posting reportedly by al-Qaida in Yemen claims that their group's No. 2 leader is a Saudi national that was a former detainee at Guantanamo Bay. The Yemen group is known as "al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula", and posted the statement this week on a militant website which regularly posts al-Qaida messages.

According to the post, the man in question returned to his home in Saudi Arabia after being released from the U.S. federal prison in Cuba about one year ago. From there he is said to have gone to Yemen to join the terrorist organization.

The man was identified by the statement as Said Ali al-Shihri, and that his prisoner number at Gitmo was 372.

al-Shihri was released to Saudi Arabia in 2007, and went through a Saudi rehabilitation program for former jihadists before rejoining the group in Yemen. He was also suspected of being involved in a deadly bombing of the US embassy in the Yemen capital of Sana in September.

Saudi Arabia had previously claimed that no graduates of its program had returned to terrorism.