Two of the issues to which he has devoted the most attention since he arrived in the U.S. Senate, avian flu and nuclear nonproliferation, are grand global problems, which, while relatively uncontroversial, are nonetheless risky choices for signature issues, since, in both cases, success is invisible, and failure could mean disaster of world-changing proportions.

NEWYORKER: The Conciliator

For the moment, he said, there is not enough information about the swine flu that has sickened hundreds in Mexico and about 50 people in the United States to accurately forecast how the disease will travel.

CNN: The story

Public health officials are simply assuming that anyone with flu symptoms has swine flu, because it's the only form of the virus in circulation, he said.

CNN: Swine flu goes to college

None of the school's cases of swine flu -- also called H1N1 -- has proven fatal or resulted in a hospitalization, he said, and none of the reported cases has been confirmed.

CNN: Swine flu goes to college