The outbreak of swine flu that was first detected in Mexico was declared a global epidemic on June 11, 2009. It is the first worldwide epidemic 1 by the World Health Organization in 41 years.

The heightened alert 2 an emergency meeting with flu experts in Geneva that assembled, after a sharp rise in cases in Australia, and rising 3 in Britain, Japan, Chile and elsewhere.

But the epidemic is “4” in severity, according to Margaret Chan, the organization’s director general, 5 the overwhelming majority of patients experiencing only mild symptoms and a full recovery, often in the 6 of any medical treatment.

The outbreak came to global 7 in late April 2009, when Mexican authorities noted an unusually large number of hospitalizations and deaths 8 healthy adults. As much of Mexico City shut down at the height of a panic, cases began to 9 in New York City, the southwestern United States and around the world.

In the United States, new cases seemed to fade 10 warmer weather arrived. But in late September 2009, officials reported there was 11 flu activity in almost every state and that virtually all the 12 tested are the new swine flu, also known as (A) H1N1, not seasonal flu. In the U.S., it has 13 more than one million people, and caused more than 600 deaths and more than 6,000 hospitalizations.

Federal health officials 14 Tamiflu for children from the national stockpile and began 15 orders from the states for the new swine flu vaccine. The new vaccine, which is different from the annual flu vaccine, is 16 ahead of expectations. More than three million doses were to be made available in early October 2009, though most of those 17 doses were of the FluMist nasal spray type, which is not 18 for pregnant women, people over 50 or those with breathing difficulties, heart disease or several other 19 . But it was still possible to vaccinate people in other high-risk groups: health care workers, people 20 infants and healthy young people.

The Internet affords anonymity to its users—a blessing to privacy and freedom of speech. But that very anonymity is also behind the explosion of cyber-crime that has 1 across the Web.

Can privacy be preserved 2 bringing safety and security to a world that seems increasingly 3 ?

Last month, Howard Schmidt, the nation’s cyber-czar, offered the federal government a 4 to make the Web a safer place—a “voluntary trusted identity” system that would be the high-tech 5 of a physical key, a fingerprint and a photo ID card, all rolled 6 one. The system might use a smart identity card, or a digital credential 7 to a specific computer, and would authenticate users at a range of online services.

The idea is to 8 a federation of private online identity systems. Users could 9 which system to join, and only registered users whose identities have been authenticated could navigate those systems. The approach contrasts with one that would require an Internet driver’s license 10 by the government.

Google and Microsoft are among companies that already have these “single sign-on” systems that make it possible for users to 11 just once but use many different services.

12 , the approach would create a “walled garden” in cyberspace, with safe “neighborhoods” and bright “streetlights” to establish a sense of a 13 community.

Mr. Schmidt described it as a “voluntary ecosystem” in which “individuals and organizations can complete online transactions with 14 , trusting the identities of each other and the identities of the infrastructure 15 which the transaction runs.”

Still, the administration’s plan has 16 privacy rights activists. Some applaud the approach; others are concerned. It seems clear that such a scheme is an initiative push toward what would 17 be a compulsory Internet “driver’s license” mentality.

The plan has also been greeted with 18 by some computer security experts, who worry that the “voluntary ecosystem” envisioned by Mr. Schmidt would still leave much of the Internet 19 . They argue that all Internet users should be 20 to register and identify themselves, in the same way that drivers must be licensed to drive on public roads.

Millions of Americans and foreigners see G. I. Joe as a mindless war toy, the symbol of American military adventurism, but that’s not how it used to be. To the men and women who 1 in World War II and the people they liberated, the G. I. was the 2 man grown into hero, the poor farm kid torn away from his home, the guy who 3 all the burdens of battles, who slept in cold foxholes, who went without the 4 of food and shelter, who stuck it out and drove back the Nazi reign of murder. This was not a volunteer soldier, not someone well paid, 5 an average guy, up 6 the best trained, best equipped, fiercest, most brutal enemies seen in centuries.

His name isn’t much. G.I. is just a military abbreviation 7 Government Issue, and it was on all of the articles 8 to soldiers. And Joe? A common name for a guy who never 9 it to the top. Joe Blow, Joe Palooka, Joe Magrac… a working class name. The United States has 10 had a president or vice president or secretary of state Joe.

G.I. Joe had a 11 career fighting German, Japanese, and Korean troops. He appears as a character, or a 12 of American personalities, in the 1945 movie The Story of G. I. Joe, based on the last days of war correspondent Ernie Pyle. Some of the soldiers Pyle 13 portrayed themselves in the film. Pyle was famous for covering the 14 side of the war, writing about the dirt-snow-and-mud soldiers, not how many miles were 15 or what towns were captured or liberated. His reports 16 the “Willie” cartoons of famed Stars and Stripes artist Bill Maulden. Both men 17 the dirt and exhaustion of war, the 18 of civilization that the soldiers shared with each other and the civilians: coffee, tobacco, whiskey, shelter, sleep. 19 Egypt, France, and a dozen more countries, G. I. Joe was any American soldier, 20 the most important person in their lives.