You report dozens of roadside bombings in Iraq or Afghanistan; yet if something terrible happens with one of your biggest allies, Holland, on one of their biggest holidays: Queen’s Birthday, you report nothing…

B. S.

Not guilty. We reported plenty. We had evolving text, photos, video and slideshows about that story all day long.

The bad news was that unfortunately, our search engine offered readers very little help in finding the story, and needs to be improved: GBU Editor

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World closer to swine flu pandemic

Worldwide, seasonal flu kills between 250,000 and 500,000 people in an average year but the new strain worries experts because it spreads rapidly between humans and there is vaccine for it.

You have several copy errors in this article the most significant of which is where you mean to say …thereis NO vaccine for it.”

J.M.

We corrected that error soon after the story was issued on our wires, but unfortunately the correction did not make it to our reuters.com home page for several hours: GBU Editor

A couple wearing masks wait for their relatives to arrive from Mexico at Sao Paulo’s international airport, April 27, 2009. The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared a “public health emergency of international concern” over an outbreak of swine flu in Mexico. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker

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Swine flu epidemic fear grows, world on alert

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Governments around the world rushed on Sunday to check the spread of a new type of swine flu that has killed up to 81 people in Mexico and infected around a dozen in the United States.

Mexicans huddled in their homes while U.S. hospitals tracked patients with flu symptoms and other countries imposed health checks at airports as the World Health Organization warned the virus had the potential to become a pandemic.

In New Zealand, 10 pupils from an Auckland school party that had returned from Mexico were being treated for influenza symptoms…

Countries across Asia, which have had to grapple with deadly viruses like H5N1 bird flu and SARS in recent years, snapped into action. At airports and other border checkpoints in Hong Kong, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan, officials screened travelers for any flu-like symptoms.

Argentina declared a health alert, requiring anyone arriving on flights from Mexico to advise if they had flu-like symptoms.

In France, two people returning from Mexico who had flu-like symptoms were being tested…

A British Airways cabin crew member was taken to hospital in London after developing flu-like symptoms on a flight from Mexico, but tests later cleared him of swine flu.

Unless I’ve overlooked it, there soes NOT seem to be any information at all about symptoms of the disease other than a reference to flu-like problems. Think it would be very useful to provide such information with at least some specifics in your next report, and perhaps offer a sidebar with details.

R.L.

This is a good point raised by several readers. We have begun adding some basic symptom information to our flu stories, such as:

Flu is characterized by a sudden fever, muscle aches, sore throat and dry cough. Victims of the new strain have also suffered more vomiting and diarrhea than is usual with flu.

GBU Editor

A health worker explains the symptoms of influenza to a taxi driver in downtown Monterrey, northern Mexico, April 26, 2009. REUTERS/Tomas Bravo

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Montana plane crash kills 17, including children

The plane crashed about 500 feet from the airport while attempting to land and burst into flames.

Unfortunately, the wording of this paragraph indicates that the pilot was successful in his goal of, ‘attempting to land and burst into flames.’

Michael H.

Yikes. That sentence needed some help: GBU Editor

Flames and billowing smoke rise after a single-engine private passenger plane crashed into a cemetery, on approach to an airport in Butte, Montana, killing 17 people, March 22, 2009.

REUTERS/Photo courtesy of the Montana Standard/Martha Guidoni/Handout

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Seven killed in Arizona tourist bush crash

The only bush crash that’s happened lately in the U.S. is by George W.

D.L.K.

Quite a few readers noticed this one. We corrected: GBU Editor

Officials work the scene at tour bus accident that left seven Chinese tourists dead on US-93 near Dolan Springs, Arizona January 30, 2009. REUTERS/Richard Brian/Henderson Home News

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As a regular newspaper reader I have viewed thousands of photos, digital records of the world’s curiosities, joyful moments, trials and tragedies. Most leave no lasting impression.

However, this weekend a photograph that appeared in The Vancouver Sun touched me in a way that lingers even now. I am referring to the photograph capturing the incalculable grief of a father on the heels of the knife attack at a daycare in Belgium. Rarely have I seen a photo that so deeply and poignantly captures the horror, bewilderment, confusion and grief on the heels of a human tragedy.

I looked at the image for a long time. Later, my husband came to me and showed me the image. He too had had the same reaction. I would like to send my compliments to Yves Herman and also to suggest to you that this image is worthy of submission for a Pulitzer prize.

Ann C.

Thank you for your kind words. Here are two Yves Herman photos of the tragedy that were used in the Sun: GBU Editor

Parents react as they leave a building where families received assistance near the scene of a knife attack at a creche in Dendermonde January 23, 2009. REUTERS/Yves Herman

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Fire forces evacuation of 11,000 homes in Colorado

BOULDER, Colo. (Reuters) - Three windblown wildfires have destroyed at least two structures, jumped a major road and forced the evacuation of 11,000 homes outside Boulder, Colorado, fire authorities said on Wednesday.

Your story contains a major error: 11,000 homes WERE NOT evacuated. That is the number of homes that were alerted to the fire through the reverse-911 system.

Wayne S.

We corrected: GBU Editor

A brush fire burns near Carbon Canyon park in Brea, California November 16, 2008. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni

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Three years after Katrina, Gulf ports at risk

By Kathy Finn

PORT FOURCHON, Louisiana (Reuters) - The drive south from New Orleans toward the Gulf of Mexico is a study in coastal vulnerability.

As the road winds through marshes and skirts bayous, dry land grows sparser by the mile.

I think the article by Kathy Finn is very important. It is the type of work that helps readers be ahead of the story rather than driven by it.

Well done.

J.S.P.

Thank you: GBU Editor

 REUTER photo by Sean Gardner

Titanic life jacket sells for $68,500

The liner sank during its maiden voyage from the British port of Southampton to New York when it hit an iceberg, causing some 1,500 people to die.

Titanic successfully completed it’s maiden Voyage from England to New York. It sank on the return trip.

Meg

No, it didn’t: GBU Editor

REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

A Kosovo Albanian man in the Kosovo town of Stimlje, south of the capital Pristina, tries to rescue his horse after it veered off the road and fell into a river March 26, 2008.  REUTERS/Hazir Reka

The picture of the horse that the Kosovo Albanian man was trying to rescue from the river in the town Stimlje - Did the horse make it? It would have been nice to know.

C.N.

Yes, you will be happy to learn that our photographer saw the horse rescued. I agree that information would have been useful in the caption: GBU Editor