For anyone adopting internationally, one of the first steps along the road that makes up the adoption journey will be toward learning about the countries you'll be considering for the place of birth of your future children.

Doing a Google Search will net you lots of material. Web sites like the US State Department's listing of countries and Adoption.Com can give detailed info on requirements and regulations regarding adoption, and sites like wikipedia offer overviews of politics, geography, demographics, economy and so on.

When you want or need to know the history of a place and what's happening now, it will be journalists that link you to the truth.

With a chilling symmetry, the murder last night of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya comes right on the heals of the World Association of Newspapers press release reporting that 2006 has been the deadliest year on record for journalists since the organization began keeping records in 1997.

"Journalists in Iraq are not only facing the danger that comes with working in a war zone, they are being hunted down and assassinated simply because they are suspected of cooperating with western news agencies, because of their religious or political affiliation, or because their murderers believe that killing journalists will advance their aims," said Timothy Balding, CEO of the Paris-based WAN.

"Journalism today is more dangerous than ever," he said. "More than 500 journalists have been killed in the past decade, often for simply doing their jobs. These murders are a direct attack not only on individuals, but also on society as a whole. Yet few of the killers are ever brought to justice."

The France-based organization Reporters without Borders inaugurated a memorial to fallen journalists yesterday, displaying the names of all French journalists killed worldwide since 1944. Approximately 2000 reporters, photographers, TV cameramen and soundmen are remembered on this first-of-its-kind memorial.

Eight of this year's murders occurred in Philippines, while nineteen other countries join the list: Afghanistan, Angola, Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Columbia, DR Congo, Ecuador, Guatemala, Guyana, India, Indonesia, Lebanon, Mexico, Pakistan, Russia, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.

The deadliest countries for journalists in the past 10 years have been Iraq (with 77 killed), Colombia (38), Philippines (33), Serbia (22), Russia (21), India (19), Sierra Leone (16), Mexico (15), Bangladesh (13), Brazil (12), Sri Lanka (12) and Afghanistan (11).
As of today, the toll is higher.

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