This week marks the 10th anniversary of one of Canada's worst-ever weather disasters -- the 1998 ice storms that crippled much of Quebec and eastern Ontario.

The Globe and Mail covered it, as did other major Canadian news outlets.

Many Globe reporters are worldly, sophisticated people who have been to some of the worst, most conflict-ridden hellholes on Earth -- places like Somalia, Bosnia and Chechnya.

Their worldliness may have worked against their empathy.

I seem to remember a Globe story from the ice storm's early days which essentially said that on a global scale, the ice storm wasn't that bad a disaster!

Oopsie.

I tried to find the original story, but globeandmail.com's archives only go back to 2000.

For a round-up of ice storm coverage, check out this Fagstein posting.

Here's a feature I did for CTV.ca. It features some of your favourite international characters: Hugo Chavez, Robert Mugabe, Vladimir Putin, Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov and an emerging favourite, Nicolas Sarkozy.

With respects to the latter, I didn't learn about his new nickname until it was too late for this piece. And what is that new nickname? President Bling Bling. :)

From the Jan. 8 AP story:

President Nicolas Sarkozy hinted Tuesday he may soon marry former model Carla Bruni, but polls suggest he's heading toward divorce with some of the voters who put him in power.

Many are irritated by Sarkozy's flaunting of his whirlwind affair with someone whose cast of past partners includes Mick Jagger and Donald Trump. And they question Sarkozy's use of a billionaire friend's private jet for the couple's vacation.

He's being called "President Bling Bling," and it's not a compliment among the taste-conscious French.