You come across a story like this:
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/reu...30428_450.html
OTTAWA/BRASILIA (Reuters) - A crew member of an Egyptian merchant ship has died in northern Brazil, almost certainly from anthrax, after opening a suitcase suspected of containing the deadly bacteria, which he was taking to Canada.
...and it may all be nothing, in which case you don't hear anything for a few days and then you wonder what the story really was.
Or it may be the tip of the iceberg of the biggest history-changing event ever.