Obama, Rice traveling

Two prominent Americans are globe-trotting this week:

SECRETARY OF STATE CONDOLEEZZA RICE starts the week in Abu Dhabi to meet with leaders from the United Arab Emirates and foreign ministers from other Arab nations. Later in the week she'll travel to Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. She'll stop in American Samoa on Saturday on her way back home.

SEN. BARACK OBAMA, meanwhile, is racking up frequent flier miles as he continues his overseas trip with stops in Jordan, Israel, Germany, France and Britain.

TODAY

First trial at Gitmo

A military trial for the first Guantanamo Bay prisoner to be tried for war crimes is slated to start at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba. Salim Hamdan, a Yemeni man thought to have been Osama bin Laden's driver and bodyguard, faces charges of conspiracy and supporting terrorism.

WHY IT MATTERS: The trial, expected to last about three weeks, will be a major test of the U.S. system for prosecuting those whom it accuses of terrorist acts.

"The eyes of the world are on Guantanamo Bay," U.S. District Judge James Robertson wrote last week in a decision that allowed the trial to proceed."

TUESDAY

Chavez tours Europe

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez begins a five-day tour of Europe in Russia, where he will meet with President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

WHY IT MATTERS: Chavez has said he'll be talking to Russian leaders about buying tanks and other military equipment. As Venezuela has modernized its military in recent years, it has purchased most of its equipment from Russia. As he travels later in the week to European nations, Chavez plans to voice his opposition to new EU immigration rules, which he has pledged to counter by barring participating nations' investors from doing business in Venezuela.

WEDNESDAY

UN hosts water forum

The United Nations hosts a two-day International Water Conference.

WHY IT MATTERS: The conference will bring water management experts and U.N. representatives together to address threats to the quality and quantity of drinking water worldwide. The goal is to find ways to provide reliable drinking water to a rapidly increasing world population.

Compiled by news copy editor Stacy Chandler