the case against 'could' and 'likely'

  I think the words 'could' and 'likely' should be banned from the news. Just today, the CNN reports that terrorists are "likely" to obtain weapons of mass destruction and "we could have multiple times the 40 million people who were killed 100 years ago [by flu]". What the hell is this supposed to tell me?? Where is the useful information here? Yes, we could, and yes, the terrorists are likely to do it tomorrow just after lunch. But how likely? Should I lose sleep over it, or am I still more likely to die unspectacularly in my car? By comparison, BBC muses that the next threatening impact of the Earth with a large asteroid "could occur in less than 20 years". But at least they do mention that the chance of this happening is 1 in 45,000 (which, on a global scale, makes it a much greater danger than terrorism).