I'm in complete agreement with Jennifer that what we read in newspapers is more than enough .. but I read novels for the very purpose that each time I read it, I weave a different view of the characters and their behavior. So, whenever I read novels (any genre) I tend to imagine myself as at least one of the characters - so I end up feeling their joy, compassion, empathy or anger, when wronged. (as in Adventures of Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn)
It's a lot safer to feel the character's emotions that way than having to be in the daily news ourselves..just a pun.
I have to accept that I don't feel any conflicts / guilt but sometimes deeper emotions pertaining to the sufferings of the characters because believe me or not, if it didn't exist in real somewhere it wouldn't be there in the book or vice versa.