Storm Fallout: A Florida Exodus?

After the 2000 presidential election debacle, a friend of mine in New York voiced a snide but widely shared sentiment: “The best thing about Florida,” he told me, “is that it’s a place to keep Floridians.” I’ve often said the same thing about Manhattan. But I’m recalling my friend’s remark now as I look east and see hurricanes lining up in the Atlantic like bombers on an aircraft carrier, threatening to blow mango trees into my Miami living room from now until Halloween.

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Ghana buzzes with excitement over Obama visit

President Obama arrived in Ghana on Friday for his first visit to sub-Saharan Africa since taking office, sparking excitement in the west African nation. Obama is expected to address lawmakers in the capital city of Accra on Saturday and tour the Cape Coast Castle, which was used in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

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Suu Kyi trial nears end in Myanmar

The trial in Myanmar of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi drew closer to an end Friday with testimony from the last witness and the scheduling of closing arguments. After completing a seven-hour examination of Suu Kyi’s final defense witness, the court announced that closing arguments will be heard July 24. Nyan Win, Suu Kyi’s lawyer, said the legal team has finished drafting arguments, which totaled 18 pages.

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Saudi woman activist demands right to travel

Wajeha al-Huwaider picked up her passport, got in a taxi, and headed from her home in eastern Saudi Arabia to the nearby island kingdom of Bahrain — a 45-minute drive that many Saudis take to get away for the weekend. Despite having a valid passport, Saudi authorities at the border sent al-Huwaider home. That’s because in Saudi Arabia, a woman needs permission from her male guardian before she can leave the country

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Obama: G-8 has shown Iran ‘door’ to diplomatic engagement

President Obama argued Friday that the Group of Eight nations had sent a clear message to Iran: The world will not "wait indefinitely" and allow the country to build nuclear weapons. “The international community has said, ‘Here’s a door you can walk through that allows you to lessen tensions and more fully join the international community,’ ” Obama told reporters at a news conference at the end of the G-8 summit in Italy. “If Iran chooses not to walk through that door, then you have on record the G-8 to begin with, but I think potentially a lot of other countries, that are going to say, ‘We need to take further steps.’ ” Obama met with some fellow leaders to push for a threat of potential new sanctions against Iran, but the G-8 did not issue such a threat.

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Obama’s Ghana trip sends message across Africa

President Barack Obama was due in Ghana Friday, generating excitement in the west African nation and envy among its neighbors with many seeing his visit as sending a message to governments over their poor records on stability. Across Ghana, street vendors were stocking miniature American flags while citizens donned attire with pictures of the U.S. leader

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In Egypt, Invoking Islam to Combat Sexual Harassment

Doaa Kassem, like most Egyptian women, is used to being catcalled and grabbed at by men in the crowded streets of Cairo. The 24-year-old executive secretary is well versed in women’s rights, having studied the subject in Sweden, and she is bolder than most when it comes to dealing with her harassers

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A New General, and a New War, in Afghanistan

The headquarters of the International Security Assistance Force in Kabul looks more like a college campus than the nerve center of a military operation involving more than 90,000 troops from 41 countries, its staff officers roaming the halls in each nation’s distinct patterns of camouflage. On July 3, on a wooden deck at the back of his office in the compound, shaded by trees and a garden umbrella, U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal, who recently became ISAF’s commander, and that of U.S

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