Word: archipelagos
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What to Do. The main activity on this hook-shaped archipelago of islands is, as you might expect, taking in its natural beauty. Divers come here to explore the abundant coral reefs that surround Bermuda, along with the dozens of historic shipwrecks that are now inhabited by a wide variety of marine life. Some wreck sites are shallow enough for snorkelers to view, including the Constellation, which sank in 1943 about eight miles off the coast of Bermuda en route to Venezuela with a hull full of medicines and whiskey. The ship, which now lies 30 feet underwater...
...July 8, voters on the more than 17,000 islands that make up the vast archipelago nation of Indonesia went to the polls to elect the country's President. A final count has yet to be completed, but all signs suggest that Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the incumbent candidate, notched up a resounding victory. Since winning the country's first competitive election in 2004, the former general has been a cool steward of Indonesia's young and often chaotic democracy, denting the country's grim legacy of corruption, cracking down on radical Islamist groups and rebuilding a nation that suffered...
...requirements needed to declare an immediate winner - a 50% national threshold and at least 20% in 17 of the country's 35 provinces. A delay in the elections is unlikely given the tens of millions of dollars that have been spent preparing for the event. Logistics in the sprawling archipelago are daunting, with some voters having to walk miles to reach the nearest polling station. (Watch a video about a destructive mud volcano in Indonesia...
President Obama, who is trying to close Gitmo, has said different fates await the more than 200 prisoners still held there. Some can be sent back to their homelands, some will be tried in reformed military commissions, and some will be transferred to third countries. The Pacific archipelago of Palau may take 17 Chinese Muslims who've been at Gitmo for years. Others, Obama has hinted, will never face trial because there isn't a court in the land that would allow evidence obtained through torture...
...government lays down the architecture of a decentralized liberal state. Nasheed has already embarked on trips to Europe and the Middle East to gin up private investment in public projects, from treating sanitation to investing in green energy to establishing the much-needed ferry network linking the archipelago's far-flung islands. Election fever is growing: Nasheed sits in office with the tenuous backing of a coalition of increasingly fractious parties, fitful after decades in which politics could not exist at all. Parliamentary elections on May 9 could give him and the MDP a stronger mandate - or cripple his ability...