NEW DELHI — Saying he was saddened and shocked by the speed with which his friends in Washington had abandoned him, the former president of Maldives warned Thursday that radical Islam has gained ground across the sprawling Indian Ocean archipelago since he was deposed in February. Read full article > >

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Deposed Maldives president says coup has fueled radical Islam

JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. — Two Army helicopters crashed Monday night at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in an accident that killed four soldiers, a military spokesman said late Monday. The two-seat OH-58 Kiowa observation helicopters crashed after 8 p.m. in the southwest training area of the sprawling base near Tacoma, Wash., according the Army. Read full article > >

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2 Army helicopters crash on Washington military base; 4 soldiers killed

Many residents in the sprawling dilapidated capital of Kinshasa feared the outcome would stoke new spasms of political violence.

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Congo Leader, Kabila, Declared Winner in Disputed Vote

A long-running obsession of Washington’s fraternity of government management gurus is how to overhaul the Commerce Department, the sprawling agency responsible for, among other things, the census, telecommunications, fisheries and the weather. Shut it down, some say, and divide its parts among other Cabinet departments. Spin off the U.S. Census Bureau . Move the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Weather Service over to the Interior Department . On Thursday, President Obama will receive the results of a six-month study on how to close, merge or recast at least some of the 12 federal export and trade offices run by Commerce or the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative , according to administration officials familiar with the study. Officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Read full article > >

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Trade offices targeted in reorganization plan

The queen of daytime talk will relinquish her network television throne Wednesday to oversee the rest of her sprawling kingdom, which has extended its reach to film, Broadway, publishing, politics, cooking, fitness, the self-help industry, a fledgling cable channel and the throbbing crannies of America’s heart. “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” one of the most durable and top-rated programs in TV history, is ending its quarter-century run with fanfare worthy of a president or pope — or of a woman born into poverty in Mississippi who built a media empire around her own nationally syndicated talk show. Read full article > >

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Oprah says goodbye after 25 years, enters her next phase

A Michigan order of nuns has decided not to buy the struggling Pope John Paul II Cultural Center, which means the sprawling, multimillion-dollar facility in Northeast Washington is back on the market.

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D.C.’s Pope John Paul II Cultural Center back on the market

“Everyone expects there to be a new problem daily in Haiti. I can’t concentrate on problems each day,” said Roseanne Auguste, coordinator of a youth art program in the sprawling, under-resourced Port-au-Prince section of Carrefour-Feuilles. The program is run through the community clinic Association for the Promotion of Family Integrated Health (APROSIFA). read more

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Haitian Renaissance: Youth Paint a New Country