Topic: Focus

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Focus Winter looming, New York rushes to repair homes hit by superstorm Sandy

Hiring private contractors to repair homes quickly, New York responds to disaster relief in its own entrepreneurial way. Will the city be able to get people back in their homes before year's end?
Focus Want to stay on the coast? Homeowners weigh post-Sandy elevation.

As homeowners consider long-term solutions for superstorm Sandy damage, they may have to raise foundations – or move. Some flood experts say the latter may be the wiser course of action.
Focus Analysis: For Hamas, a validation

Armed resistance to Israel wins Hamas friends in the streets and among Arab neighbors.
Focus Analysis: Positions remain entrenched after Gaza conflict

Neither Israel nor Hamas has budged on long-held principles that make coexistence difficult and the prospects for lasting peace remote.
Focus Obamacare countdown: States all over the map on insurance markets

States have until Dec. 14 to decide whether they will implement their own insurance exchanges under 'Obamacare' or have the federal government do it. Many governors have already refused to set up exchanges.
Focus Obamacare countdown: How will reform affect the economy?

The health-care law could strain household budgets, but drastic impacts on the US economy over the coming decade are unlikely, experts say.
Focus Obamacare countdown: What is slated to happen over next year?

The health-care reform law, aka Obamacare, is poised to enter a crucial 12 months that includes setting up state exchanges, levying taxes on the wealthy, and preparing for the individual mandate.
Focus Islamists silence the musicians who guide rural Mali

For centuries, griots have directed ceremonies, smoothed over disputes, and served as repositories of history and genealogy. Now in northern Mali they are out of a job.
Focus Will Mali be Africa's Afghanistan?

Mali was hit by two successive shocks to its system this year – with the north seized by rebels and a coup in the capital – leaving its government fragile and the international community mulling intervention.
Focus Rebuilding the GOP: Can Republicans pitch a bigger tent?

The party must come to grips with the 'demographic realities' reshaping the US electorate and devise new strategies for connecting with growing populations of minorities, single women, and youth.
Focus Republican Party 2.0: 4 GOP leaders share ideas for political upgrade

In the aftermath of election 2012, four prominent Republicans share their visions for how the GOP can adapt its messaging to reflect a diversifying US electorate.
Focus Violence against women in Latin America: Is it getting worse?

Across Latin America, women are confronting a rise in brutal attacks – as advocates struggle to sustain the progress that's been made in curbing violence against women.
Focus Turn on the TV? How telenovelas help people cope with real life

Tackling sensitive topics through entertainment and fictional characters can make it easier to get people talking about how to deal with complicated or stigmatized problems, like domestic violence.
Focus Putting a price tag on violence against women in Latin America

A first-of-its-kind study quantifies the intergenerational price tag of domestic violence. In a region of emerging economies, where GDP growth is paramount to success, could this motivate policymakers?
Focus How water could bring Israelis, Palestinians together

A sole joint committee between Israelis and Palestinians survives 17 years after the Oslo Accords: the one on water.
Focus Surging storms: Can the US adapt in time to avert coastal damage?

Damage from severe storms such as Sandy is likely to escalate by the end of the century as the population grows and people continue to build along the Eastern Seaboard.
Focus How will New York keep out a rising sea? Dikes, huge sea wall, oyster beds?

After superstorm Sandy, New York officials look for long-term solutions against future floods from storm surges. Many options, little consensus.
Focus Veterans Day: When vets run afoul of the law, these courts care

Modeled after local drug or family courts, veterans courts are springing up, stressing rehabilitation and mentoring over jail time. Is it special treatment, or deserved consideration?
Focus Japan's leaders give up on quitting nuclear power

Although Japan's 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster set much of the public against nuclear power, politicians are not convinced.
Focus Japan's nuclear dilemma: Is geothermal the answer?

Japan's hot spring operators were once vocal opponents of geothermal power, which, along with other forms of renewable energy, is now being considered as an alternative to nuclear power.
Focus Japan's nuclear dilemma: What to do with all that nuclear waste?

Japanese citizens are balking at the lack of information and supervision of waste stored in public places, such as playgrounds.
Focus What will the Afghanistan war legacy be?

Much of the Soviets' development work got wiped out by a civil war in the 1990s. But the scope of the effort then was limited compared with the work today.
Focus Crunch time in Ohio, as Obama, Romney blitz to get out the vote

Both campaigns are swarming Ohio, knocking on doors and making phone calls to potential voters. In these last crucial days, getting out the vote in what may be the deciding state of Election 2012 is paramount.
Focus MS-13 labeled transnational criminal organization. Who are the 'Maras?'

The MS-13 gang is one of many 'maras,' or street gangs, that started in the US and spread into Central America, particularly El Salvador. Here's a brief history.
Focus Can a gang truce in El Salvador open the door to lasting peace?

For years El Salvador battled gangs with prison sentences and an iron fist. But a gang truce brokered in March has lasted longer than anyone expected, with homicide rates plummeting.