Starwood Hotels & Resorts has become the first US hotel company to sign a deal with Cuba since the 1959 revolution, coming as a result of President Obama’s historic visit to the country earlier this week.

IN the closing paragraph of A Moveable Feast, Hemingway’s beguiling, posthumously-published paean to the great French capital of the ‘20s, he writes: “There is never any ending to Paris and the memory of each person who has lived in it differs from that of any other... (This) is how Paris was in the early days when we were very poor and very happy.”

Since the days when authors like Hemingway and Tennessee Williams set up camp, Key West has always been a potent magnet for people looking to drift away from the real world for a while, writes John Daly.

Dynastic dramas are back, thanks to major new Netflix series, Bloodlines. Kyle Chandler tells Ed Power all about it.

USA: Referring to “this ridiculously stupid winter”, the Ithaca website suggests visiting the Florida Keys this week and returning “when things thaw out.”

Scientists are using fisheye lenses under water to create 360-degree maps of reefs and other underwater wonders.

Here's our guide to the best TV to watch tonight.

At 2pm local time on Monday last, 52 hours after entering the water and after four previous failed attempts over the previous 35 years, 64-year-old Diana Nyad emerged from the ocean in Florida Keys and thus became the first person to swim the 110 miles from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage.

Stevie Nicks’s tumultuous life as a rock queen led her to addiction, heartbreak and ‘insanity’. Now, 35 years after Rumours, the 64-year-old tells Caspar Llewellyn Smith why Fleetwood Mac are back for more

Tropical storm Isaac was on the verge of becoming a full-blown hurricane as it rolled over the Gulf of Mexico toward Louisiana.

The US National Hurricane Center has issued a warning for the northern Gulf of Mexico coast.

595 flights have been cancelled in and out of Miami airport as tropical Storm Isaac batters Florida Keys.

Tropical Storm Isaac gained fresh muscle today as it neared the Florida Keys, threatening to be at or near hurricane strength approaching the island chain.

Tropical Storm Isaac swept across Haiti’s southern peninsula today, bringing flooding and at least three deaths while adding to the misery of a poor nation still trying to recover from the 2010 earthquake.

Endurance athlete Diana Nyad forged ahead through the Straits of Florida with renewed vigour in pursuit of a record 103-mile unassisted swim in open waters without the aid of a shark cage.

A 49-year-old grandmother and veteran endurance swimmer had to give up on her quest yesterday to become the first woman to swim unaided from Cuba to the Florida Keys, unable to close the gap on the last 26 miles of a more than 100-mile ocean odyssey.

Gene Hackman was briefly treated in hospital after a lorry bumped him from behind while he was riding a bicycle in the Florida Keys.

A weakening Tropical Storm Paula dumped heavy rain on Cuba’s capital, Havana, turning some of the streets into shallow rivers and knocking out power before sliding along the island’s northern coast.

A crush of mud finally plugged BP’S blown-out well, three months after the offshore drilling rig explosion that unleashed a gush of oil and a summer of misery along the Gulf Coast.

Heavy oil from the massive Gulf of Mexico spill reached wildlife sanctuaries on Louisiana coasts today.

BP reported further progress yesterday in stemming the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, but new evidence showed part of the slick could be swept to Florida’s beaches and sensitive coral reefs.

ENERGY giant BP yesterday said it was capturing about a fifth of the estimated oil gushing from its ruptured undersea Gulf of Mexico well and hoped to try to fully stop the flow later this week.

Around one fifth of the oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico from the rig disaster is now being collected by a bypass pipe, BP said tonight.

BP engineers finally succeeded in keeping some of the oil gushing from a blown well out of the Gulf of Mexico, hooking up a mile-long tube to funnel it into a tanker after more than three weeks of failures.

THANKS to Joyce Anderson Gleasure (Letters, April 26) for correcting me on my geographic illiteracy as to the whereabouts of America.

EMERGENCY crews rushed to protect fragile shorelines and islands as the Gulf of Mexico oil slick expanded, prompting a mobilisation of more national guard troops and alerts as far as the Florida Keys.

A MAN accused of killing four relatives at a Thanksgiving holiday dinner was captured at a motel in the Florida Keys where police said he had eluded authorities for about a month.

A man accused of killing four relatives at a Thanksgiving holiday dinner was captured at a motel in the Florida Keys where police said he had eluded authorities for about a month by checking in under a fake name and address, and hiding his car with a cover.

Hurricane Ike roared across Cuba today, blowing buildings to rubble and sending waves surging over homes.

The US National Hurricane Centre says Hurricane Ike has weakened to a Category 2 storm as it moves over Cuba. More than 770,000 Cubans have evacuated to shelters or higher ground.

Hurricane Ike roared on to Cuba today after destroying houses and crops on low-lying islands and worsening floods in Haiti that have already killed more than 300 people.

“Extremely dangerous” Hurricane Ike grew to fierce Category 4 strength today as it roared on an uncertain path that forced millions from the Caribbean to Florida, and Louisiana to Mexico, to wonder where it would eventually strike.

Residents were defying warnings and taking a wait-and-see attitude as a strengthening Tropical Storm Fay swept over the Florida Keys at the tip of the state and bore down on the Gulf Coast.

A fierce storm that could turn into a hurricane appeared to be heading towards Florida today.

A man said to have been keeping weapons and military-style gear in his hotel room and car appeared in a Florida court accused of threatened to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

A boating woman who was killed when a stingray jumped out of the water in the Florida Keys and hit her face died of skull fractures and brain injuries, not from the animal’s poisonous barb, a medical examiner said.

A woman who was killed when a stingray jumped out of the water in the Florida Keys and hit her face died of skull fractures and brain injuries, not from the animal’s poisonous barb, a medical examiner said today.

THE Education Minister stormed into the chamber with the force of Hurricane Mary fresh from harassing the Florida Keys.

THOMAS COOK SPORT is about to launch a series of package deals on the Irish market for next year’s British and Irish Lions tour of South Africa.

RAIN from Tropical Storm Ernesto started sweeping across the Florida Keys yesterday, as residents hurried to fill gas tanks, gather supplies and board up windows before the main body of the storm strikes.

Rain from Tropical Storm Ernesto swept across parts of the vulnerable Florida Keys today as residents hurried to fill petrol tanks, gather emergency supplies and board up windows before the main body of the storm strikes.

Tourists are evacuating the Florida Keys today as Tropical Storm Ernesto heads towards the state as a revived hurricane.

EVERYBODY has heard of Butch Harmon, David Leadbetter, even Hank Haney.