Environment

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This image taken at 2:32 a.m. EDT on Aug. 3, 2011, shows Tropical Storm Emily. The storm brushed past Puerto Rico and set its sights on the Dominican Republic and Haiti, where more than 630,000 people are still without shelter after last year's earthquake. (Associated Press/NASA)

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Geologist Matt Joeckel displays a core sample of carbonatite rock containing niobium and rare-earth elements, which was taken from a deposit near Elk Creek, Neb., in early February. (Associated Press)

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ASSOCIATED PRESS The Dawn spacecraft launched by NASA took this photo of the pockmarked surface of the asteroid Vesta from 9,500 miles away. The data gathered by the craft over the next year should help future manned missions.

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A man walks by burning garbage in downtown Port-au-Prince. The country's new president launched what was termed "reconstruction week" to rebuild. (Associated Press)

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ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOGRAPHS A model poses for a weekly "drink and draw" at the 3rd Ward artist's cooperative in Bushwick in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Still a largely industrial area and recovering from years as a bastion for gangs, Bushwick's sordid history is becoming overshadowed by the influx of artists flocking to the area in search of affordability and space.

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**FILE** In this photo from May 27, 2011, made available by NASA, technicians at Astrotech's payload processing facility in Titusville, Fla., stow solar array #2 against the body of NASA's Juno spacecraft. (Associated Press/NASA)

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Greek taxi drivers, protesting new licensing rules as part of the government's austerity measures, wave a Greek flag and chant slogans at a demonstration outside the Greek parliament in Athens on Tuesday. Some entrepreneurial Greeks, by contrast, are trying to make the best of the austerity situation. (Associated Press)

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**FILE** In this photo from June 21, 2011, Shell gas worker Toke Fusi changes gas prices down at a Shell gas station in Menlo Park, Calif. (Associated Press)

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International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Yukiya Amano inspects the crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear-power plant in northeastern Japan earlier this week. Mr. Amano, on a weeklong trip to Japan, said that the nation's tsunami-damaged nuclear plant is steadily making progress to recover from the March disaster triggered by an earthquake. (Associated Press)

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**FILE** A polar bear patrols the ice in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. His 2004 observation of polar bears likely drowning in conjunction with global warming has come back to haunt federal wildlife biologist Charles Monnett. (Associated Press)

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NVHomes is building 81 town homes at Fairwood in Bowie. The homes have 2,222 to 2,413 finished square feet, with base prices from $299,990 to $359,990.

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Texas Gov. Rick Perry's aides have been laying the groundwork for a White House bid, and Mr. Perry has been talking to influential Republicans in early voting states. He is expected to jump in when he announces a decision in the coming weeks. (Associated Press)

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Wide receiver Santonio Holmes had 52 catches for 746 yards and six touchdowns last season for the New York Jets. (Associated Press)

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A South African soldier comes upon the corpse of a slaughtered rhino in a national park in South Africa. The poachers typically operate around sunset, shoot a rhino, and spend the night in the bush before heading home with the horn of the animal. (Associated Press)