Environment

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A U.S. Capitol Police officer directs a cyclist away from the Capitol building on Aug. 23, 2011, following a 5.8-magnitude earthquake. The quake's epicenter was in Mineral, Va., east of Charlottesville, but could be felt along much of thee Eastern seaboard, including D.C. All downtown D.C. buildings were evacuated. (Barbara L. Salisbury/The Washington Times)

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Office workers gather on the sidewalk in downtown Washington on Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2011, moments after a 5.9-magnitude tremor shook the nation's capital. The quake, centered northwest of Richmond, was felt as far north as Rhode Island and New York. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

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U.S. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. offers a bouquet of flowers to pay his respects to the victims of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Natori, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, on Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2011. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)

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Workers clear vehicles from the scene of flash flood, caused by heavy rains, along Washington Blvd. where three people died while trapped in their car Friday, Aug. 19, 2011 in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Don Wright)

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Jacob Lusk is one of the 11 finalists who will be part of "American Idol Live!" on August 19 at Verizon Center.

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A shura of village elders last month was sparsely attended, as were others in the past several months. Afghan leaders in Helmand province face daunting problems, such as drought, joblessness and the chaos of living between two determined combat forces.

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Ryan Homes is building 62 single-family homes on 5,000-square-foot sites at the Village of Idlewild in Fredericksburg. The Yates model, with 2,290 square feet, is priced from $309,990.

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Craftstar Homes is building single-family homes at Gibson's Grant, a planned community on Kent Island in Queen Anne's County , Md. The New Windsor model has 3,100 square feet and is priced from $469,900.

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President Obama speaks at a town-hall meeting in Atkinson, Ill., as part of his three-day economic bus tour. "If everybody took an attitude of shared sacrifice, we could solve our deficit and debt problem next week," he tells a hybrid-seed factory audience. (Associated Press)

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French artist Henri Matisse painted "The Plumed Hat" in 1919. It is oil on canvas and measures 18¾ x 15 in.

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A Libyan loyal to Col. Moammar Gadhafi fires his weapon in the air in the main Green Square of Tripoli, Libya, on Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2011, in this image taken on a government-sponsored tour. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)

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Redfoo (left) and Sky Blu of the dance duo LMFAO performed Thursday at the Billboard Summer Blowout in New York, billed as the first event for which every ticket distributed was via mobile phones. (Associated Press)

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This screen shot taken from myBART.org shows a page from the website after it was hacked by the hacker's group Anonymous on Aug. 14, 2011. Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) district officials said they were attempting to shut down the hacker's group website that lists the names of thousands of Bay-area residents who are email subscribers of a legitimate BART website. (Associated Press)

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"It's politics and they know it. Politics is a dirty game. If they were running for the public they would be telling the truth." Tenaw Gebru, Southeast, contractor

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** FILE ** Commuters enter and exit a Bay Area Rapid Transit (better known as BART) station in San Francisco's financial district in this Sept. 15, 1997, file photo. (AP Photo/Robin Weiner, File)

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Redskins starting quarterback Rex Grossman (8) fires a pass in the first half, during a preseason game between the Washington Redskins and the Pittsburgh Steelers, at FedEx Field in Landover, Md., Friday, Aug. 12, 2011. (Drew Angerer/The Washington Times)

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ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOGRAPHS Members of a Pakistani family (top) displaced by last's year flooding, erect their tent in Charsada, one of many villages in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province devastated by water that in some places was 15 feet deep. Others find shelter in the ruins of a house in Charsada. In the village of Nowashera, flies gather on a little girl's face while she naps in a tent. In the nearby village of Wairar Sibra, however, locals are preparing to move into new houses, complete with electricity and courtyards, thanks to the largess of the man who owns the power plant looming over the settlement.