Environment

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In this July 5, 2009, image released by un-named local citizen, protesters gather in Urumqi, in China's western Xinjiang region. (AP Photo/File)

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An Uzbek woman walks with her children in Ferghana, Uzbekistan. According to rights groups, victims and health officials, hundreds of Uzbek women have been surgically sterilized without their knowledge in a program looking to curb overpopulation. (Associated Press)

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Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack tells reporters that he acted in haste in firing Shirley Sherrod, a black U.S. Agriculture Department official, after it appeared she had made racist remarks in unfair and heavily edited video posted on a conservative website, during a news conference at the Department of Agriculture in Washington on Wednesday, July 21, 2010. Mr. Vilsack said he is taking personal responsibility for what happened. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

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An undated photo provided by the United States Department of Agriculture shows USDA official Shirley Sherrod. Mrs. Sherrod is at the center of a racially tinged firestorm involving the Obama administration and the NAACP. Mrs. Sherrod was ousted Tuesday by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack over her comments that she didn't give a white farmer as much help as she could have 24 years ago. (AP Photo/United States Department of Agriculture)

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Tighe Barry fom Los Angeles, Calif., right, and Zaccai Free, left, join a rally outside the Department of Agriculture building in Washington on Wednesday, July 21, in support of Shirley Sherrod, a former Agriculture Department's director of rural development in Georgia. The protesters demanded that Mrs. Sherrod be reinstated to her job (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

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Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack tells reporters he acted in haste in firing Shirley Sherrod, a black U.S. Agriculture Department official, after it appeared she had made racist remarks in unfair and heavily edited video posted on a conservative website, during a news conference at the Department of Agriculture in Washington, Wednesday, July 21, 2010. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

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Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack tells reporters he acted in haste in regards to Shirley Sherrod, a black U.S. Agriculture Department official, after it appeared she had made racist remarks in unfair and heavily edited video posted on a conservative website, during a news conference at the Department of Agriculture in Washington, Wednesday, July 21, 2010. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

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In this undated photo provided by Antarctic Heritage Trust via the Canterbury Museum, a whisky crate is stored beneath the floor of a hut built by British explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton during his 1908 Antarctic expedition. The crate of Scotch whisky that has been frozen in Antarctic ice for more than a century is being slowly thawed by New Zealand museum officials, for analysis, not to be tasted. (AP Photo/Antarctic Heritage Trust via the Canterbury Museum, Paul Terry)

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An undated photo provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows former USDA official Shirley Sherrod, who was fired this week after brief comments she made in a March speech were taken out of context. (AP Photo/United States Department of Agriculture)

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Zaccai Free (center) joins a rally outside the Department of Agriculture in Washington on Wednesday, July 21, 2010, in support of Shirley Sherrod, the Agriculture Department's former director of rural development in Georgia, demanding that she be reinstated in her job. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

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In this photo taken on Wednesday, July 21, 2010, and released by Greenpeace, a villager displays his hand coated in crude oil during cleanup efforts almost a week after a pipeline, owned by China Nation Petroleum Corp., exploded in Nanhaitun, Weitang Bay, China. China National Petroleum Corp. said Thursday the vital pipeline has resumed operations after an explosion caused the country's largest reported oil spill. Cleanup efforts, marred by the drowning death of a worker, continued over 165 square mile stretch of water blanketed in thick, dark oil Thursday, after an official warned the spill posed a severe threat to sea life and water quality. (AP Photo/Greenpeace, Jiang He)

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In this photo taken on Wednesday, July 21, 2010, released by Greenpeace, mollusks are seen coated in crude oil, at the Guotai Water Products Farm, less than a mile away from the site of an oil spill, at Xingang Port in Dalian in northeast China's Liaoning province. China National Petroleum Corp. said Thursday the vital pipeline has resumed operations after an explosion caused the country's largest reported oil spill. Cleanup efforts, marred by the drowning death of a worker, continued over 165 square mile stretch of water blanketed in thick, dark oil Thursday, after an official warned the spill posed a severe threat to sea life and water quality. (AP Photo/Greenpeace, Jiang He)

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In this photo taken Wednesday, July 21, 2010, and released by Greenpeace on July 22, 2010, an employee scoops up dead snails at the Guotai Water Products Farm, less than a mile away from the site of the oil spill at Xingang Port in Dalian in northeast China's Liaoning province. China National Petroleum Corp. said Thursday a vital pipeline has resumed operations after an explosion caused the country's largest reported oil spill. Cleanup efforts, marred by the drowning death of a worker, continued over 165 square mile stretch of water blanketed in thick, dark oil Thursday, after an official warned the spill posed a severe threat to sea life and water quality. (AP Photo/Greenpeace, Jiang He)