Environment

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A man rides in a horse-drawn carriage outside the Brasil sugar processing plant in Jaronu, Cuba, on Sept. 8, 2012. (Associated Press)

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Workers irrigate a sugar cane field in Jaronu, Cuba. Two years ago, the sugar industry was crippled after the worst harvest in more than a century. (Associated Press)

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The words written on the wall read in Spanish “Don’t pass. Collapse.” The Brasil plant is getting a makeover in time for the upcoming annual harvest and is expected to start milling cane by February. (Associated Press)

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Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney shakes hands Oct. 8, 2012, during a campaign rally in Newport News, Va. (Associated Press)

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Adventurer Bear Grylls is shown at Mount Borradaile in Australia's northwestern Arnhemland during filming of the Discovery Channel series "Man vs. Wild" in May 2010. (AP Photo/Discovery Channel, Luis Enrique Ascui)

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** FILE ** Hallmark will close its plant in Topeka, Kan., as the popularity of e-cards, emails and Facebook have sharply cut into sales of traditional greeting cards. (Associated Press)

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“Natural gas exploitation could be a very strong incentive for reunification of the island,” said Cyprus’ Foreign Minister Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis. (Associated Press)

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Maryland defensive backs Eric Franklin (left) and Jeremiah Johnson break up a pass intended for Wake Forest wide receiver Lovell Jackson during Saturday’s victory at College Park. (Associated Press)

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Dr. Lucy Wilson, with fellow Maryland public health official Josh Sharfstein, holds a news conference to explain response efforts to an outbreak of meningitis that may be linked to steroid injections. (Associated Press)

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One night shot shows Endurance, white and skeletal with its masts and cross-trees devoid of all its sails, foreshadows the coming disaster, on display in "The Photographs of Frank Hurley Shackleton’s Antarctic Expedition 1914-1917." (The Ralls Collection)