Environment

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An artisan ice sculptor from Harbin, China works on creating a wreath using blocks of green ice as he and others from his team work to create colorful scenes from the DreamWorks' production of "Merry Madagascar" for this years ICE! show in Oxon Hill, Md, Thursday, November 9, 2011. 40 men from Harbin, China return here to create a frozen wonderland, complete with an ice slide and characters from the movie. These men are a part of the team which creates the famous Harbin Ice Festival in Harbin, China every year. Some of the sculptures are comprised of colored ice blocks, yielding brilliant tones and deep hues for highlights and accents. Others are illuminated internally by some of the exhibit's 1,400 specially designed LED tube lights, evoking the ice lanterns of old. Others are engineered to support the presence of thousands of visitors over the exhibit's lifespan. (Rod Lamkey Jr. / The Washington Times)

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An artisan ice sculptor from Harbin, China works on a wall of crystal clear ice as he and others work on the huge ice slide, and as others on their team work to create colorful scenes from the DreamWorks' production of "Merry Madagascar" for this years ICE! show in Oxon Hill, Md, Thursday, November 9, 2011. (Rod Lamkey Jr. / The Washington Times)

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At top, a woman suffering cholera symptoms is carried to a Port-au-Prince hospital in March. Haiti's Health Ministry says a deadly epidemic that began in October 2010 has sickened nearly 500,000 and killed more than 6,500. (Associated Press)

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A child is treated for cholera in October at a Doctors Without Borders clinic in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. (Associated Press)

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Cpl. Kelsey De Santis and her date, Justin Timberlake, applaud the guest speaker at Friday night's Marine Corps Ball in Richmond, Va. (Marine Corps Base Quantico Public Affairs via Associated Press)

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Visitors to the National Cathedral leave after the Service of Holy Eucharist finishes, the first day the Cathedral is reopened to the public after being closed for almost three months from earthquake damage, on Sunday, November 13, 2011. (Andrew Harnik / The Washington Times)

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Shafts of light streak across safety netting to catch falling debris before the Service of Holy Eucharist begins, the first day the Cathedral is reopened to the public after being closed for almost 3 months from earthquake damage. (Andrew Harnik / The Washington Times)

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**FILE** An employee works May 31, 2009, at the Tawke oil fields in the semiautonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq. (Associated Press)

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A couple stand in front of flooded River Street in Nome, Alaska, on Wednesday. High winds and surging waves pummeled Alaska's western coast, forcing residents of Nome and isolated native villages to seek higher ground inland. (Associated Press)

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In late September, more than seven months after the Feb. 22 collapse of the Canterbury Television building in Christchurch, New Zealand, memorials to those who died adorn a fence surrounding the empty lot, from which the rubble had been cleared. The quake struck a year earlier, in September 2010. (Associated Press)

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Charlie Weyauvanna plays in sea foam late on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2011, as a large Bering Sea storm intensifies in Nome, Alaska. (AP Photo/Anchorage Daily News, Peggy Fagerstrom)

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K. Hovnanian is building 62 town homes at the Pointe at ArundelPreserve in Hanover. The homes have approximately 1,900 finished square feet, with base prices from $347,990 to $359,990.

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Worker Tony Frye prepares to install a chain link fence for the soon-to-be-completed Prince George's County phase of the ICC, Maryland Route 200. "We've had people working very hard to make this a success," said project director Melinda Peters. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)