Environment

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FILE - In this Oct. 16, 2010 file photo, "Avatar" director James Cameron arrives at the Environmental Media Awards at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, Calif. (AP Photo/Dan Steinberg, file)

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The center-island kitchen in the Mount Vernon model at Hunting Crest has 42-inch maple cabinets, granite counters, stainless steel appliances and recessed lighting. A mudroom and laundry room are nearby.

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NV Homes is building 52 single-family homes on sites of 1 1/2 to 2 acres at Hunting Crest in Vienna, Va. The homes have 3,790 to 5,618 finished square feet, with base prices from $1,319,990 to $1,469,990.

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The living room has ebony-stained wood floors, two seating areas, a wood-burning fireplace and recessed lighting.

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Kettler Forlines Homes is building 77 single-family homes on sites of one-third acre to 1 acre at Brightwell Crossing in Poolesville, Md. The homes have 2,472 to 4,108 finished square feet, with base prices from $529,900 to $689,900.

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The Montgomery model at Brightwell Crossing, which has 3,555 square feet and is priced from $639,900, features a center-island kitchen with a breakfast area. A sunroom is optional.

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TUNNEL VISION: Gov. Chris Christie says New Jersey "simply no longer can afford" a major public works project. (Associated Press)

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Rescuers search for victims at a village hit by pyroclastic flows from Tuesday's eruption of Mount Merapi in Kinahrejo, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, on Wednesday. The volcanic eruption and a tsunami killed scores of people hundreds of miles apart in Indonesia, spasms from the Pacific "Ring of Fire," which spawns disasters from deep within the Earth. (Associated Press)

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Indonesian Vice President Boediono (upper right with white shirt) looks at the bodies of tsunami victims in Pagai Utara, Mentawai Islands, on Wednesday. (Associated Press)

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Rescue workers help people evacuated from their homes on the slope of Mount Merapi. About 800 miles away, emergency services were assisting victims of an earthquake and tsunami. (Associated Press)

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A villager watches Mount Merap in Indonesia. Scientists warned that mounting pressure could trigger the most powerful eruption in years. (Associated Press)

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Stuard Lucner Tombeau, 4, leaves his temporary home in a refugee camp in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Oct. 13. The schoolteacher's son shares the makeshift home with his parents and three other relatives after their prior home was destroyed by the Jan. 12 earthquake. (Associated Press)

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More than 1 million Haitians live in refugee camps like this one in Port-au-Prince since an earthquake destroyed an estimated 110,000 homes and apartments. (Associated Press)

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A submersible with professor Steve Ross inside is raised from the Gulf of Mexico onto Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise after exploring coral reefs on the floor of the Gulf off the coast of Louisiana on Saturday. (Associated Press)

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The Rev. Appolonia Okwu of Nigeria works to build a fire in her hand-built mud-and-straw brick oven in Lineville, Ala., on Oct. 5. She is one of 19 trainees from 10 countries learning how to make the efficient, clean-burning cook stoves from mud bricks. (Associated Press)