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Saturday, January 29, 2011

Haiti, one year later

It's been one year since the earth shook so violently below Port-au-Prince, Haiti, destroying and damaging hundreds of thousands of buildings and lives in mere moments. Twelve months of struggle and heartache have followed, with very little progress to show so far. Only five percent of the rubble has been cleared as crippling "indecision" has stalled reconstruction efforts, a recent report by humanitarian group Oxfam said. It's not clear when Haiti will be fully rebuilt, with five years needed just to rehouse the government, a top minister recently told an AFP reporter. On this somber anniversary, here are some photos of (and by) Haitians as they continue to cope with the aftermath of such a massive disaster. (45 photos total)

Orich Florestal (left), 24 and Rosemond Altidon, 22, stand on the edge of their partially destroyed apartment of Port-au-Prince January 9, 2011. Haiti will this week mark the first anniversary
of the earthquake that killed an estimated 230,000 people and destroyed much of the capital Port-au-Prince on Jan 12, 2010. (REUTERS/Allison Shelley)


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A worker carries crosses to be placed in a the ground as they build a memorial in memory of the tens of thousands killed and buried in the mass grave at Titanyen on January 11, 2011 on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

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An aerial view of a tent city in Port-au-Prince is seen on January 10, 2011, one year after the quake of January 12, 2010. (THONY BELIZAIRE/AFP/Getty Images)

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People walk on a street in downtown Port-au-Prince January 9, 2011. (REUTERS/Jorge Silva)

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Earthquake survivor Darlene Etienne, center, shows a photo of her rescue shot by Associated Press photographer Ramon Espinosa to neighbors in Marchand Dessaline, Haiti, Sunday Jan. 9, 2011. The seventeen-year-old was pulled from the rubble of her cousin's home near the ruins of the St. Gerard parish school by French rescue workers, more than two weeks after the Jan. 12 massive earthquake. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)

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A worker of Handicap International assists an earthquake victim with a prosthetic leg at a center for amputees in Port-au-Prince January 10, 2011. Thousands of people lost limbs in the January 12, 2010 earthquake, which left more than 1 million Haitians homeless and living in misery in the already poor, calamity-prone Caribbean nation. The center provides rehabilitation, therapy and prosthetic limbs for amputees. (REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz)

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Soccer players from Haiti's Zaryen team (in blue) and the national amputee team fight for the ball during a friendly match at the national stadium in Port-au-Prince January 10, 2011. Sprinting on their crutches at breakneck speed, the young soccer players who lost legs in Haiti's earthquake last year project a symbol of hope and resilience in a land where so much is broken. (REUTERS/Kena Betancur)

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A broken cross and newly emerged seedlings mark a burial site outside of Port-au-Prince January 10, 2011. Mass graves of victims of the January 12, 2010 earthquake and the cholera epidemic are found at the site. (REUTERS/Allison Shelley)

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(1 of 2) Before: A photograph from nearly a year ago shows a fire burning at the Hyppolite iron market in downtown Port-au-Prince on January 29, 2010. (REUTERS/Jorge Silva)

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(2 of 2) After: People look at the newly reconstructed iron market which was to be inaugurated on Tuesday in downtown Port-au-Prince on January 10, 2011. The historic trading center was originally constructed in the 1890's and has been rebuilt this year after a fire leveled it shortly after the January 12, 2010 earthquake. (REUTERS/Jorge Silva)

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On October 13th 2010, a homeless child on a street of Trou du Nord, a town in the North-East of Haiti. Photo taken by a student as part of a Photo-Sphere workshop run by the Envision Foundation for Photography and Digital Media. (© Pierre Adelin for Unicef (2010))

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Children sell lottery tickets at a street vendor stand in Jacmel. Photo taken by a student as part of a Photo-Sphere workshop run by the Envision Foundation for Photography and Digital Media. (© Junior Jean Baptiste for Unicef (2010))

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A man listens to the radio inside his battery-charging business at Petionville Club golf course IDP camp in Port-au-Prince January 7, 2011. Reconstruction has barely begun in Haiti a year after its catastrophic earthquake, a leading international charity said on Wednesday in a report sharply critical of a recovery commission led by former U.S. President Bill Clinton. (REUTERS/Kena Betancur)

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A woman walks past a neighborhood in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on January 11, 2011. (REUTERS/Kena Betancur)

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Church bells from the destroyed church Ste. Rose de Lima are place in the rubble in Leogane (30 Km from Port-au-Prince) on January 8, 2011. (THONY BELIZAIRE/AFP/Getty Images)

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The ruins of the Cathedral in Port-au-Prince in January of 2011, ahead of the one year anniversary of the devastating earthquake. (THONY BELIZAIRE/AFP/Getty Images)

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A woman prays among the rubble of the damaged main cathedral in downtown Port-au-Prince, January 9, 2011. (REUTERS/Allison Shelley)

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(1 of 2) Before: The damaged Fort National neighborhood in Port-au-Prince viewed on February 24, 2010, with the national telephone company Teleco building in the background, just after the 2010 earthquake hit Haiti. (REUTERS/Carlos Barria)

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(2 of 2) After: The damaged Fort National neighborhood in Port-au-Prince seen one year later, on January 6, 2011. (REUTERS/Kena Betancur)

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(1 of 2) Before: Back in 2010, a large crowd gathers at the ruins of St. Gerard University after receiving reports of a person still alive under the rubble on February 6, 2010 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

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(2 of 2) After: The rebuilt St. Gerard University (R) and another rebuilt building are seen on January 7, 2011. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

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(1 of 2) Before: One year ago, earthquake survivors bathe and wash clothes in a stream next to destroyed homes on February 9, 2010 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

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(2 of 2) After: Haitians bathe and wash clothes in the same stream as the previous photo, on January 8, 2011. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

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In this photo, a boy takes a picture of an old woman during Art in All of Us activities at Carrefour Primary School, Carrefour, a suburb of Port-au-Prince on October 28, 2010. (© Anthony Asael/Art in All of Us/Corbis)

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. Children were playing with cameras taking pictures after school hours. One sad girl sat apart for an unknown reason and began to cry. To bring her smile back, Art in All of Us members took a picture of her and showed her the image on the back of the camera. Her smile was back and she joined the group to learn about creative photography. Photo taken in Les Orangers, a suburb of Port-au-Prince on November 12, 2010. (© Anthony Asael/Art in All of Us/Corbis)

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In Port-au-Prince, all flat lands are taken over by tents, including most school yards. When Art in All of Us arrived, there appeared to be little interaction between the children living in the school ground camps and the children enrolled in the schools. This seemed unrelated to socio-economic standing, as most children share similar backgrounds and those living in camps might go to other schools around the city. Art in All of Us members fostered more open dialogue between these groups, and it was the first time in 10 months that children in camps and schools began talking and playing. In this photo, schoolgirls play on a destroyed stone table in one of the camps in Ecole du Guatemala, Petionville, on October 29, 2010. (© Anthony Asael/Art in All of Us/Corbis)

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A Volkswagen car is seen buried under debris in Port-au-Prince January 9, 2011. (REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz)

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A man carries a slab of rock from a destroyed house in Port-au-Prince January 9, 2011. (REUTERS/Kena Betancur)

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Deaf-mute earthquake victims are seen inside their new houses donated by the International Red Cross in Port-au-Prince January 9, 2011. (REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz)

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People walk in front of the rebuilt Iron Market in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Friday, Jan. 7, 2011. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

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Beaudin Lovinsky, a 4-year-old orphan, is dropped off with his belongings in a suitcase by his uncle (left) to be placed in the Children's Foundation of Haiti orphanage, which is currently housed in makeshift tents in a tent city near the airport on January 10, 2011 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Lovinsky's mother perished in the earthquake and his uncle said he could no longer afford to take care of him. It is common for Haitian families to place children they cannot afford to care for in orphanages. The orphanage's building was damaged by the earthquake, forcing many of the orphans into tents. The orphanage has received no governmental assistance and little help from aid groups. According to the United Nations Children's Fund, Haiti was home to more than 350,000 orphans before the earthquake, with many more orphaned following the quake. UNICEF recently announced that around 380,000 Haitian children are still living in camps one year after the earthquake. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

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A cross is erected at the mass grave site atop a memorial put up by parishioners from St. Louis King France Catholic church in memory of the tens of thousands of people killed in the massive earthquake and buried in the mass grave at Titanyen on January 8, 2011 on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

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Students listen during a two hour prayer and scripture lesson at the makeshift Centre Classique de l'Humanite school on January 10, 2011 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The class dispensed with regular lessons today in order to pray ahead of the earthquake's anniversary. The original school was in a concrete building that collapsed during the earthquake, killing two students. Now the makeshift school is housed in the midst of a tent city. According to UNICEF, over half of the four million Haitian children still do not attend school. Approximately 5,000 schools were damaged by the earthquake and rebuilding has been crippled by rubble clearance and land issues. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

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A team of volunteers help in the reconstruction of the capital city on November 23rd, 2010. (© Farid Najafi)

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Dan Woolley, a U.S. citizen who survived the January 12, 2010 Haiti earthquake, prays at the site of the destroyed Hotel Montana where he was rescued, in Port-au-Prince January 9, 2011. Woolley, who was in Haiti in January 2010 to film a documentary for his Christian organization, was trapped in the rubble of the hotel for 65 hours before being found by rescuers. He told U.S. media after his rescue that he had used a first-aid app on his iPhone to stop the bleeding from his injuries. (REUTERS/st-Felix Evens)

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Sebastian Lamoth, 8, right, puts on his prosthesis at his home in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday Jan. 10, 2011. Lamoth's leg was amputated due to an injury suffered in the Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

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A group of people wait for food supplies in the Ministry of Women in Puerto Principe, January 8, 2010. Aid groups are filling a void of effective government after Haiti's earthquake, but the influx risks hampering longer-term development and is seen by some as an occupation. Pre-quake estimates for the number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working in Haiti ranged from 1,000 to 10,000 and that number has certainly swollen since. Haiti's government was notoriously dysfunctional even before disaster struck on January 12, 2010. Ministries were flattened and key infrastructure ruined as more than 220,000 lost their lives in one of the worst ever natural disasters. When the international airport was up and running again, foreign NGOs arrived in droves, stepping in to care for the injured, and the children, and working in a host of different sectors from agriculture to sanitation. (HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP/Getty Images)

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Men put the finishing touches on the newly reconstructed Iron Market, in downtown Port-au-Prince January 10, 2011. (REUTERS/Allison Shelley)

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Students gather on the grounds of the L'ecole Nationale Filles de Marie (Daughters of Mary National School) at the end of the school day January 10, 2011 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The Catholic school collapsed during the earthquake, killing 16 nuns, but no students as they had already left for the day. The school has been partially rebuilt and houses 600 students. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

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A Haitian boy cries while sleeping at a cholera treatment center of Medecins Sans Frontieres MSF (Doctors Without Borders) in Port-au-Prince January 10, 2011. (REUTERS/Jorge Silva)

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A woman walks past an earthquake damaged building Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2011 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on the eve of the first anniversary of the 2010 earthquake. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Paul Chiasson)

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A Haitian woman plays a violin as she takes part in a ceremony commemorating the first anniversary of the earthquake in Port-au-Prince January 11, 2011. (REUTERS/Kena Betancur)

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A boy plays in a refuse-clogged canal in Port-au-Prince January 9, 2011. (REUTERS/Jorge Silva)

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Achebelle Debora St. Til, 6, dances at the Festival of Hope, an evangelistic rally lead by Franklin Graham, son of evangelist Billy Graham, at a soccer stadium in downtown Port-au-Prince January 9, 2011. (REUTERS/Allison Shelley)

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A laborer uses a sledgehammer in the demolition of a destroyed building on January 5, 2011 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. (HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP/Getty Images)

A historic vote in Sudan

South Sudan, currently part of Sudan - the largest country in Africa, is holding a historic referendum this week following a 2005 peace treaty, where its citizens will decide whether to remain unified, or for South Sudan to secede and become a new nation. The 2005 treaty brought to an end decades of civil war between the Islamic north and predominantly Christian and animist south. The south is expected to vote by around 99 percent to secede from the north - which will also give it a majority of Sudan's oil. Sudan's President Omar al-Beshir has stated he would honor the vote, whatever the outcome. Should the vote to secede pass, the hard work of defining borders, working out how to share oil revenue and more will have just begun. Collected here are images of Sudanese people participating in this week's vote. (35 photos total)

A Southern Sudanese voter casts her ballot at a local polling station on the outskirts of Juba on January 09, 2011 on the first day of a week-long independence referendum expected to lead to the partition of Africa's largest nation and the creation of the world's 193rd UN member state. (ROBERTO
SCHMIDT/AFP/Getty Images)


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A group of south Sudanese people, who just arrived from Kampala, Uganda, in the bordertown of Nimule celebrate on January 9, 2011 the start of a historic referendum in Sudan. The deputy head of the South Sudan Referendum Commission, Chan Reec, hailed what he described as an unprecedented turnout in the first hours of the independence vote today. (MARC HOFER/AFP/Getty Images)

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A handout picture released by the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) on January 3, 2011 shows a UN helicopter airlifting voting materials to Tali in the central equatorial state on January 2, 2010, a week before balloting begins in Southern Sudan's long-awaited referendum on independence. (TIM MCKULKA/AFP/Getty Images)

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A Sudanese supporter of secession pastes posters upon the arrival of Sudan's President Omar al-Beshir at Juba airport on January 4, 2010. Beshir said in a speech in the southern capital that he would celebrate the result of this week's referendum "even if you choose secession." (YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP/Getty Images)

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In this photo taken Sunday, Jan. 9, 2011 men pass time at the port in Juba, southern Sudan. The barge in front of them contains the possessions of southern Sudanese who have recently returned to their home from the north. Thousands of people began casting ballots Sunday during a weeklong vote to choose the destiny of this war-ravaged and desperately poor but oil-rich region. The mainly Christian south is widely expected to secede from the mainly Muslim north, splitting Africa's largest country in two. (AP Photo/Pete Muller)

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Southern Sudanese sisters sits in a bus as they arrive in Bentiu after a three-day drive from Khartoum on January 9, 2011, on the first day of a week-long independence referendum expected to lead to the partition of Africa's largest nation and the creation of the world's 193rd UN member state. Tens of thousands of families are traveling back from the north as many believe the referendum for independence will split Africa s largest country in two. (YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP/Getty Images)

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Salva Kiir Mayardit, acting President of the Government of Southern Sudan, leaves a stadium after casting his vote during the first day of voting for the independence referendum in the southern Sudanese city of Juba January 9, 2011 in Juba, Sudan. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

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A southern Sudanese security guard stands outside a polling station in Juba as local residents queue on January 9, 2011 to vote in the first hours of a week-long independence referendum. (ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/Getty Images)

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A mother and her daughter walk to a polling station during the second day of voting for the independence referendum January 10, 2011 in Juba, Sudan. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

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A Southern Sudanese man waits with his baby in a bus bound for south Sudan in al-Analdus area in the outskirts of the capital of Khartoum on January 6, 2011, days before a referendum on independence for south Sudan. (KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/Getty Images)

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A Southern Sudanese family waves to relatives from a train to Baher Al Gazal State in South Sudan, in Khartoum January 9, 2011. Southern Sudanese are heading home to the south in such convoys, organized by humanitarian groups in the south, to ensure their vote counts in the independence referendum. (REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah)

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South Sudanese people dance, with Kenya's capital Nairobi in the background, shortly after casting their vote during the referendum January 9, 2011. Millions of South Sudanese started voting on Sunday in a long-awaited independence referendum that is expected see their war-ravaged region emerge as a new nation. (REUTERS/Noor Khamis)

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Southern Sudanese voters lean on a wall as they wait to vote at a local polling station in Juba on January 09, 2011 on the first day of a week-long independence referendum. (ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/Getty Images)

An official shows a ballot paper to a South Sudanese man living in Kenya, at a polling station in Nairobi on January 9, 2011. (SIMON MAINA/AFP/Getty Images)

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A southern Sudanese woman from Nuer tribe shows her registration card as she waits in a line outside a polling station in Bentiu, capital of oil-producing Unity state on the border with the north, to vote on January 9, 2011. Unity state was the scene of deadly clashes between the southern army and renegade militiamen in the run-up to the referendum. (YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP/Getty Images)

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Southern Sudanese women queue outside a polling station in Juba to cast their ballots on January 9, 2011. (ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/Getty Images)

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A woman places her finger in blue ink after voting during the independence referendum January 10, 2011 in Juba, Sudan. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

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Thousands of southern Sudanese line-up to vote during the first day of voting for the independence referendum in the southern Sudanese city of Juba January 9, 2011. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

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Southern Sudanese Grace Gogonya Wainu, holding pictures from Sudan, one depicting her brother-in-law fighter Scofes Loboro at left, who she says died in 2005, cries after she cast her vote for the Southern Sudan Referendum in a special polling station set up in central London, Sunday Jan. 9, 2011. The only referendum polling center in Europe was set up in UK, one of the eight countries outside Sudan with significant diaspora populations. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

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Southern Sudanese people are seen through a Southern Sudanese flag lining up to cast their votes in Juba, Southern Sudan, Sunday, Jan. 9, 2011. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

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A southern Sudanese woman participates in a day of prayer at a church before the independence referendum vote tomorrow in the southern Sudanese city of Juba January 8, 2011. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

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Heavily armed Southern Sudanese soldiers on security detail outside a polling station in the southern Sudanese capital of Juba on Sunday, Jan. 9, 2011. (AP Photo/Pete Muller)

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Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, his wife, Rosalynn, and former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan conclude a visit to a polling center the southern capital of Juba Sunday, Jan. 9, 2011. (AP Photo/Pete Muller)

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Voting officials use cable ties to secure a ballot box at the Giyada polling center on the first day of a referendum in Nyala (South Darfur) January 9, 2011. (REUTERS/Albert Gonzalez Farran/UNAMID)

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A Southern Sudanese couple dances outside a polling station in Cairo on January 9, 2011, on the first day of a week-long independence referendum. (MOHAMMED ABED/AFP/Getty Images)

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A southern Sudanese voter shows the purple ink on his index finger after voting at a polling station in the southern town of Bentiu, capital of oil-producing Unity state on the border with the north, on January 9, 2011. (YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP/Getty Images)

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A girl wipes her face while holding a jug of water on her head during the second day of voting for the independence referendum January 10, 2011 in Juba, Sudan. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

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Abeer Osman, The granddaughter of former Prime Minister and President of Sudan Ismail al-Azhari stands near the residence of al-Azhari, which is partially covered by a black cloth to protest against separation in Khartoum January 10, 2011. (REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah)

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A polling staff member leaves the polling center with a low output of Southern Sudanese voters, for a break, during the second day of the referendum in the suburb of Mandela on the outskirts of the capital Khartoum, Sudan Monday, Jan. 10, 2011. The Arabic reads "Come in with peace". (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

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A south Sudanese man carries his bow and arrows as he leaves the polling center after casting his ballot in the referendum in the rural village of Peiti, northwest of Juba, south Sudan January 10, 2011. (REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya)

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Southern Sudanese queue to vote on the first day of polling in an independence referendum in Juba January 9, 2011. (REUTERS/UNMIS/Tim McKulka)

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A southern Sudanese police officer on security detail outside a polling station in the southern Sudanese capital of Juba on Sunday, Jan. 9, 2011. (AP Photo/Pete Muller)

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A Sudanese journalist, Liza Taban, takes notes in a school turned into a polling center in Khartoum on January 10, 2011 on the second day of a landmark independence referendum. (KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/Getty Images)

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Southern Sudanese line up to vote at dawn in the southern capital of Juba Sunday, Jan. 9, 2011. (AP Photo/Pete Muller)

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A southern Sudanese woman shows her inked finger after voting at a polling center in Khartoum on January 10, 2011. (KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/Getty Images)