"It's more like a refuge area for extremists who don't want to be hit in Mali, " the official said.

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Elizabeth Arnold has just returned from the refuge area.

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The tented refuge includes a living area furnished with a central warming stove, fur rugs, a library and maps of the South Pole in tribute to early Victorian explorers.

BBC: Camp with penguins in Antarctica

They include the Chandeleur Islands and Gulf Islands National Seashore areas in Louisiana and Mississippi, along with the Active Delta area in Louisiana, which includes Delta Island National Wildlife Refuge and the Pass-a-Loutre Wildlife Management Area.

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Until the 1880s, it was an area of scattered farms and untrammelled forests that were a refuge for runaway slaves.

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The study area extends from the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska on the west and through the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on the east.

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