But specialists in the region say he is to be commended for deciding to reach out across the Pacific.

VOA: standard.2009.11.12

The surrounding region is turning out to be a treasure trove for archeologists, anthropologists and speleologists, or cave explorers.

VOA: standard.2009.12.14

"That is also the reason that some of these al-Qaida functionaries may have been kicked out of that region to other areas of Pakistan."

VOA: standard.2009.03.19

Pakistani media broadcast footage of thousands of people walking out of the Lower Dir region, fleeing helicopter gunship attacks and artillery strikes against Taliban militants accused of attacking security forces.

VOA: standard.2009.04.27

Regional experts say the Afghan Taliban was able to rise to power in the 1990s after the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan and the United States largely pulled out of the region.

VOA: standard.2010.07.20

The arrests in Swat are the latest blow for the Taliban insurgents in Pakistan whose chief commander Baitullah Mehsud was killed in a suspected U.S missile attack on his hide out in the South Waziristan region near the Afghan border.

VOA: standard.2009.09.11

The author acknowledges that after nine years of large-scale U.S.military involvement in the Middle East, and with the nation's economic difficulties bearing down on them, many Americans feel the temptation to pull the U.S.strong horse out of the region.

VOA: standard.2010.03.18

Already the region's poorest country, Haiti was battered by four successive hurricanes last year that wiped out about 15 percent of the country's economic output and further damaged roads and other elements of an already weak infrastructure.

VOA: standard.2009.04.14

(OMITTED) It's still low prevalence, but you know we've just put out the synthesis report, which was an epidemiological study of HIV and its evolution in the region, and the report says that probably, at least for the near future, we'll never have an epidemic of HIV in the region.

VOA: standard.2010.07.07

The national reports clearly, from 20 countries out of the 21 countries in the region, Iraq was the only country that could not report, for understandable reasons - all 20 countries have shown that they have weak programs, weak surveillance, and that the coverage is very,very poor.

VOA: standard.2010.07.07