"I define success as the ability to empower and transfer responsibility to Afghans as rapidly as possible, and achieve a sufficient level of stability to ensure that we can leave behind an Afghanistan that is not controlled by al-Qaida or the Taliban,".

VOA: standard.2009.10.26

Word that pop idol Michael Jackson had died spread rapidly through New York City, as stunned residents sent text messages and emails to inform friends of the news.

VOA: standard.2009.06.27

The hum of the spinning blades is the sound of China going green as it seeks to address the growing energy demands of its rapidly modernizing consumer society and fast-paced industrialization.

VOA: standard.2010.08.03

The H1N1 virus, which is commonly known as swine flu, has spread rapidly around the world since emerging in North America earlier this year, yet still much of what makes it so potent a threat remains a mystery.

VOA: standard.2009.08.25

"What we are seeing is that the aid effort is beginning to scale up. We are all frustrated by the fact that there is not as much aid on the streets as anybody would like, but I think you will see that effort scaling up very rapidly,".

VOA: standard.2010.01.18

"because the virus can spread rapidly, but what we're seeing so far is a pretty stable position as far as the virus is concerned, it's producing relatively mild illness in most people, but in a small proportion it's causing serious problems and we have in place the plans in our health care system to deal with those problems,".

VOA: standard.2009.07.31