The crowd outside the courthouse watched anxiously as one by one, each with a canvas-covered bed, backed up to a courtroom door and, out of the view of onlookers, deposited handcuffed defendants for a brief appearance before a judge.

VOA: standard.2009.05.25

(Test) While the United Nations has backed away from its hope of having a legally-binding treaty come out of Copenhagen, it still believes a serious agreement can be reached that will lead the way to a legally-binding one next year.

VOA: standard.2009.12.09

Mr.Ban welcomed President Hamid Karzai's announcement Tuesday that he would accept a runoff with his closest rival, Abdullah Abdullah, after the U.N.-backed audit of the August 20 vote found nearly a quarter of all votes were fraudulent and had to be thrown out.

VOA: standard.2009.10.20