Just last week,the Commerce Department reported an unexpected drop in December in the number of housing starts by builders.

VOA: special.2011.01.24

He points to a big drop in the number of planned job cuts announced by employers over the past six months.

VOA: special.2010.07.02

Without new treatments, the WHO said, the number of new cancer patients could increase to 27 million a year by 2030.

VOA: special.2009.01.13

It will do that,he says, by reducing the cost of computers and increasing the number of people who search the Internet.

VOA: special.2009.07.17

The delegates in Rome promised to continue efforts to reduce by half the number of hungry people by two thousand fifteen.

VOA: special.2009.11.23

Human rights groups and witnesses say at least one hundred fifty-seven people were killed, a number disputed by the military government.

VOA: special.2009.10.24

He vetoed a number of programs that he thought interfered with rights given to the states by the Constitution.

VOA: special.2010.01.28

Without new treatments,the W.H.O.says, the number of new cancer patients could reach twenty-seven million a year by two thousand thirty.

VOA: special.2009.03.02

One of the Millennium Development Goals is to reduce by half the number of people living in extreme poverty by twenty fifteen.

VOA: special.2010.04.26

He was surprised by the large number of busy people in the subway who stopped to listen.

VOA: special.2009.07.31

The Global Polio Eradication Initiative says the number has fallen by ninety-nine percent since nineteen eighty eight.

VOA: special.2010.01.18

And it expects that number to increase to forty-five billion dollars by the end of this year, even with the current economic downturn.

VOA: special.2009.02.23

And Amelia was shocked by the number of wounded soldiers sent home from the fighting in France.

VOA: special.2010.05.26

The number of smokers is expected to grow to one billion seven hundred million by twenty twenty-five.

VOA: special.2010.03.09