In the Netherlands, it is illegal to explode firecrackers in the weeks before New Year's Day.

VOA: special.2009.03.03

Then,in the final weeks before election day, the situation began to change.

VOA: special.2010.07.01

The upsurge in violence came a day before the first anniversary of the Gaza War,in which more than 1,100 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed.

VOA: standard.2009.12.26

Many shoppers were out in force in New York on Thursday, the day before Christmas.

VOA: standard.2009.12.28

Abbas says this is why the military continues to lift curfews a few hours a day in some places to allow civilians to flee before troops take more aggressive action.

VOA: standard.2009.05.12

The onslaught of worrisome news is creating an investor climate similar to a brief panic that erupted on May 6, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged by 1000 points before bouncing back later in the day, according to UBS Financial Services market analyst Art Cashin.

VOA: standard.2010.05.20

"I guess it was a process of waking up to what I was actually doing and just as I am helping set up all these memorials out here, I think back to some of the things that were part of my day to day life in the military even before I got to Iraq, just how some of our battle cries would be things like kill them all."

VOA: standard.2010.03.20