He explains that despite their differences the plane crash in Russia is "a great loss for the nation, which will be difficult to overcome."

VOA: standard.2010.04.10

Cigarette taxes are a vital revenue source for New York State, which has the highest-priced cigarettes in the nation - almost $15 a pack.

VOA: standard.2010.08.11

The government forecasts a 61 percent jump in gross ticket sales this year, which could turn the nation's new silver screens into boxoffice gold.

VOA: standard.2010.07.06

Lawmakers in Sierra Leone are preparing to join a seven-nation charter to protect the region's mangrove ecosystem which conservationists now say totals just 800,000 hectares.

VOA: standard.2010.03.29

Passing through the Navajo Nation, one sees tiny,isolated cabins and a few traditional hogans, which are log-and mud structures whose doorways face the morning sun.

VOA: standard.2010.03.22

"It is not the absence of crisis. It is the manner in which the crisis is going to be met and resolved that defines a nation,"

VOA: standard.2009.08.27

The U.S.and Iran are entangled in a dispute over the Persian Gulf nation's nuclear program, which the United States contends is a cover for developing weapons.

VOA: standard.2009.03.21

The United Nations Security Council later imposed sanctions on Pyongyang, which have impeded its efforts to sell conventional weapons abroad, a major source of income for the cash-strapped nation.

VOA: standard.2009.12.08

"The nation of Estonia was brutally attacked through cyber activity, where there was a directed denial of service through flooding that nation, which is very digitally advanced, with 5,000 e-mails a second,".

VOA: standard.2009.08.11

"Pakistan is a nation which could either serve as a force for stability and progress in a volatile region, or it could become the epicenter for radicalism and violence on a cataclysmic scale,".

VOA: standard.2009.05.04