Simmons helped identify one of the highest-ranking Cuban spies in recent history, Ana Belen Montes who worked at the Defense Intelligence Agency.

VOA: standard.2009.06.06

Israel said it did not intend to embarrass Biden, the highest-ranking Obama administration official to visit the region.

VOA: standard.2010.03.11

New York Congressman Peter King, the ranking Republican on the Homeland Security Committee, was briefed by intelligence officials shortly after the plane landed.

VOA: standard.2009.12.26

Howard McKeon,ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, questioned why, if the facility was designed for civilian purposes, Iran concealed its existence.

VOA: standard.2009.09.25

Last month, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Bisa Williams became the highest-ranking U.S.official to visit Cuba in several years.

VOA: standard.2009.10.28

Ranking Republican member, Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama, accused the Obama administration of not have having a well-conceived plan for the country's banks.

VOA: standard.2009.05.20

In Transparency International's just-released 2009 survey of world corruption, Afghanistan was only one step above the bottom rung,ranking 179th out of 180 countries surveyed.

VOA: standard.2009.11.17

Thein Sein is the highest ranking Burmese official to attend the General Assembly in 14 years.

VOA: standard.2009.09.29

"Everyone is equal before the law." Selebi is one of the highest ranking officials in South Africa to be convicted of misuse of office.

VOA: standard.2010.08.03

If proved,that would make him the lowest-ranking person to go on trial for Nazi war crimes.

VOA: standard.2009.11.30

Brossel says if the environment for media does not improve quickly Thailand's ranking will drop further.

VOA: standard.2010.07.06

Opponents of the president's plan expressed outrage at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Thursday, led by ranking member, Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona.

VOA: standard.2009.09.24

There have even been high-ranking government officials arrested for taking bribes from drug traffickers.

VOA: standard.2009.12.18

Joseph Nye is an influential foreign policy expert and former high-ranking Clinton administration official.

VOA: standard.2009.11.03

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday said he hopes the flurry of visits by high-ranking U.S.officials will help re-launch the peace negotiations as soon as possible.

VOA: standard.2009.10.30

Writer and journalist Mark Danner is not saying - how the 2007 International Committee of the Red Cross document,meant only for high-ranking Bush administration officials, came into his possession.

VOA: standard.2009.03.23

McCain,the Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, was asked whether the timeline for withdrawing U.S.combat forces from Iraq within the next year might need to be revised in the wake of the latest attacks.

VOA: standard.2009.10.26

The Obama administration has made no move to prosecute former high ranking Bush administration officials for torture, but has left open the possibility of charging anyone who exceeded Bush-era guidelines on the treatment of terror suspects.

VOA: standard.2009.08.24

The Pakistan aid bill, co-sponsored by Democrat Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry and ranking Republican Richard Lugar, is aimed at regularizing a civilian aid relationship that has fluctuated over the years depending on events in Pakistan.

VOA: standard.2009.09.24

Among several members of Congress at the event was the ranking Republican member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who stressed the fact that an estimated 80 percent of trafficking victims are women and half are children.

VOA: standard.2009.06.16

Now that the decision has been made to move forward with what the review called an "integral" part of U.S.defenses, the second ranking U.S.military officer, General James Cartwright, says the American military commands will spend some time figuring out how to use the various aspects of the system in their regions.

VOA: standard.2010.03.26

Ileana Ros Lehtinen is the ranking committee Republican "It should be clear that unless we impose the maximum pressure on Iran, and this bill is a major step forward in that direction, the regime will continue its march toward acquiring nuclear weapons, dominating the Persian Gulf, and expanding its network of radical militants around the world,".

VOA: standard.2009.10.28