The members of the group, which includes an urbane young doctor, a vain and verbose prosecutor, a Gogol-esque clerk with a laptop computer, and a punctilious military officer standing guard, grow increasingly irritable as they slog through lonely and uninviting terrain.

NEWYORKER: Once Upon a Time in Anatolia

Many Arab governments, including Egypt's, had come to regard Salafism, with its focus on Sunni orthodoxy and punctilious personal piety, as a useful foil to the more politically engaged pan-Islamism of groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood.

ECONOMIST: The authorities want to control the airwaves��if they can

He was as punctilious about his honour, as fine a horseman and as deep in debt as any of them.

ECONOMIST: George Washington

Williams was finally reported missing by a co-worker August 23, more than a week after the normally punctilious employee had last shown up at work.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS