After the first post-dictatorship democratic elections in 1999, 12 of the northern Muslim states adopted sharia law, putting an enormous strain on the unity of a Nigerian state that had previously been run only under the secular, civil law bequeathed to it by British colonial rulers.

ECONOMIST: Nigeria

They were the descendants of a Florida strain transplanted to the Golden State's reservoirs in 1959, a tinkering with nature that filled "a perfect, though man-made, niche, " explains Chris G.

FORBES: Magazine Article

State and federal officials said both men were affected by the same strain of the bacteria.

CNN: Sources: Anthrax possibly linked to lab

It is therefore hardly surprising that the state faith of Saudi Arabia - Wahhabism - has become the most dynamic ideological strain of Islamism in Sub-Saharan Africa, given that the Ministry of Islamic Affairs reportedly receives more money for activity in Africa than does the Foreign Ministry.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Securing Africa

And you will understand, too, that to charge him with perjury for having testified falsely about his own state of mind, with nothing more to rely on than a picture, would strain credulity in any prosecutor's office and fly past the binds of constitutional reason in this chamber.

CNN: Transcript: White House Counsel Ruff's opening statement