His three-year stint seemed harsh.

FORBES: Lauryn Hill Jail Time---What's A Fair Tax Sentence?

Pretty harsh punishment for a three-month dalliance.

FORBES: An Affair to Remember

Three years ago they beat back a harsh takeover attempt by Simon Property.

FORBES: Shopping For Bargains

These novels, fairy tales, comic strips and storybooks offer Haitian children from three to 17 a welcome distraction from the harsh reality of their immediate surroundings and an opportunity to read despite the destruction of many libraries.

UNESCO: Education

The visitors' response was to throw in a series of harsh challenges that earned them a rash of three yellow cards in 15 minutes.

BBC: Last-gasp Leeds sink Spartak

Schoener ferments the juice right along with the grape skins for three weeks, extracting every last flavor out of them--pleasant and harsh alike--then ages the fermented juice in new oak barrels for 10 months.

FORBES: Ten Independence Day Wines

So the 44-year-old, who says his peers' evaluations were somewhat harsh, recently rejoined the local gym, where he heads after work at least three days a week to run on the treadmill, cycle or stretch.

WSJ: Want to Be CEO? What's Your BMI?

Ordinary Nigerians, fed up with being robbed and bullied by their leaders, would probably like to see harsh punishments for the old regime, but Mr Obasanjo, a former political prisoner himself (he served three years of a 15-year sentence for allegedly plotting a coup against Abacha before the tyrant's death set him free), is inclined to be gentle.

ECONOMIST: A survey of Nigeria