Around the world, oil-rich countries guard their resources jealously.
Many leaders of former Soviet countries guard their power jealously, blocking independent news media and political opposition.
Many major oil-producing countries guard information about their output as state secrets, and regard leaks as breaches of national security.
Few countries guard their linguistic heritage as jealously as France, and defend it so vigorously from foreign threats - such as the growing worldwide influence of English.
Since then he has spent a total of almost three years in Dolpo, which he rhapsodically describes as a "hidden country, guarding the inviolate heart of Tibet".
Indeed, the pristine slopes facing Highway 1, a designated American National Scenic Byway, are some of the most rigidly protected in the country, guarded by a phalanx of agencies that range from the Monterey County Resource Management Agency to the California Coastal Commission.
Civic groups and Mr. Tsvangirai's party both deployed thousands of election observers around the country, guarding against chicanery at the polls and making sure that the votes were counted openly and the tallies were posted in public view.
They returned two of the top players in the country, guard Ben Gordon and center Emeka Okafor, from a team that advanced last season to the Round of 16, and they have added another impact player in Charlie Villanueva, a freshman forward.
They appear at makeshift checkpoints throughout the country, guarding the perimeter of hospitals and airports, and persecute their rivals under the guise of "neighborhood watches". Perhaps most troubling, since the Shiite-led government came to power last May, militia members have entered the Iraqi Army and police forces en masse.
"Following President Shevardnadze's proposal, our two countries' border guards will increase their cooperation to a level which will include joint patrolling along the border," Mr. Putin said in a joint news conference.
