The shooting has strained tense relations between the Texas authorities and the Mexican government.
Blue Nile State lies along the disputed border between Sudan and the newly independent Republic of South Sudan, and the violence there could further strain the tense relationship between the two Sudans, which have yet to agree on how to share profits from South Sudan's oil.
And so Turkey is at a critical juncture in its much-criticised Syria policy - failure to intervene in Kobane could feed spiralling protests, strain already tense relations with Washington and sound the death knell for long-lasting peace with the Kurds.
Monday's police announcement identifying the assailant as an Israeli citizen sent shock waves through Jewish and Bedouin communities in Israel's south, where efforts to coexist persist amid various challenges, and threatened to strain already tense relations between Israeli Jews and Arabs elsewhere.
The Syrian Kurdish issue has further strained already tense relations between the Iraqi central government and Kurdistan.
The recent shooting of 16 Afghan civilians and the arrest of an American soldier has further strained a tense relationship between Afghanistan and the United States.
The raid also strained already tense relations with Israel's long-time Muslim ally Turkey, the unofficial sponsor of the mission, and drew more attention to the plight of Gaza's 1.5 million people.
ROME — A political storm unleashed by the whirlwind expulsion of a dissident Kazakh oligarch's wife and daughter has further strained the tense relations within the coalition parties of Italy's fragile government.
South Korea has pledged support of the United States' new sanctions on North Korea, which came this week in response to the high-profile cyber attack on Sony Pictures that has further strained already tense US-North Korea relations.
However, the incident strained already-tense relations between the UK and Iran following the Iranian Revolution.
There is concern in India that the tit-for-tat prisoner attacks could put a strain on already tense relations between the two countries.
