The 15 km-wide strip will run 55 km from the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur to the new international airport at Sepang near the Negri Sembilan state border.

CNN: The Center of the World?

The problem in making the case for high-speed rail in California is that, though it is the most populous state in the union, there are simply not enough people packed into the 50-mile wide coastal strip that wends its way 350 miles from Los Angeles to San Francisco.

ECONOMIST: High-speed trains

Campaigners say that one track south of Sky Hill has a strip of damage as wide as a four-lane motorway.

BBC: Motorbikes 'obliterating' tracks says environmentalist

Valarmadhy inches forward, using small tools to clear a strip 1m (40in) wide, digging down to 6in - the accepted safety depth - to ensure there are no mines between herself and the nearest visible mine.

BBC: The women clearing Sri Lanka's mines

Galilee, the northernmost part of Israel, is a strip of land about 40 miles wide sandwiched between southern Lebanon, now controlled by Hezbollah, and the northern West Bank, now controlled by Yasir Arafat's Palestinian Authority.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Center For Security Policy

In the U.S., the Yemeni refugees are being settled in Monsey, a suburban enclave of ultraorthodox Jews, lined with strip malls that sell black coats and wide-rimmed hats worn by Hasidic men.

WSJ: Secret Mission Rescues Yemen's Jews

The stretch from the old US airbase of Khe Sanh north to Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park is a beauty, including a wide section that was apparently a secret jungle landing strip for MIG fighters during the war.

BBC: Motorbiking in Southeast Asia

Togo is a strip of a nation that averages about 60 miles wide, nestled between Benin and Ghana in West Africa.

CNN: Assistant coach among dead in attack on Togo team

The Jordan Valley - most of which lies within the eastern strip of the West Bank - is about 120km long (75 miles) and 15km wide.

BBC: Middle East