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By Syed M.Aslam
Sep 04 - 10, 2000

*** "I CANNOT HELP IT. I am a kleptomaniac."

(Andrea Siben Robin, a 37-year-old New York millionaire and former wife of a prominent US politician, who was twice caught shoplifting in Italy)

*** "BASED ON THE plausible upper and lower bounds of the operating practices at the reactor, Israel could have produced enough plutonium for at least 100 nuclear weapons, bur probably not significantly more than 200 weapons."

(Federation of American Scientists' commenting on the high resolution pictures taken last month of the secret Israeli reactor at Dimona)

*** "THE NAVY IS HIDING the reason for the explosion, and delayed the rescue so that none of the crew members would be alive to say why the Kursk sank."

(Defence correspondent for Russian newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets, Viktor Sokirko, on the sinking of the pride of Russian Navy nuclear submarine)

*** "BOTH OF YOU are running for president, but you can't run from us. If you want us (to vote for you), you have to come to us and address our concerns."

(New York black activist, Reverend Al Sharpton, speaking at a rally commemorating Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King's most famous speech 'I have a dream'. He asked the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates to reach out to minorities)

*** "I KNEW British taxpayers' money was being used to pay for the [attempted] assassination of Colonel Gaddafi which had gone wrong, and killed innnocent Libyan civilians."

(Former agent of British intelligence agency MI5 David Shyler accusing the agency of incompetitiveness and inefficiency. He was arrested on return to Britain after remaining a fugitive in France for the whistle-blowing)

*** "EVEN IF THIS CASE shakes the nation to its very foundations, it must still be solved, no matter how high it may go."

(Taiwan's first opposition president Chen Shui-bian vowing to re-open the investigation of murder of Captain Yin Ching-feng seven years ago for uncovering a corruption ring within the military)

*** "THEY CALL AUSTRALIA 'the lucky country.' But it is only lucky for some. I can hear the sound of mourning everywhere."

(Australian Aboriginal poet Archie Roach, one of thousands of Aborigines who alongwith two brothers and 3 sisters was taken from his family by the government 42 years ago in the name of assimilation. Aborigines are vowing to raise the issue of 'stolen generation' during the Sydney Olympics and demanding 'answers and apologies' from the government)

*** "*** "THE HOUSE would be so much emptier without the laughter of children. How miserable we would be if we have no children to look after us when we grow old and weak."

(Singapore premier Goh Chok Tong announcing monetary incentives to encourage couples to have children. The incentives are part of $ 1.86 billion plan aimed at stemming declining birth rates)

*** "WE HAVE MADE sacrifices to build the peace of the brave. But that doesn't mean we will accept concessions on any of our rights on our occupied territory and, above all, on Jerusalem."

(Palestinian President Yasser Arafat speaking at the meeting of foreign ministers from 16 Muslim countries ahead of September 13 deadline of what could be a unilateral declaration of Palestinian state)

*** "THIS IS NOT SOME slow, controlled change we're talking about. It's fast, it's unpredictable and it's unprecedented during human civilization."

(Co-author of World Wide Fund For Nature Report Adam Markham warning that a third of the world's habitat is under threat of 'disappearance or change beyond recognition' from global warming)

*** "TO PEOPLE FROM THE WEST I may seem a contradiction. But I have never felt that this veil — this purdah — has been a hardship to my work."

(Asiyah Andrabi, a US-based Kashmiri woman described as conservative Muslim and a radical feminist suspected by the intelligence agents as a conduit for money to the freedom fighters, saying that veil is no obstacle to Jihad. Arrested several times by Indian occupational forces, she wants her sons to Mujahideen)