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By Syed M.Aslam
June 11 - 17, 2001

*** "WE JUST BLEW it all up. We don't know if there were women and children or whatever, we just blew them up."

(Former US Marine Steve Judd describing indiscriminate killings of Japanese by the Allied troops in the Pacific during the Second World War)

*** "They see black people as lazy, basically dishonest, thieving, corrupt. Poverty in this country is defined by colour."

(South African President Thabo Mbeki talking about the stereotyping of black by country's white minority)

*** "DOWN WITH POLITICIANS. Their pockets are filled with relief money. We curse them."

(Angry earthquake survivors protesting the slow pace of reconstruction five months after the devastation during Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's visit to Bhuj)

*** "I SENT WASTI back to the dressing room with a broken hand the day after his wedding and he wasn't seen again on the cricket field. That's the way we Yorkies are."

( Most popular English Cricketer, Darren Gough, talking about putting Pakistani opener Wajahatullah Wasti on his 'hit-list' for offending him by strutting around as if he was Viv Richards' when England were in Lahore in 1999 and extracting the sweet revenge the following year on Pakistani turf)

*** "IT IS COMPLETELY wrong that the United States must be the mediator in this conflict. Everybody knows the United States is a friend of Israel."

(Former South African president Nelson Mandela saying that the US can not play the role of a peacemaker in the Middle East as it is not neutral and instead should join Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Britain and France to mediate a settlement)

*** "ACCORDING TO some estimates, up to $ 100 billion have recently been laundered in just one single year."

(Head of the UN Office of Drug Control and Crime Prevention, Pino Arlacchi, urging Russia to step up fight against crimes related to dirty money adding that up to $ 3 trillion worth of 'criminal cash' is laundered through the world banking system each year)

*** "THIS IS A NOBLE ACT that really, really touched us. We are very surprised yesterday to find out the identity of the donor."

(Father of Israeli heart transplant beneficiary Yigal Cohen on learning that his son owes his life to the heart of Palestinian, Mazen Joulani, who was allegedly killed Jewish settlers in Occupied Jerusalem)

*** "YES, I'VE HEARD of the rumours too but I can't say for sure if the United States, or the European Union for that matter, can have officially extended such assurances to either Pakistan or India."

(Unnamed US diplomat commenting on rumours that Pakistan's Chief Executive General Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee have been assured backing for joint Nobel Peace Prize nomination if they manage to find a mutually acceptable deal over Kashmir)

*** "MY COMPUTERS will be as clever as 1,000 Einsteins."

(Professor of artificial intelligence at Scotland's Aberdeen University, Peter Vas, who is also the course director of the world's first chess doctorate which hopes to develop supercomputers capable of beating the greatest of grandmasters)

*** "I'M NOT FRIGHTENED of failure. I'm frightened of standing still."

(Rock star and actor Jon Bon Jovi commenting on the 'challenge' to address the famed Oxford Union debating society)