*** "WE THINK Saddam is dangerous but President Bush is more dangerous."

(About 50,000 protestors gathered in New York's Central Park to denounce possible US attacks on Iraq)

*** "WE WILL RESTRAIN ourselves from confrontation. But we will not allow American bases on our land, nor will we let American system or Western culture."

(Leader of coalition of religious parties MMA, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, commenting on the convincing lead in the recent polls)

*** "... in the future the government of Saudi Arabia may start requiring American citizens to be finger-printed as part of their visa or entry process."

(New visa policy announced by the Saudi government for Americans)

*** "THERE CAN be no serious response to an irresponsible statement like that."

(US President Bush's spokesman Ari Fleischer rejecting Bush-Saddam duel to resolve the standoff between the two countries)

*** "WHEN COLIN POWELL dares to suggest something other than what the master wants to hear, he will be turned back out to pasture."

(Veteran singing star, Harry Belafonte, criticising Secretary of State Colin Powell for 'being a house slave who gave up his principles to come into the house of the master. Belafonte, like Powell, is of Jamaican descent)

*** "THIRTY-THREE per cent of women were obese compared to 28 per cent of men."

(Findings of study saying that Americans are overfed, big and getting bigger)

*** "WE ARE HERE to tell President Bush that if he is really serious about getting rid of weapons of mass destruction, he should immediately lift sanctions that have killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis."

(One of about a dozen of US activists who donated blood in a demonstration calling for lifting of economic sanctions against Iraq and also donated blood on cots near US Interests Section of the Polish Embassy in Baghdad)

*** "THEY WON'T go along with it, but it's unclear how they'll express their disagreement."

(Un-named Arab diplomat saying that US strike on Iraq would make Saudi Arabia face a no-win situation)

*** "IS DICTATORSHIP problem confined to Iraq... Who helped Iraq to acquire chemical weapons?

(Iran's former president Hashemi Rafsanjani blaming the West for helping Iraq acquire weapons of mass destruction)

*** "UN RESOLUTIONS should also apply to the Palestinian-Israel conflict... to emphasise a commitment to the Middle East peace process in order to assuage the fear, or claims... that we operate a double standard."

(British Prime Minister Tony Blair saying that UN resolutions should not apply to Iraq alone but are also to Israel. He was speaking at the annual conference of his ruling Labour Party)

*** "$ 28 billion"

(Award ordering tobacco giant Philip Morris to pay damages in a smoking-related lawsuit to a cancer victim by a jury in California)

*** "YES, PEOPLE may be smuggling things in their shoes, but searching the shoes of 200 people is not the right thing to do."

(Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed alluding to a search made by the US immigration authorities in Los Angeles on his deputy, Ahmad Abdullah Badawi, who was on his way to New York to address the United Nations)

*** "MY AGE doesn't worry me a bit. I am looking forward to bringing a bit of fresh air into German politics... It is hightime that adults under 22 were represented in government so that they can decide on policies that affect young people."

(Nineteen-year-old Anna Luhrmann, the youngest MP ever sit in a German parliament)

*** "THE PROGRAMME includes the paper reader, the net reader, the screen reader, the e-mail reader as well as tutorials..."

(Media and editorial manager of a Dubai-based software house which has developed a software that helps blind use internet)