*** "RAMADAN BRINGS GOD'S blessings with it. We've got God and we accept His will. We thank Him for everything."

(An Iraqi woman expressing joy at the advent of the holy month of fasting Ramadan amidst economic hardships and shadow of war in a country reeling from low basic monthly of $ 5 where a kilogram of meat costs 2 dollars)

*** "WE COMMITTED collective suicide."

(Turkish prime minister Bulent Ecevit commenting on the outcome of the elections which routed the old ruling class, including his own party, bringing Islamist Justice and Development Party in power with sweeping majority winning 363 of total 550 seats in the parliament)

*** "DEFINITELY NOT. He belongs to the people of Halifax who took care of him for 90 years."

(Magda Schleifer, an elderly relative of young Titanic victim, saying that she would not take his remains with her to his native Finland. DNA testing shows that "Unknown Child" buried in Halifax in 1912 was 13-month-old Eino Panula who perished alongwith his mother and four other siblings)

*** "EVERYONE KNEW she wanted to marry him but he felt it would be impossible... Perhaps this is why she wanted to become a Muslim. She said she had made a decision that would shock the world."

(Family of heart surgeon Dr Hasnat Khan expressing anger at the selling of secrets of the relation between him and late Princess Diana by her butler)

*** "AUSTRALIA is just as unsafe as the other Asean countries. In fact ... Australia is particularly unsafe for Muslims because they are likely to have their houses raided..."

(Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Muhammmad criticising Australian authorities for targeting Muslim population in the country. He also rejected Australian government's travel warnings to Asian nations, particularly those members of Association of Southeast Asian Nations-Asean)

*** "THEY WERE TOOLS, they were used by senior military and politicians..."

(Defence lawyer commenting on the ruling giving by a military court that convicted 15 soldiers of mutiny in Fiji in 2000)

*** "I'M THE ACTION HERO in the movies and I want to be in real life. I want to create action for the children rather than talk from here to eternity about these things."

(Hollywood's super action hero, Arnold Schwarzenegger, expressing pleasure that his proposition had won the blessing of the majority of voters in California. He scored his first political victory when the scheme he championed to keep children off the streets was adopted by 55 per cent of the voters. The after-school care scheme is $ 455 million a year a project)

*** "BE CAREFUL Paul. There are powers at work in this country about which we have no knowledge. Nobody, Paul, has been as close to a member of my family as you have."

(Butler of late Princess Diana, Paul Burrell recalling his meeting with Queen Elizabeth two months after Princess's death. He claimed that he told the Queen he was keeping some of the Princess's possessions and now claims he is scared of the veiled threat given by the Queen)

*** "WE SACRIFICED a lot for this water. Many people died, and many went to prison and lost their homes."

(A Lebanese villager expressing joy at his government's decision to pump water from a spring which was occupied by Israel for 22 years. The Wazzani Spring which has started a water row with Israel will supply water to 60 villages)

*** "DON'T TELL me God doesn't have a sense of humour."

(Winner of Pound Sterling 10 million Britain's National Lottery Michael Carrol, a 19-year-old repeat offender who wears an electronic tag because of a court-imposed curfew)

*** "IRAQ, NORTH KOREA, RUSSIA AND FRANCE."

(Four countries named by The Washington Post having secret stocks of smallpox virus according to a confidential US government intelligence review)