VERBATIM
"I'll be in Jamaica on the 29th. I'm giving advance notice to all those organizations of assassins."
FIDEL CASTRO, Cuban President, joking before his Caribbean tour about his belief that the CIA and the Cuban-American National Foundation have tried for decades to bring him down
"I have much to learn about my golf game. I hit stupid shots many times."
PAK SE RI, South Korean rookie, after winning her third big tournament in four weeks
"Wrap this sucker up."
PATRICK LEAHY, U.S. Senator from Vermont, on the investigation of President Clinton
"When so many cabinet ministers are in their 40s, junior ministers in their 50s have a short shelf life."
TONY WORTHINGTON, 56-year-old ex-junior minister, after British Prime Minister Tony Blair fired him and many others in a cabinet reshuffle

WINNERS

LARRY COCKELL
Forget the headlines and the buzz. Starr's Secret Service witness is just glad to be back at work

UNITED AUTO WORKERS
GM may still cut jobs and costs, but the union's 54-day strike showed that won't be easy

JACK MARSHALL
He paid $100 in 1994 to register www.altavista.com. Now he sells...for $3.35 million

& LOSERS

MARIO ZAGALLO
Brazil loses the World Cup, and its coach loses soccer's plum job. No thanks for those memories

PRINCE JEFRI
The Brunei royal is fired from his post watching the Sultan's money. More time for polo?

VOLKSWAGEN
It pays $790 million for Rolls Royce, but rival BMW owns the priceless name

NUMBERS

330,000: The number of species in the order of coleoptera--beetles. Scientists attribute this diversity to the insects' inordinate fondness for leaves.

53 million: The worldwide estimate of unwanted pregnancies that are terminated by surgical abortion annually.

$24 billion: The cost of natural disasters in the first half of 1998, more than the total for the whole of 1997. More than 20,000 people have died.

1,060: The number of Britons seeking emergency hospital treatment each year for being caught in zippers.

718 K: The temperature of Hell, which scientists have calculated from the lake described in Revelation 21:8 "which burneth with fire and brimstone" as just below the boiling point of sulfur.

$10.9 million: The sum paid in compensation to Britons wrongly convicted or charged with crimes in 1997-8.

30%: The proportion of comic books and magazines published in Japan.

1.1 billion: The number of letters posted within countries every day worldwide. In addition, 25 million items of mail are sent to foreign addresses daily.

72.2: The percentage of National Academy Scientists who do not believe in God. In 1914 the figure was 52.7%.

Sources: Science(1 & 2); Nature; U.K. Consumer Accident Department; Physics Today; U.K. Home Office; Financial Times; Universal Postal Union; Nature