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"There's all kinds of speculation about what may or may not be happening."
GEORGE W. BUSH, dismissing the use of the term civil war. The U.S. President's preferred phraseology: "sectarian violence"

"Any talk of a humanitarian crisis is not true."
OMAR AL-BASHIR, President of Sudan, rejecting a U.N.-backed peacekeeping mission in war-torn Darfur. Al-Bashir maintained that fewer than 9,000 people had been killed in the conflict, instead of the 200,000 reported by international media

"To interview organizations or individuals in China, foreign journalists need only to obtain their prior consent."
ARTICLE 6 of China's Regulations on Reporting Activities in China by Foreign Journalists During the Beijing Olympic Games and the Preparatory Period, a new set of rules lifting the requirement that foreign journalists get government permission before reporting trips

"Once we spread out into space ... our future should be safe."
STEPHEN HAWKING, British physicist, on the necessity of expansion to other planets for the long-term survival of the human race

"We prefer chubby men, of course, ideally with a real beard, but we're not picky and take what we get."
RENE HEYDECK, director of a Berlin agency that employs Santa Clauses to hand-deliver presents; Heydeck said Berlin faces a shortage of qualified Santas this year