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'A non-smelly durian is like a thornless rose. It's really cutting out the soul.'
BOB HALLIDAY, Bangkok-based food writer, on a Thai scientist's development of an odorless variety of durian, a popular Asian fruit so pungent it is banned from some airlines and hotels

'I'm not saying that we should take a foreign-policy stance; I'm saying it's not a good place to invest our money.'
JOEL ANDERSON, California assemblyman, about a bill he wrote that would ban the state's investment in Iran. When he introduced the bill in January, he called Iran's finances 'the mother's milk of terrorism'

'A year ago, my approval rating was in the 30s, my nominee for the Supreme Court had just withdrawn, and my Vice President had shot someone. Ah, those were the good ol' days.'
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH, in a lighthearted address at the Radio and Television Correspondents' Association dinner

'It was just a noise like an underground explosion. The wave came almost instantaneously. Everything that was standing is flattened.'
DOROTHY PARKINSON, resident of the Solomon Islands, where a tsunami, triggered by an offshore earthquake measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale, killed over two dozen people and forced thousands to flee their homes

'Oppression is sin and cannot be compromised with. It must be overcome. God takes sides with the oppressed.'
PASTORAL LETTER written by Zimbabwe's powerful Catholic Bishops' Conference, which condemned President Robert Mugabe's government as 'racist, corrupt and lawless'

'A 'military victory,' in the sense of total control over the whole territory imposed on the entire population, is not possible.'
HENRY KISSINGER, U.S. diplomat who served as Secretary of State at the height of the Vietnam War, on the outlook for the conflict in Iraq

'At the end of the day, I know what I did. And I know that the motivations for the decisions I made were not based on improper reasons.'
ALBERTO GONZALES, U.S. Attorney General, seeking to explain his role in the Justice Department's controversial firing of eight U.S. Attorneys

Numbers
HEALTH
3 Width, in cm, of disks of human heart-valve tissue British scientists say they have generated from stem cells—by far the most complex tissue ever grown artificially
10 Number of years the researchers estimate it will take before they can grow a heart from stem cells

KIDS
36% Decline in the number of children injured by falling out of trees who were admitted to English hospitals between 1999 and 2006
35% Increase in the number of children admitted to English hospitals with "repetitive-movement injuries" commonly caused by playing video games

RECYCLABLES
1,000 Estimated number of years a plastic shopping bag takes to decompose. About 100 million plastic bags are used annually worldwide
95% Drop in Ikea plastic-bag use in Britain after the chain began charging 10¢ per bag

TRADE
40% Tariff on U.S. beef that South Korea will phase out over the next 15 years, part of a landmark free-trade agreement reached April 2 between Washington and Seoul that will eliminate tariffs on most types of goods traded between the two countries
400% Premium above global market prices that South Koreans will continue to pay for rice, due to tariffs and subsidies protecting Korean rice farmers that Seoul refused to eliminate as part of the trade deal