'You won't see me as a vice-presidential candidate ... I'm running for President.'
BARACK OBAMA, rejecting Hillary Clinton's suggestion that he could be her No. 2

'This is a major political earthquake.'
IBRAHIM SUFFIAN, Malaysian pollster, on March 8 electoral gains by opposition parties against the National Front coalition, a political alliance that has ruled Malaysia since 1963

'This is leading to a new face of hunger in the world.'
JOSETTE SHEERAN, head of the U.N. World Food Program, warning that the global rise in basic-food prices could continue until 2010. Food riots have broken out in Morocco, Yemen, Mexico, Senegal and Uzbekistan

'He is called the Merchant of Death and Man of War for a reason.'
THOMAS PASQUARELLO, regional director of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, on the capture of notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout, who had previously worked with U.S. contractors in Iraq but ran afoul of the law when he allegedly smuggled guns to Colombia's leftist rebels and other outlawed groups

'I will govern for all, but think above all of those who don't have it all.'
JOSE LUIS RODRIGUEZ ZAPATERO, socialist Prime Minister, after winning re-election in Spain on March 9. He cites the economy and social reforms as his top priorities

'We kind of had psychoanalytic sessions ... Writing together with somebody is very intimate.'
MADONNA, on collaborating with Justin Timberlake on tracks for her new album, Hard Candy

Numbers

ECONOMY
63,000 Net number of U.S. jobs lost in February, the biggest decline in four years, after economists predicted a gain of 25,000
$200 billion Amount the U.S. Federal Reserve pledged to inject into the banking system, prompting a March 11 market rally that saw the Dow Jones industrial average surge 417 points — its biggest one-day gain in five years

PLASTIC SURGERY
7,882 Number of breast-augmentation surgeries performed on American teens in 2007, up 55% from 2006
47.4% Percentage of operations that were based on aesthetic preferences; the rest corrected asymmetries or deformities

SPACE EXPLORATION
29 Age of Yi So Yeon, a bioengineer who will become South Korea's first astronaut. Her voyage to the International Space Station is scheduled for April 8
49 Number of women who have flown in space, compared with 417 men

FURRY FRIENDS
$1,900 Vietnamese fine — double the country's average annual wage — for possessing a hamster. Government officials say the rodents could spread disease
$20 Black-market price for a hamster, a popular pet among Vietnamese in the Year of the Rat

Sources: ABC; Wall Street Journal; Guardian; A.P.; Bloomberg; Interview
Numbers Sources: CNN Money; USA Today; American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (2); A.P.; Encyclopedia Astronautica; BBC (2)