Verbatim

"I want to thank the Canadian people who came out to wave—with all five fingers—for their hospitality."
GEORGE W. BUSH, U.S. President, on his first official visit to Canada, calling the reception warm and cordial despite the crowds of demonstrators who marched in Ottawa to protest his trip

"You can only engage China or confront China, and certainly we have chosen to engage China."
M.C. ABAD, ASEAN spokesman, following the signing of a free-trade pact with China at the asean summit in Vientiane, Laos

"I think one year from now, some things must be improved."
THAKSIN SHINAWATRA, Thai Prime Minister, urging Burma to make democratic reforms before it assumes the yearlong chairmanship of asean in 2006

"The government should pay civil servants a batik allowance."
ZAINAL RAMPAK, president of the Malaysian Trade Union Congress, complaining about a new rule stipulating that the country's 800,000 civil servants must wear traditional batik clothing to work on Saturdays

"A rerun of the second round may also produce nothing. What happens then? Will there have to be a third, a fourth, a 25th round until one of the sides obtains the necessary result?"
VLADIMIR PUTIN, Russian President, opposing a decision by the Ukrainian Supreme Court to hold a new runoff election between the two candidates for Ukraine's President, following allegations of fraud during the first balloting

"The largest mall shows our progress as a society."
FU YUEHONG, general manager of the New Yansha Group on the company's completion in Beijing of the biggest shopping mall in the world

"I never wanted to be a prophet or a savior. Elvis maybe. I could see myself becoming him. But prophet? No."
BOB DYLAN, American rock icon, in a spot on cbs's 60 Minutes, his first TV interview in 19 years