Verbatim

“I would ask the American people to be patient. We have invested a lot. It is worth the sacrifice.”
CONDOLEEZZA RICE U.S. Secretary of State, in a television interview marking the fourth anniversary of the war in Iraq; recent polls show less than half the American public supports the war

“Nobody is safe in Zimbabwe. There is no security, no rule of law. I am praying for my country.”
NELSON CHAMISA Zimbabwean opposition spokesman and M.P., after he was attacked and severely beaten by eight men alleged to be members of President Robert Mugabe’s government intelligence agency

“Ministers lead stressful lives and eat whatever is available—if you give them cake, they eat cake.”
KARL EIRIK SCHOETT-PEDERSEN chief of staff for Norway’s Prime Minister, announcing that fruit and vegetables will be served at Cabinet sessions after a minister said he gained 7 kg snacking on sweets offered at the meetings

“We think that by end of the year, you will notice a new, fresh look when you are intercepted by one of our men.”
J. MAHAPATRA Ahmadabad police commissioner, on new fabric being developed for the west Indian city’s police force that is not only lightweight but also rose- and lemon-scented

“He was scared, terrified, very terrified. You know how a man feels when he is about to be executed.”
BASSAM RIDHA adviser to Iraq’s Prime Minister, describing the mood of former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan as Ramadan was led to the gallows on the morning of March 20

“Pak cricket died at 3 a.m. today. The funeral will be held on March 21 after the match against Zimbabwe, and Maulana Inzamam-ul Haq Multani will lead the prayers.”
SMS MESSAGE circulated widely in Pakistan after the country’s powerful cricket team was defeated by Ireland during the Cricket World Cup in Jamaica. Inzamam-ul Haq, captain of Pakistan’s team, stepped down following the shock loss, hours after the team’s head coach, Bob Woolmer, died of unknown causes—a death Jamaican police said they were treating as “suspicious”

“The clock must be stopped.”
IGOR IVANOV Secretary of the Russian Security Council, insisting that Iran’s uranium-enrichment program be suspended

“As humans, we all want revenge. But I ask myself, ‘If I do it, how will that help me?'”
LA-ONG LAIJIAN village leader in Lampaya, southern Thailand, where the escalating conflict with Muslim insurgents has prompted civilians to take up arms. In recent days suspected insurgents stopped a commuter van in Yala province and killed eight passengers, while three students died in an attack on an Islamic school in Songkhla province

“I really wanted to allow myself to rise and fall on my own merits.”
JOE HILL author of the thriller novel Heart-Shaped Box, who revealed after 10 years of writing short stories and an earlier unpublished novel under his pen name that he is the eldest son of author Stephen King

Numbers
HERITAGE
1,432 Number of ancient Afghan artifacts repatriated this week to Kabul’s National Museum after being collected and preserved by a group of exiles in Europe
2,300 Age, in years, of one of the collection’s most treasured items: a foundation stone laid by Alexander the Great when he built the city of Ai-Khanoum, in northeastern Afghanistan, in the 4th century B.C.

EXTINCTION
75,000 Estimated population of Tasmanian devils, marsupials found only on the southern Australian island of Tasmania, whose numbers have been decimated by disease
10 Number of years until the species becomes extinct, experts warn, if new conservation efforts fail

SPORT
$18.2 billion The new budget for the 2012 London Olympics, unveiled on March 15
$4.3 billion The projected cost of holding the Olympics when London won the bid in July 2005

MONEY
$23 billion Amount of money sent home by Mexican migrant workers in 2006, mostly from the U.S.
$9 Median hourly wage in 2004 of Mexican-born workers in the U.S.