‘The other male pandas clearly saw Xiang Xiang as a threat. Next time we will choose a female panda.’
LI DESHENG, deputy director of the Wolong Giant Panda Research Center in Sichuan, China, on Xiang Xiang, the first panda bred in captivity to be released into the wild. Scientists recently confirmed that Xiang Xiang had died after being chased by wild pandas and falling out of a tree
‘I’ll do what I can to have it legalized.’
DR. JACK KEVORKIAN, who was released from prison June 1 after serving eight years for helping more than 130 patients end their lives, saying he will no longer perform assisted suicides but will lobby for the practice
‘I have always in my small way been willing to make sacrifices for peace.’
CHARLES TAYLOR, former Liberian President, in a letter announcing he will not attend his war-crimes trial at the U.N.-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone. Taylor is charged with incitement to murder and rape and with recruiting child soldiers
‘There was only tea and vinegar in the shops, meat was rationed and huge petrol queues were everywhere. Now I see people on the streets with cell phones and there are so many goods in the shops it makes my head spin.’
JAN GRZEBSKI, a Polish man who emerged from a coma after 19 years, a span of time during which communism fell and the Polish economy transformed
‘Was there an open competition to supply the designs? If so, what on earth do the rejected ones look like?’
BOB NEILL, 2012 Olympics spokesman for Britain’s Conservative Party, on the recently unveiled logo for the London Games, which he condemned as “hideous” and a “waste of money”
‘I always thought there was a limit—a limit to the human stomach and a limit to human willpower—but I guess not.’
RYAN NERZ, author and competitive-eating expert, on 23-year-old Joey Chestnut of San Jose, California, who ate a record-breaking 5912 hot dogs in 12 minutes at the Tempe, Arizona, Southwest Regional Hot Dog Eating Championship on June 2
Numbers
INDIA
$1 billion Estimated cost of billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s planned 27-floor mansion in Mumbai. The 173-m high-rise building will include a health club, helipad and space for 600 full-time staff
$727 India’s average annual per capita income
THE SURGE
32% Percentage of Baghdad neighborhoods in which U.S. and Iraqi forces are able to “protect” and “maintain influence over” the population, according to the U.S. military
9,000 Estimated increase in U.S. troops in Baghdad since the beginning of the surge three months ago. The last of five American combat brigades is now arriving, bringing the total number of U.S. troops in the city to 30,000, up from 21,000 before the operation
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
201 Number of men in the U.S. who have been exonerated on the basis of DNA evidence thanks to the Innocence Project, since it was founded in 1992. Combined, the men had served 2,496 years
45% Estimated percentage of those exonerated who have received compensation from the government, with amounts ranging from $25,000 to $12.2 million
FERTILITY
80 Minutes it takes a new at-home screening test for men to measure their fertility
40% Estimated percentage of couples’ fertility-related troubles that are caused by male deficiencies
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