Verbatim

‘In all seriousness, this is really quite unfair.’
ALAN GREENSPAN, former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman, defending himself against accusations that his policies are to blame for the nation’s current economic woes

‘My Latin is good enough that I believe I could even have a lunch with Julius Caesar.’
SILVIO BERLUSCONI, Italian opposition leader and former Prime Minister, on the historical figure he would most like to meet. Berlusconi is attempting to become PM again in April 13-14 polls

‘The people are afraid of the government, but the government is as afraid of the people.’
ABDEL WAHAB EL-MESSERY, an organizer with Kifaya, an Egyptian opposition coalition, on the recent demonstrations and riots signaling discontent with President Hosni Mubarak’s government

‘I have absolutely nothing against rich people.’
HILLARY CLINTON, Democratic presidential hopeful, after the release of her and Bill Clinton’s tax-return documents showed that the couple have earned $109 million over the past seven years

‘We are not the 51st state of the United States of America.’
BOB BROWN, leader of Australia’s opposition Greens party, criticizing Prime Minister Kevin Rudd for a playful salute he gave U.S. President George W. Bush during the recent nato summit

‘Pavarotti’s great career therefore ended with a virtual performance, something sad but inevitable.’
LEONE MAGIERA, Luciano Pavarotti’s longtime pianist and conductor, revealing that the opera singer lip-synched his final public performance at the opening of the 2006 Winter Olympics

Numbers

DOMESTICITY
7 Number of extra hours per week of household chores performed by married women in the U.S., compared to single women, according to a University of Michigan study. The overall amount of housework by American women fell 34% between 1976 and 2005
1 Drop in the number of hours per week of housework done by men after they get married. The average number of hours for men rose from 6 in 1976 to 13 in 2005

FOOTWEAR
$78 Average price of a pair of the popular Crocs footwear in Israel
$3.60 Cost of a pair of pirated, Chinese-made Crocs being sold to Palestinians

HIGHER EDUCATION
100 Age, in years, of Harvard University’s Masters in Business Administration program, the world’s oldest
500,000 Expected number of MBA graduates globally in 2008. In China, the figure has gone from zero to 30,000 in the past 10 years

INTERNET
$2.6 million Amount paid to 43-year-old Maryland resident Chris Clark for the domain name pizza.com. Clark bought it for $20 in 1994
2,156 Number of cybersquatting complaints that the U.N.’s World Intellectual Property Organization received in 2007, alleging abuse of trademark-registration online

Sources: Wall Street Journal; BBC; International Herald Tribune; ABC; Herald Sun; CBC
Numbers Sources: Reuters (4); Financial Times (2); BBC; Sydney mX