Quotes of the Day

'I have Sunni, I have Shi'ite, and I have no problems with that. They never talk about politics.'
JORVAN VIEIRA, the Brazilian coach of Iraq's national soccer team, which recorded a shock victory over Australia on July 14, setting off widespread celebration in Baghdad

'It's run its course. Now it's time to move on.'
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH, sidestepping talk of the Valerie Plame spy case, despite his long history of denouncing leaks

'I guess the City of Sydney assumes there'll be some sort of toilet-roll crisis in a flood.'
ANTHONY MOORHOUSE, consultant, on the city council's suggestion that residents carry "Go Bags" for emergencies, filled with maps, spare change—and toilet paper

'Extremism and terrorism will be defeated in every corner of the country.'
PERVEZ MUSHARRAF, President of Pakistan, defending the eight-day government raid on Islamabad's radical Red Mosque. Militants responded with a rash of bombings and suicide attacks

'A public attempt at suicide in the streets.'
MAHMOUD DARWISH, preeminent Palestinian poet, describing the fighting between Fatah and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Darwish was speaking in the northern Israeli city of Haifa, his first public engagement in the city of his birth in over 30 years

'Four students will be grouped together to perform the waltz and they will change partners regularly as soon as one song finishes. This way, the risk of young love will be lowered.'
YIN GUOCHEN, an official at China's State General Administration of Sports, which last month announced compulsory dance classes to curb rising rates of childhood obesity, then tacked on rules proscribing puppy love

RODENTS
2 billion Number of field mice that have swarmed central China after the worst floods in 50 years drove them out of lowland fields
80¢ Amount that Guangzhou entrepreneurs were reported by local media to be paying for a kilogram of live mice, to be served at banquets

HEADGEAR
$3,000 Cost of a shoulder-length, ceremonial wig worn by British judges and lawyers. The government announced that it would be abandoning the wigs in civil and family courts in 2008
$610,000 Amount the British government expects to save annually by ditching the wigs, which have been used in courts since the 17th century

BROADBAND
22¢ Internet-connection price per megabit per second in Japan, the lowest in the developed world, according to a new study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
$81.13 Price per megabit per second in Turkey, the highest in the developed world

ONLINE GAMING
3 Hours after which a new software program in Internet cafés, mandated by the Chinese government on July 16, will remind gamers to "do suitable physical exercise." If gamers log on for more than five hours, the program will wipe out their points
3.5 million Number of World of Warcraft subscribers in China