Quotes of the Day

'It's fair to say that our hearts sank when the result was finally ratified.'
CHERIE BLAIR, wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, writing in her new memoir about the couple's reaction to the 2000 election of George W. Bush as U.S. President

'It is the property of the Spanish navy, government and people, and we want it all back.'
TEODORO DE LESTE CONTRERAS, an admiral with the Spanish Culture Ministry, on a $500 million treasure discovered aboard a sunken 19th century Spanish warship by a U.S.-based marine-exploration company

'He's stopped using curse words in public.'
NORM COLEMAN, Minnesota Senator, accusing comedian Al Franken, Coleman's likely Democratic opponent, of softening his demeanor ahead of the election campaign

'We cannot operate without private security firms in Iraq. If the contractors were removed, we would have to leave Iraq.'
PATRICK F. KENNEDY, the U.S. State Department's Under Secretary of State for Management, on the decision to renew Blackwater's license despite inquiries into the firm's conduct

'I think what's true is that we're recession-resistant.'
CHRISTIE HEFNER, CEO of Playboy Enterprises, stressing that while the corporation lost $3.1 million in the first quarter of 2008, it was not hurting as much as other companies

'We are not interested in some Star Wars prototype, but in bringing a mass-market product that everybody can buy. It's a new chapter in the life of this industry.'
CARLOS GHOSN, Nissan CEO, announcing plans to introduce a zero-emission electric vehicle in the U.S. and Japan by 2010

WORLD RECORDS
$310 million First-day sales of Grand Theft Auto IV. Guinness World Records named the video game's launch the most profitable entertainment release of all time
$220 million Previous one-day sales record, set by the book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

SUPREME COURT
$400 billion Damages sought in a U.S. class action against 33 companies that did business in South Africa during the apartheid era 4 Number of Supreme Court Justices who had conflicts of interest in the case's appeal, requiring the court to affirm a lower-court ruling. The case has yet to reach trial

LANGUAGE
10,000 Number of people who speak Ojibwe, an ancient American Indian language used in more than 200 communities across the Great Lakes region
80% Percentage of Ojibwe speakers older than 60. Researchers are working to preserve the language before it becomes extinct

BIRD FLU
15,000 Number of poultry killed by South Korean officials in Seoul over a 24-hour period to curb the spread of a new bird-flu outbreak
241 Number of people who have died from bird flu since 2003, according to the World Health Organization. Most human cases have been linked to infected poultry

Sources: Times of London; A.P.; New York Times; CNN; A.P.; International Herald Tribune
Numbers Sources: Guinness World Records (2); Wall Street Journal (2); USA Today (2); A.P. (2)