Briefing

‘I’m not exactly sure how all this is going to work, but I think I’m going to get the nomination if we do our job right.’

1. MITT ROMNEY, campaigning in New Hampshire while rival Republican presidential candidates have been barnstorming Iowa before the state’s Jan. 3 caucuses

‘The main goal is to remove him physically from Yemen so there’s no way he can meddle in the political process there.’

2. AN OBAMA ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL, explaining why Washington is considering whether to allow embattled Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh to enter the U.S. for medical treatment

‘Stabilization devours its young.’

3. VLADISLAV SURKOV, deputy head of Russian President Dmitri Medvedev’s administration, who has overseen Russian politics for more than a decade, explaining why he is being reassigned by the Kremlin

‘We’re trying to have an exit from this crisis through reconciliation and dialogue.’

4. MOHAMED EL-FATEH EL-NASEREY, Arab League ambassador, on the objectives of observers who entered Syria to stop the violent government crackdowns on protesters and facilitate negotiations

‘The government cannot put a chocolate on every one of their pillows and tuck them in at night.’

5. JOHN MICA, chairman of the U.S. House Transportation Committee, urging pilots to make sure they are well rested; new FAA rules require that pilots sleep eight hours a day and receive 30 consecutive hours off per week

5,087

Number of passing yards accrued by New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees this season, breaking the NFL single-season record set by Dan Marino in 1984

66%

Percentage of Americans who owned their home in the third quarter of 2011, slightly above a 13-year low

1,260

Length, in feet (384 m), of an outdoor escalator in the Medelln, Colombia, neighborhood of Comuna 13, which was previously accessible only by a 35-minute uphill hike

0.6%

Percentage increase of the S&P 500 over the course of 2011, the least the stock index has moved since 1970, when it fell by 0.1%

Sources: AP (2); Chicago Tribune; New York Times (2)