Quotes of the Day

'France is a country that thinks. There is hardly an ideology that we haven't turned into a theory ... Enough thinking, already. Roll up your sleeves.'
CHRISTINE LAGARDE, newly appointed French Finance Minister, proposing a tax cut that would encourage the nation's people to work harder

'He was so inept and so inartful.'
MARGARET SPELLINGS, U.S. Secretary of Education, on why she turned down a date with Karl Rove in the early '80s

'In the horror movie you kill the monster, and the hand re-emerges. And if you're not looking, the hand grows back and the monster's there again.'
RUDY GIULIANI, former New York City mayor, insisting that the Bush Administration should focus on al-Qaeda's resurgence in Pakistan and Afghanistan

'How long are we going to allow a person ... to come into our own house and to say there's a dictatorship here?'
HUGO CHAVEZ, Venezuelan President, announcing that he will expel visiting foreigners who publicly criticize his government

'This is a victory of the principles of which our Indian people uphold.'
PRATIBHA PATIL, India's first female President, on winning a high (if mostly ceremonial) office in a country where women generally face much discrimination

'I've seen sculptures of Martin Luther King [Jr.] in America, and none of them was perfect. I think I can do better.'
LEI YIXIN, Chinese sculptor, whose commission to create a King statue for a Washington, D.C., memorial angered African-American groups, who complained that the job had been outsourced to China

HARRY POTTER
10.95 million Number of copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows sold in the U.S. and the U.K. in the first 24 hours after the book went on sale July 21, a publishing record
150 Estimated number of copies sold per second in its first hour on sale

TERRORISM
34% Percentage of Muslims in Lebanon who say that suicide attacks are sometimes or often justified, down from 74% in 2002, according to a Pew Research Center study that showed declining support for terror tactics in much of the Islamic world
1% Percentage of respondents in Lebanon who say they support Osama bin Laden, down from 20% in 2003

TECHNOLOGY
68% Approximate increase in Apple's share price, to as much as $145, since the iPhone was introduced in early January
8,000 Number of songs that fit on the Walkman W960i, to be released in August, Sony Ericsson's touchscreen answer to the iPhone, which holds only hundreds

ELECTIONS
$100 million Amount by which donations to U.S. Democratic candidates outstrip those to Republicans so far in the 2008 campaign; if the trend continues, it will be the first time Democrats have raised more money in an election since detailed records began in the 1970s
16% Percentage of presidential campaign funds raised in increments of $200 or less this year, nearly four times as much as in the past two presidential campaigns for the same period