Quotes of the Day

'Together we can continue the course set by President Putin.'
DMITRI MEDVEDEV, newly installed President of Russia, vowing to continue the policies of his predecessor Vladimir Putin. Medvedev won 70% of the vote in the country's heavily criticized March 2 election

'You are a sad lackey of the empire, Uribe.'
HUGO CHAVEZ, President of Venezuela, attacking pro-U.S. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe after Colombia's military launched a raid in Ecuador against Colombian rebels

'Is it not funny that those with 160,000 forces in Iraq accuse us of interference?'
MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD, President of Iran, following the first visit to Iraq by an Iranian President since the 1980s

'That will depend not just on the central leadership's attitude but also on how strong the calls are from society.'
DU GUANG, Chinese Communist Party official, speaking during the party's annual legislative session that opened March 4 in Beijing, on whether democratic reforms will take hold in China

'[We] were pretty much out of food, hadn't slept in days and were really cold. We had to reassess the whole situation.'"
MARK BOYLE, after failing in his attempt to walk from Britain to India without any money. Relying on the kindness of strangers, he got only as far as Calais, France (he doesn't speak French)

'It is not actually reality, but my reality, my way of surviving.'
MISHA DEFONSECA, Belgian writer, apologizing after her best-selling memoir of surviving the Holocaust was revealed to be fake. She isn't Jewish and was never in the Warsaw ghetto, as she had claimed

Numbers

SUICIDE
1,269 Number of successful suicide jumps off San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge since 1937. Although opponents worry that a barrier would mar the bridge's appearance, the city is considering various safety options, including a higher fence or netting to catch jumpers
90% Percentage of people who were prevented from jumping off the Golden Gate who either are still alive or eventually died from natural causes

HEALTH
67% Percentage of U.S. hysterectomies that experts say may have been unnecessary. About 600,000 hysterectomies are performed every year
33% Percentage of American women who undergo the procedure before they turn 60

DOWRIES
124,000 Number of roses an Iranian court has ordered a man to pay his wife for her dowry. The couple have been married 10 years, but Iranian law holds that a wife can claim her dowry at any point in the marriage. The court has seized the man's home until he pays up
$2 Cost of one long-stemmed rose in Tehran, making the dowry worth an estimated $248,000

MUSIC
48% Percentage of U.S. teenagers who did not buy a single CD last year, up from 38% in 2006
29 million Number of Americans buying music legally online, a 21% increase from 2006

Sources: Daily Telegraph; Reuters; New York Times; Reuters; BBC; A.P.
Numbers Sources: Washington Post (2); CNN (2); BBC (2); Los Angeles Times; NDP Group