Long live Iraq. Long live Iraq. Long live Palestine. Long live jihad and the mujahideen. God is greatest. - Saddam Hussein, whose death sentence has been upheld.
The imminent execution of Saddam Hussein is nothing but a smokescreen a diversion in a series of diversions that will do nothing to address the price of the occupation of Iraq.
- Iraqi political commentator Dr Burhan al-Chalabi.
I think this is the right thing to do and I think this is the right time to do it.
- Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams, saying the leadership is to debate its policy on policing in the North.
People are frightened, to be honest with you. Too many of these shootings are going on now.
- Patrick McCarthy from Dublin's north inner city, where a gangland feud claimed another life this week.
Social peace requires that crass inequalities be eliminated and that new forms of solidarity be constructed.
- Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Dr Diarmuid Martin, delivering his Christmas homily.
We seem to have gone backwards.
- Niall Crowley, Equality Authority chief executive, says anti-Traveller prejudices have worsened since the 80s and 90s.
I don't care what condition a car is in, as long as there's a bit of history attached to it. I'd love if it belonged to some kind of crook or some fellow who hit the headlines.
- Frank Walsh, who has saved from the scrap-heap the black 380 SEL Mercedes that once conveyed Charles Haughey to State functions and who now hires it out as a wedding car.
I don't think I would have gone to war. I would have maximised our effort through sanctions, through restrictions, whatever to find another answer.
- Gerald Ford, the former US president who died this week. In 2004, he criticised the invasion of Iraq on condition that the comments would not be published until after his death.
It was like a wake-up call. Before that, if you were called black, it was like an insult. Just one song and one word can change a whole situation.
- Norman Brand from Harlem recalls the impact of James Brown, the self proclaimed Godfather of Soul.
Mogadishu is now in chaos.
- Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, leader of Somalia's Islamist movement, which has abandoned the capital to government troops, backed by Ethiopian troops.
His life and career would be a lot different had he not made that arrest.
- Richard Shinee, lawyer for California police officer James Mee, who claims he was demoted after arresting actor Mel Gibson. During the arrest, Gibson made his now infamous anti-Semitic tirade.
Just because a scientist can manufacture food in the laboratory, should Americans be required to eat it?
- Democrat senator Barbara Mikulski, after the US government ruled that meat and milk from cloned animals were safe and could be sold without labelling.
The pilgrimage is not a place for raising political banners or slogans that divide Muslims.
- Sheikh Salih bin Abdulaziz, Saudi Islamic affairs minister, as millions of Muslims gather in the holy city of Mecca for the annual hajj pilgrimage.
Polar bears are one of nature's ultimate survivors, able to live and thrive in one of the world's harshest environments. But we are concerned the polar bears' habitat may literally be melting.
- Polar bears may be listed as an endangered species by the end of the year as a result of global warming, says US secretary of the interior, Dirk Kempthorne.
While any attempt on the life of the president is most unlikely, we cannot overlook the possibility of some lunatic, fanatical, communist, Puerto Rican or some other such like person coming here to try to assassinate the president.
- Garda commissioner Daniel Costigan, in a memo to the Department of Justice ahead of President Kennedy's 1963 visit.