This Week They Said

There will not be a successor. There will be candidates for the presidency

There will not be a successor. There will be candidates for the presidency. - Russian president Vladimir Putin denies he will simply anoint his successor.

I'm a very lucky man. The consultant wouldn't have seen the left side of my face but for the fact that I was sitting at the left of the group in the television studio.

- Minister of State Conor Lenihan, who was diagnosed with a tumour after a surgeon saw him on RTÉ's Prime Time.

Afghans will see this as a sign that their parliament is more concerned with protecting its own members than the people.

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- Sam Zarifi of Human Rights Watch as the Afghan parliament approves an amnesty for warlords and others accused of war crimes, possibly including the Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Omar.

By all accounts from the teachers, he was fairly quiet and withdrawn. He turned in homework, certainly didn't come off as brilliant or as someone needing extra help.

- Rhonda Cagle, a spokeswoman for Imagine Charter School, Arizona, where convicted sex offender Neil Rodreick masqueraded as a 12- year-old student.

If the last ... report was a wake up call, this one is a screaming siren.

- Stephanie Tunmore of Greenpeace as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says it is very likely that mankind is causing rising global temperatures.

Our 40,000 plus members have spoken and it is time the Government and health service employers listened.

- Liam Doran, general secretary of the Irish Nurses Organisation. The INO, along with the Psychiatric Nurses Association, has voted in favour of industrial action.

I've been called an anti-Semite. I've been called a bigot. I've been called senile. I've been called a plagiarist. And so forth.

- Former US president Jimmy Carter recalls the ways in which he has been criticised for his new book on the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Jesus Loves Osama

- A controversial sign erected by a Baptist church in Sydney. The sign was criticised as insensitive by Australian prime minister John Howard.

You will have to put up with me for a bit longer.

- UK prime minister Tony Blair says the UK cash-for-honours row will not hasten his departure from office.

The situation in Iraq is dire. The way ahead will be very hard. But hard is not hopeless.

- Lt Gen David Petraeus, the next US commander in Iraq, speaking before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

It would not have gone off 200 metres into the atmosphere, before Tehran would be razed to the ground.

- Speaking off the cuff to reporters, French president Jacques Chirac speculates on the consequences of a nuclear strike by Iran.