This week they said

No matter what some agency may say, we’ve always been and always will be an AAA country.

No matter what some agency may say, we’ve always been and always will be an AAA country.

– US president Barack Obama on the decision by credit rating agency S&P to downgrade the US from its top triple-A rating

The days when the debt-ridden Uncle Sam could leisurely squander unlimited overseas borrowing appeared to be numbered.

– China, reacting to the US downgrade, through the official Xinhua news agency

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The mob were just standing there, cheering and laughing. Others were just watching on from their homes open-mouthed in horror.

– An onlooker in Peckham, London, where a 100-strong mob was watching a fire

These are pure and simple criminals running wild tonight. They have nothing to protest against. There has been no spark. This has been senseless on a scale I have never witnessed before in my career.

– Greater Manchester assistant chief constable Gary Shewan, on the rioting which took place in Manchester

Micheál Martin called me last Saturday night, and he was on holidays in Skibbereen and I was on holidays in Donegal, and he asked me to consider it.

– Gay Byrne revealing the Fianna Fáil leader had asked him to consider running for the presidency