The week in words.
I have said from a good while back that if I have the continued support of my colleagues, I will remain as Taoiseach.
- Bertie Ahern says he will stay on as Taoiseach until mid-2009 at the earliest.
The impact will be that Pakistan is in more turmoil - it will be the start of civil war in Pakistan. There is a very real danger of civil war.
- Riaz Malik, of the opposition Pakistan Movement for Justice, after Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto is assassinated.
Pakistan is clearly turning into one of the failed states in Asia.
- Max King, a strategist for Investec Asset Management, as global markets plunge in the wake of Bhutto's assassination.
A celebrity for a day. You feel like you've won it yourself!
- East Galway newsagent Cherry O'Connor as one of her customers wins the record €13 million Lotto jackpot.
We don't talk to the Taliban, full stop.
- UN spokesman Aleem Siddique, after two European diplomats, one of them Irish, are asked to leave Afghanistan following claims that they held informal talks with Taliban leaders.
You don't get sucked into an old pals' act.
- Sunderland manager Roy Keane leaves no room for nostalgia on his return to his old club Manchester United this week.
I cannot guarantee that there will not be a coup in 2008, just like I cannot rule out a natural disaster.
- Thai defence minister Gen Boonrawd Somtas says he cannot rule out military intervention after opposition parties win in the general election this week.
It is a miracle she survived the crash and two days without food, without anything.
- Roberto Velasquez, the head of the rescue services which found 12-year-old Francesca Lewis, the sole survivor of an air crash in Panama.
America is openly striving for the destruction of the international order.
- Serbian prime minister Vojislav Kostunica holds the US to blame for unsuccessful independence talks with Kosovo's majority ethnic Albanians.
I very much hope that this new medium will make my Christmas message more personal and direct.
- Britain's Queen Elizabeth II announces that her Christmas Day message will be available to watch on YouTube.
May He bestow upon political leaders the wisdom and courage to seek and find humane, just and lasting solutions.
- Pope Benedict XVI calls for an end to all conflicts in his Christmas message.
The new year, God willing, will be a year of security and economic stability.
- Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, addressing midnight Mass in Bethlehem.
A fantastic showman, with a great stage presence, who never forgot his roots.
- The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, pays tribute to singer Joe Dolan, who passed away this week.
There was an altercation between two people - there's no indication of the cause or of the background between the two folks.
- Peter West, spokesman for the US National Science Foundation, as a "drunken Christmas punch-up" prompts the evacuation of a South Pole research facility.
I have responded favourably to the transfer request from France this morning.
- Albert Pahimi Padacke, Chad's minister for justice, says six French aid workers, sentenced to eight years' hard labour for trying to kidnap 103 children, are to be allowed to return home.