"Development will not be possible without competition which, in turn,demands fair play."

Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, reiterating the Chinese Government's commitment to building a more open, optimal investment environment for foreign firms in a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the Second World Investment Forum in Xiamen, southeast China's Fujian Province on September 7

"Chinese people have not been to the Moon before the country launched Chang'e 1, so we were very prudent at that time. But it's different now."

Ouyang Ziyuan, chief scientist at the China Lunar Exploration Project, on the launch of China's second lunar probe, Chang'e 2, in an interview with Xinhua News Agency. He said Chang'e 2 would be launched at the end of this year and reach lunar orbit within five days, compared to 13 days, 14 hours and 19 minutes for Chang'e 1

"China gives a new dynamic to the reconfiguration of world power to the emergence of a larger multi-pluralism, which is a challenge and an opportunity for peripheral countries and their development models."

Editorial in Argentine daily Clarin, September 7

"Europe must show it is more than 27 different national solutions. We either swim together, or sink separately. We will only succeed if, whether acting nationally, regionally or locally, we think European."

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, calling on Europe to match economic might with diplomatic muscle in his first ever State of the Union address on September 7

"It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going."

Stephen Hawking, physicist and author of the new book The Grand Design, saying God wasn't needed for the creation of the universe