"From a political perspective, it's more important to have [3,000 centrifuges] in place than to have them run properly."

Michael Levi, a nuclear nonproliferation expert at the Washington-based Council on Foreign Relations, speaking to Associated Press after Iran announced on April 9 that it had begun operating 3,000 centrifuges-nearly 10 times the previously known number

"Bringing the issues to the World Trade Organization (WTO) is against the mutual understanding reached between the two governments to promote bilateral trade and to appropriately address trade issues."

Wang Xinpei, Spokesman at the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, blaming the United States' April 10 complaints to WTO against alleged copyright violations in China for severely damaging bilateral trade relations

"I am thinking of the scourge of hunger, of incurable diseases, of terrorism and kidnapping of people, of the thousand faces of violence which some people attempt to justify in the name of religion..."

Pope Benedict XVI, speaking on April 8 from the loggia of St Peter's Basilica to a crowd of tens of thousands, as millions across the globe marked the Easter religious festival

"At least in OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries), you know what the price of the crude oil is and you know the quotas. With regards to gas, nobody knows the prices and nobody is declaring the price of their exports."

Egyptian Energy Minister Sameh Fahmi, commenting on the decision made by the world's top gas producers at a meeting in Qatar on April 9 to put aside the formation of a gas cartel along the lines of OPEC

"The United States needs to get its own economic house in order by shrinking deficits, raising savings rates, reducing consumption, strengthening primary and secondary education and investing in technological innovation."

Report of the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations published on April 10, urging Washington to educate Americans to compete in a globalized economy