"Although there are some changes in visa application procedures, the new policy is not as strict as might be imagined. Those who apply to come to China for justifiable reasons will be given every convenience."

Wei Wei, Director of the Consular Department of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, defending recent changes to China's visa policy as being in line with international practice and appropriate to ensure a safe Olympics

"We don't have to wait until everything becomes perfect."

Liu Guijin, China's special envoy on African affairs, stressing that China attaches no political conditions to its development assistance to other developing countries in talks with reporters at UN Headquarters in New York on July 1

"Where there are poverty and sickness including AIDS, where human beings are being oppressed, there is more work to be done. Our work is for freedom for all."

Former South African President and anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela, in a speech to crowd at a June 27 gathering in London's Hyde Park in honor of his 90th birthday on July 18

"What I want is for the perpetrators to be brought to justice and punished for what they have done."

Sa'adoon Ali Hameed Al-Ogaidi, a former detainee at Abu Ghraib prison, to Reuters after he joined three other Iraqi men to file lawsuits at U.S. federal courts on June 30 against U.S. military contractors who they said tortured them while they were detained

"Just as thousands were drawn to California and the Klondike in the late 1800s, the green energy gold rush is attracting legions of modern-day prospectors in all parts of the globe."

Executive Director Achim Steiner of the UN Environment Program, after his agency published a report on July 1 that outlined a 60-percent hike in investment in renewable energy in 2007