"Certainly, there are many worthwhile lessons to be drawn from China's experience of economic reform over the past three decades. But China's approach may be more interesting than its actual policies."

Leo Horn, National Coordinator for the UK-China Sustainable Development Dialogue, attributing China's rapid development to an open and pragmatic attitude toward reform in his article "Challenging the China Model" that was published on online magazine China Dialogue on July 28

"There is no use beating around the bush, this meeting has collapsed, members have simply not been able to bridge their differences."

Pascal Lamy, Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), telling journalists on July 29 after trade ministers failed to reach consensus on subsidy levels and import tariffs for a new deal under the WTO's Doha Round

"In light of the plan approved by the Sudanese Government, I can say that the Sudanese Government is now moving along a good path (to find a settlement to the crisis in Darfur)."

Samir Hosni, head of the Africa Department of the Cairo-based Arab League, quoted by the Egyptian MENA news agency, despite the International Criminal Court's call for the arrest of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for alleged war crimes in Darfur

"It won't be easy to quickly change habits in order to farm land both intensively and sustainably. But failure to do so could imperil the world's future capacity to feed its people."

Theodor Friedrich, senior agricultural officer at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, encouraging farmers worldwide to join the ongoing "Greener" revolution represented by a form of farming known as Conservation Agriculture at a meeting in Rome on July 24

"Let them lay down their weapons, if only temporarily, so that humanity can lay claim to gold even before the Games begin."

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in a July 28 message calling for an Olympic Truce, a worldwide cessation of all hostilities for the duration of the Beijing Olympic Games