"The expansion in Chinese engagement in peacekeeping provides an important and widening window of opportunity for the international community to engage with China more closely on global security issues, to help enlarge China's commitment to regional stability and to contribute to more effective international peacekeeping operations."

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, in a report published on February 17. China is now the 14th largest contributor to UN peacekeeping operations, ahead of fellow UN Security Council permanent members Russia, Britain and the United States

"Even if two submarines do find themselves in the same area, it is still bad luck to have run into each other--i.e. to be in the same place at the same depth."

Stephen Saunders, an editor at military information group Jane's, after British and French officials declared on February 16 that their nuclear submarines collided in the middle of the Atlantic earlier this month

"As Beijing wrapped up, people were saying no one will top that again. But to say you can't do better is to give up."

John Furlong, Chief Executive of the Vancouver Organizing Committee of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, at a ceremony marking the one-year countdown for the sports gala on February 12

"In fact, what we mean by evolution is the world as created by God."

Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, head of Vatican's Pontifical Council for Culture, admitting on February 10 that Charles Darwin was on the right track when he claimed that man descended from apes. This year marks the 200th anniversary of Darwin (February 12) and the 150th anniversary of his Theory of Evolution

"It is highly probable that the Earth's surface will undergo an unprecedented temperature increase of nearly 2 degrees centigrade by 2050 and up to 4 degrees by the end of the century."

Pablo Fajnzylber, a senior World Bank economist. The World Bank warned recently that Andean glaciers and the region's permanently snow-covered peaks could disappear in 20 years if no measures are taken to tackle climate change