"Lack of political will is the fundamental cause of the slow progress of climate change talks in finding a global deal to replace the Kyoto Protocol."

Yu Qingtai, China's special representative for climate change negotiations, urging developed countries to abandon the practice of only "giving lip service but no concrete actions" toward curbing global warming before a new round of climate change talks in Bonn, Germany on August 10-14

"We're not talking the Green Revolution here, with genetically modified food and pesticides. We're just talking about getting the basics right. There is no reason that Africa needs to import 60 to 70 percent of its food."

Richard Cornwell, an independent security analyst in Tshwane (Pretoria), suggesting Washington pay as much attention to helping Angola create jobs in the agricultural sector as it does on securing oil supplies there, during U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's recent visit to the African country

"Parties to armed conflict continue to use sexual violence with efficient brutality. Like a grenade or a gun, sexual violence is part of their arsenal to pursue military, political, social and economic aims."

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, calling for stepped-up efforts worldwide to prevent and respond to sexual violence at a Security Council meeting on August 7

"We have managed to avoid a second Great Depression...but full recovery is at least two years [off] and probably more."

Paul Krugman, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, telling a world capital markets conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on August 10 that the worst of the global economic crisis was over

"I hope and I pray that they start fighting among themselves. It will make the job so much easier."

Mehmood Shah, former head of security in Pakistan's tribal areas, responding to reports that the Pakistani Taliban is engaged in a bloody leadership contest