"That might have been true in America, which refused to sign up to Kyoto, but not in the case of China or Europe, who followed a lot of that protocol's policies."

Former British Prime Minister John Prescott, attacking U.S. President Barack Obama for suggesting at the UN climate change conference there had been a period of "two decades of talking and no action"

"European people are not benefiting from our losses."

Wei Yafei, an official with the China Leather Industry Association, speaking against the EU's approval of a 15-month extension of anti-dumping duties on Chinese leather shoes at the cost of Chinese shoemakers and European consumers and shoe retailers

"What I would say is that our system did not work in this instance."

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, admitting on December 28, 2009 that the system aimed at keeping air travel secure failed when a Nigerian man who, although he ultimately failed to blow up a transatlantic airliner, managed to smuggle explosives aboard

"This is a strategic project because it allows us to enter completely new, growing, promising markets of the Asian Pacific region."

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin speaking when launching Russia's Asia-oriented Siberian oil export route on December 28, 2009

"Whoever has done this, he cannot be a Muslim."

Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik on the suicide bomber who attacked a religious procession of Shiite Muslims in Karachi on December 28, 2009, killing at least 30 people

"The core objectives of the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralization are to address balance of payment and short-term liquidity difficulties in the region and to supplement the existing international financial arrangements."

Top finance officials of a block of nations and regions in east and southeast Asia, announcing in a joint statement the launch of a $120-billion emergency fund in March 2010, the first such alliance in the region with the intention of shielding members from a financial crisis