"It is not possible and of no need to cover up the death toll."

Guo Weimin, Director of the Press Bureau of the State Council Information Office, defending the accuracy of the published death toll from the earthquake in Qinghai Province at a press conference on April 20

"The index futures arrive in line with market desire and expectation."

Tu Guangshao, Vice Mayor of Shanghai, after China launched stock index futures on April 15 after a decade-long preparation to push forward capital market reform

"There's no household name going to fall by the wayside but some of these smaller airlines who've been living on tight budgets could struggle to survive."

Steve Bond, an airline operations expert at City University London, on the impact of the recent volcano ash cloud-caused airspace shutdown in Europe to the world's civil aviation industry

"With recent improvements in the economic outlook, the need for such extraordinary policy is now passing, and it is appropriate to begin to lessen the degree of monetary stimulus."

The Bank of Canada, signaled in an April 20 statement it may raise interest rates as soon as June. The plan makes it the first G7 central bank willing to end emergency-level lending rates introduced during the crisis as the economy roars back after the recession

"I am shocked at this moral bankruptcy. This is probably one of the worst cases that we have seen."

Gordon Brown, British Prime Minister, on the allegation that Goldman Sachs defrauded investors during the subprime housing crisis

"The overall  essage, for the first time in a generation, is one of persistent and welcome progress."

Richard Horton, editor of medical journal The Lancet, on a report that the worldwide number of women dying each year from pregnancy and childbirth dropped to 342,900 in 2008 from 526,300 in 1980

"Nigeria's international image will be highly dented as a country without the political will to cooperate in the global war on terror."

Goodluck Jonathan, acting Nigerian President, urging lawmakers to pass swiftly anti-money laundering and antiterrorism financing laws to stop the country from being blacklisted globally