Voicebox

“It is better to starve than take this sort of relief.”
65-year-old Nessa Banu
from Falsatia, after receiving a relief packet of rotten rice, potatoes and onions

“Saying there are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq doesn't make it so . . . and proclaiming mission accomplished certainly doesn't make it so.”
John Kerry
US Democrat presidential nominee at his acceptance speech in Boston

“The floods have opened up a new avenue of income for the BNP-Jamaat looters.”
Sheikh Hasina
Leader of the Opposition, accusing the government of their failure to face the flood disaster and barring Awami League members from conducting relief activities

“It could be that one day when we arrive at a comprehensive peace and everyone disarms completely we will also be ready to consider taking steps.”
Ariel Sharon
Israeli prime minister at a meeting of his right-wing Likud party at Tel Aviv.
Sharon has said that Israel would only reconsider the need for its "deterrent capability" (which international experts estimate at an arsenal of 100 to 200 warheads) when there is peace across the Middle East and its neighbours abandon weapons of mass destruction.

“This is the time to stand by the affected people. They will remember it.”
Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia
Urging opposition political parties, NGOs and affluent people to come forward to help the millions of flood-affected

“For me, under international law, Saddam's arrest is void and the procedure against him is illegal. It is a judicial masquerade.”
Andre Chamy
French lawyer defending Saddam, in an interview for a French daily

QUOTATIONS ARE TAKEN FROM DIFFERENT LOCAL AND INTERNATIONAL NEWSPAPERS.