"This is a lunatic idea."

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid on U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's offer of an "honorable form of reconciliation" for Taliban members who abandon extremism.

"Saving The New York Times now ranks with saving Darfur as a high-minded cause."

Bill Keller, executive editor of the Times, comparing his paper's struggles during the economic downturn with genocide.

"I hope that for this family and for my officers, that there can be a way to get through."

Milton, Mass., Police Chief Richard G. Wells Jr., after a Milton police officer saw 23-year-old Kerby Revelus decapitate his 5-year-old sister with a kitchen knife. When Revelus then attacked his 9-year-old sister, the officer shot and killed Revelus.

"They should see it like a weekend of camping."

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, on the thousands of Italians who have been rendered homeless by an April 6 earthquake, as the quake's death toll topped 280 and strong aftershocks kept many outdoors.

"I would say we're not prepared to do anything about it."

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, before North Korea's publicized missile launch early this month, on how Washington would respond.

"He doesn't actually use Twitter, but the energy of it is all him."

Chris Romero on rapper 50 Cent, who, with 200,000 Twitter followers, is one of the most popular celebrities to Twitter. Romero revealed to The New York Times that he is 50 Cent's ghostwriter for Twitter.

"Quorum of the Twelve Apostates."

A photo caption in The Daily Universe, the student publication of Brigham Young University, under a photo of leaders of the Mormon church. Mormons call the leaders "apostles"; usually it's only their critics who call them "apostates." After the typo was discovered, the university retrieved thousands of copies from newsstands.