"People have said, you know, you're being outspent, and everybody's talking about all the math, and that this race is inevitable. But . . . he [Mitt Romney] spent a whole lot of money against me for being inevitable." – Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum gathers momentum after primary successes in Alabama and Mississippi
“Too many foreigners in France.”
– President Nicolas Sarkozy moves immigration and national identity to the heart of his re-election campaign, seeking to win back voters who supported him in 2007 but have since shifted their allegiance to the National Front
“I am absolutely dedicated to making sure that anyone who is found to have committed wrongdoing is held fully accountable.”
– The commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, Gen John Allen, promises a thorough investigation after a US soldier shoots dead 16 Afghan civilians, nine of them children, in a night-time massacre in southern Afghanistan
"The loss of the home is the Armageddon for families. It's not just the issue of housing and accommodation. When children have to change school [for example], there is the embarrassment and shame that goes with it." – Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore tells The Irish Times of his and the Government's concern about the mortgage crisis. The Government has undertaken to bring forward a range of measures to assist families in arrears
"The principle in the European Union and in the long European legal and historical tradition is, in Latin – pacta sunt servanda – respect your commitments and obligations." – EU economics commissioner Olli Rehn says in unambiguous terms that the Irish Government is obliged to meet all its debts