The week in words

PARIS, France – Let’s take a look back at the week that was through the words of some of the week’s newsmakers from around the world:

A living legend 

“I’m now a legend, I’m also the greatest athlete to live.”

— Jamaican superstar athlete Usain Bolt on becoming the first man to win back-to-back 100m and 200m titles at consecutive Games

Praying for freedom 

“The three girls — Masha, Katya, Nadya — I think they have done something courageous. I think they paid the price and I pray for their freedom.”

— Pop star Madonna tells fans at a Moscow concert that the all-girl band Pussy Riot should go free after prosecutors sought three years in prison to punish them for performing an anti-Putin song in a church

War on “terror”

“The Syrian people and their government are determined to purge the country of terrorists and to fight the terrorists without respite.”

— President Bashar al-Assad, speaking to Saeed Jalili, an envoy of Syria’s key regional ally Iran

Mandela’s smile

“That’s a beautiful smile!”

— US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton compliments Nelson Mandela as they pose with his wife Graca Machel for a picture ahead of a private lunch in his home village of Qunu, South Africa

Fallen hero

“You’re still a hero to me.”

— Actress Yao Chen, China’s most popular microblogger with 23 million followers, after Chinese 110m hurdling sensation Liu Xiang fell at the first barrier in his opening heat, prompting widespread sympathy at home

Olympic spirit

“This is a bullying act little short of insulting the Olympic spirit of solidarity, friendship and progress and politicising sports.”

— North Korea’s official KCNA news agency after the Rupert Murdoch-controlled Australian tabloid mX described the nuclear-armed state as “Naughty Korea” in its Olympic medal tallies

Naughty

“I think everybody pees in the pool.”

— Olympic swimming champion Michael Phelps tells the Wall Street Journal about one rule that competitors all break

Touchdown

“We are wheels down on Mars. Oh my God.”

— A member of mission control at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, on the successful landing of its Mars Science Laboratory and Curiosity rover on the surface of the Red Planet

Just like earth

“The first impression you get is how earth-like this seems.”

— Scientist John Grotzinger commenting on a low-resolution black and white panoramic image released by NASA after the Mars landing

 Sharia in Mali

“Yes, I confirm it. We applied sharia in Ansongo yesterday. The hand of a thief was cut off. Sharia demands it.”

— Mohamed Ould Abdine, a leader of the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), confirms to AFP that Islamists in northern Mali had severed the hand of a thief in accordance with strict Islamic law

Romney Hood

“It’s like Robin Hood in reverse… It’s Romney Hood.”

— US President Barack Obama joking that his election foe Mitt Romney’s tax plans would rob from the middle class to help the rich

Oops!

“To that point, you know, if people had been in Massachusetts under governor Romney’s health care plan, they would have had health care.”

— Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul taking a surprise stance by defending a healthcare law the Republican passed as governor but distanced himself from after challenging President Barack Obama for the White House

The moment

“This might just be the moment Mitt Romney lost the election. Wow.”

— A tweet by RedState.com editor in chief Erick Erickson, referring to the surprise comment by Saul

Ignorance

“People don’t understand who we are. It’s a misidentity. They think we’re Muslim or the Taliban. We’re not.”

— Balwinder Sidhu, 57, a Sikh and retired taxi driver, after the shooting in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, in a Sikh temple that left 6 people dead

They will pay

“We swear in the name of God to avenge them. Anyone liaising with these groups that have attacked our troops in the Sinai in recent months will pay dearly, be it inside Egypt or abroad.”

— Egypt’s military reacts to an attack by militants on a border outpost in the Sinai in which 16 border guards were killed.

Let my son die

“The Americans did not bring humanitarianism or democracy, they did nothing good for us. Even if they brought all of America to Fallujah to help us, what they did was far more cruel than anything we have seen in our lives… I would rather let my son die than go to the Americans.”

— Iraqi Omar Abid Ouda, whose newborn son has a heart defect, reacting to news that US medics helped train their Iraqi counterparts in a new hospital ward in Fallujah, where some residents blame health problems on weapons used by US forces in 2004.

Volcanic fireworks

“There were rocks being thrown out. It was like thunder and lightning and fireworks. It was spectacular.”

— Local resident David Bennett after Mount Tongariro volcano, in the middle of New Zealand’s North Island, erupts after lying dormant for more than a century – Agence France-Presse