Castro 9, US 0
"Not including Mr [George "Dubya"] Bush, the 74-year-old Dr Castro has outlasted nine US presidents since coming to power in 1959, surviving not only assassination attempts inspired by Washington but also the abortive 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion and a four decade-old economic embargo" — Agence France-Presse report, January 11.
Enlightened leader
"You've got a heritage of ... defending Southern patriots like [General Robert E.] Lee, [General Stonewall] Jackson and [Confederate President Jefferson] Davis... We've got stand up and speak ... or else we'll be taught that these people were giving their lives, subscribing their sacred fortunes and their honor to some perverted agenda" — "Dubya" Bush's nominee for US attorney general, John Ashcroft, in a 1998 interview with the Southern Partisan, lauding the magazine's defence of the leaders who fought the US Civil war on the side of slavery. Ashcroft's job is to enforce federal civil rights laws.
Let them cake!
"The word is getting around that you can get three square meals a day in Parramatta and that's not my idea of feeding the homeless" — Parramatta mayor Lorraine Wearne complaining about the number soup kitchens in the CBD in the January 10 Parramatta Advertiser.