鈥淚t exterminates thousands and forces them not to eat or drink, and they will have to evacuate their homes without taking anything with them, until we can finally purge them.鈥�
Saddam Hussein, recorded on a tape played on Monday in Baghdad at the trial of his cousin, 鈥淐hemical Ali鈥� Hassan al-Majeed, who is accused of plotting the 1988 chemical attacks on Iraqi Kurds (Reuters, 8 January)
鈥淧lutoed鈥� has been chosen as 2006 word of the year.鈥�
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The American Dialect Society on 5 January, after Pluto last year lost its status as a planet. 鈥淧lutoed鈥� means to demote or devalue (CNN, 7 January)
鈥淭he pilgrims come to wash away their sins. After a dip here, they may carry skin diseases with them.鈥�
The Ganges is now too dirty for ritual bathing, warns Hari Chaitanya Brahmachari, who runs the Hindu monastery in Varanasi, India (AFP, 8 January)
鈥淭ony Blair is crossing his fingers and hoping someone will invent aeroplanes that don鈥檛 cause climate change. That鈥檚 like holding out for cigarettes that don鈥檛 cause cancer.鈥�
Emily Armistead of Greenpeace UK reflects on Blair鈥檚 view that energy-efficient air travel, rather than fewer flights, is the best way to limit greenhouse gas emissions from aircraft (The Guardian, London, 9 January)
鈥淭he baby was born on New Year鈥檚 Day.鈥�
Vibhu Prakash, principal scientist at the Bombay Natural History Society, India, announcing the first captive birth of an oriental white-backed vulture. Numbers in the wild have crashed by 97 per cent because of poisoning by the livestock drug diclofenac (AFP, 9 January)
