Noted & quoted.

• Position: Soundbites

'It could be interpreted as earthquake diplomacy. It could be used as a starting point for dialogue.'

--Davoud Hermitas Bavand, a political scientist at Tehran University, on having U.S. aid workers in Bam, Iran, where an earthquake left more than 30,000 dead. (The New York Times, Dec. 31)

'I am not a criminal. I am not a terrorist. I feel like I am being treated like one.'

--Julio Mendoza, arriving in Miami from Argentina, on the new policy of fingerprinting and photographing many of the foreigners who enter the U.S. (The New York Times, Jan...