"The surgery was successful and we expect a complete recovery over the next six months," said Clanton, also a professor of orthopedic surgery at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston, after Liu's procedure.

"If China maintains sound growth and U.S. and European companies prosper here, it's a contribution not only to China's taxes and jobs, but also to the stability of the global economy."

Chinese Minister of Commerce Chen Deming, at a dinner event organized by the American Chamber of Commerce China in Beijing on December 5

"I have to admit that in 1979, now 30 years ago, I didn't envision such transforming events inside China or between China and the outside world."

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, praising China's rapid changes in the 30 years of reform and opening up, in an interview with Chinese media organizations at the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia, before the 30th anniversary of the establishment of China-U.S. diplomatic relations on January 1

"What I foresee is a prolonged political crisis with no immediate results for two or three years. In that time, the country will be going from bad to worse."

George Kirtsos, a political commentator and the publisher of City Press, an independent Greek newspaper, after a 15-year-old boy's shooting death by police on December 6 caused riots across Greece

"The conduct would make Lincoln roll over in his grave."

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, talking to the media on December 9 after FBI agents arrested Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, who was accused of scheming to sell President-elect Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat for cash or a plum job for himself in the new administration

"Few are aware that cancer already kills more people in poor countries than HIV, malaria and tuberculosis combined. And if current smoking trends continue, the problem will get significantly worse."

Douglas Blayney, President-elect of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, in response to a report released by the World Health Organization on December 9 predicting that cancer would become the world's top killer disease by 2010