"I'm prepared to make some tough decisions on some of these issues, but I can't ask folks who are, you know, middle class seniors who are on Medicare, young people who are trying to get student loans to go to college, I can't ask them to sacrifice and not ask anything of higher income folks." - President Barack Obama on "fiscal cliff" negotiations.

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"By continuing these war crimes of settlement activities on our lands and stealing our money, Israel is pushing and forcing us to go to the ICC." - Nabil Shaath, a senior Palestinian official, speaking of going to the International Criminal Court in response to Israel cutting off $100 million in tax transfers and its plan to build thousands of new homes in West Bank settlements.

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"I wanted to help the man, but I couldn't figure out how to help. It all happened so fast." - Freelance photographer R. Umar Abbasi, who has been criticized for taking the photo of a man before he was killed by an oncoming subway train.