Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao sought Thursday to calm global concerns about the impact of severe droughts on China's grain output and inflation, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The country's supply of grain is basically in balance with demand and reiterating the government's confidence that it can keep prices under control, he said, adding:

The tidal wave of public anger against the Egyptian regime that engulfed the country in recent days has transfixed governments and people the world over.

The United States says it is willing to help India and China improve their relations and welcomes a greater involvement by New Delhi in East Asia, AFP reports.

“What young people want is political dignity. Democracy may enhance that. But political dignity also encompasses ethnic or national self-determination, religious self-definition, and human and social rights. All of this now takes place in a wired world where the youth are acutely aware of economic, racial, and social inequities.”

“Nationhood is not an abstract phenomenon. It is a work continuously in the making; a work that requires effort and dedication, vision and leadership; most importantly, it requires the collective free will of the people.

Preliminary official results from South Sudan’s independence referendum show that more than 99 percent of voters in the plebiscite want secession.

“Exclusive reliance on quiet dialogue and cooperation [with abusive states] becomes a charade designed more to appease critics of complacency than to secure change. … A key offender has been the European Union.

“Over the years you see an increase in ‘important’ defendants, indicted for more serious crimes: the higher you climb up the power hierarchy, the more serious the crimes in the indictments are.”

“Southern Sudan is just the beginning. The world may soon have 300 independent, sovereign nations ... and that's just fine.”

“In every state, without exception, there are people in state power who … assert that all the citizens of that state constitute a nation, one that has already determined its destiny. In the twenty-first century, [this] is in retreat in most countries.”

Four top Khmer Rouge leaders have had their appeals against the cases against them thrown out, paving the way for another major genocide trial later this year.