Thursday, Apr. 17, 2008

Numbers

RAPE

742 Number of sexual-assault cases the U.S. Department of Defense has investigated in Iraq and Afghanistan, of which 26 involve attacks on American civilians or contractors

0 Number of civilian cases that have so far been tried in court, according to testimony in recent Defense Department hearings

OIL RESERVES 4.3 billion Estimated number of barrels of oil in North Dakota and Montana that could be retrieved using current technology, according to a new study by the U.S. Geological Survey. The amount is 25 times as big as the USGS's original estimate, in 1995

7.6 billion Barrels of oil the U.S. uses each year

POLLUTION 46,000 Estimated number of floating plastic pieces per square mile (2.6 sq km) of ocean, according to a 2006 U.N. study

113 billion Pounds of plastic produced in the U.S. in 2006 (51 billion kg)

CORRUPTION 18 years Prison sentence handed down to former Shanghai Communist Party boss Chen Liangyu for corruption charges involving $4.8 billion in stolen cash

22 Number of members of the National People's Congress, China's legislative body, who have been ousted in the past five years on corruption charges

Sources: AP (2); New York Times (2); Bloomberg (2); Wall Street Journal (2)