Surprises, Curiosities and Conundrums:

30     years of Libya 's diplomatic isolation ended when Prime Minister Tony Blair visited Quaddafi in March after Libya promised to surrender its nuclear weapons.

13     years since Somalia had a government; in August Abdullahi Yusuf was elected president by the transitional parliament in exile in Kenya .

51%      U.S. population favored George W. Bush in the November election that gave him a second term in office.

60%      Japanese polled are against Japanese troops staying longer in Iraq, which disagrees with the government's historic decision in December to begin expanding military activity for the first time since the post-WWII commitment to pacifism. (BBC)

22%     decline in applications for asylum in industrialized countries; 368,000 asylum seekers arrived in industrialized countries, the lowest number in 16 years; France accepted the most: 61,600. (UNHCR)

61%     decline in asylum seekers from Iraq . (UNHCR)

8     countries withdrew their troops and/or support from Iraq (including the Dominican Republic , Honduras , Hungary , New Zealand , Nicaragua , Philippines , Spain , Thailand ).

12.5%     of U.S. work force has union membership (a decline since 2003).

    (http://www.thenation.com/

doc.mhtml?i=20050314&s=moberg)

~3.2bn     global urban population; current global population is ~6.5 bn.

$37.4bn     budget for U.S. Department of Homeland Security; this was its second year of existence.

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~ signifies estimated statistics.

**Total US spending on war since September 11, 2001 is equivalent to over $5,000 for each person living in Iraq and Afghanistan . (BBC)

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