What a record on human rights

According to Amnesty International, in 2002, 81% of known executions took place in three nations: China, Iran and the United States. As you might expect, China was the chief contributor, with 1,060 (and probably more that weren't documented), but the US and Iran were almost level in this macabre race: 113 to 71.

Leaves the state department complaints about human rights abuses in Iran pretty hollow, that does.

From Fifty Facts that Should Change the World, by Jessica Williams, Icon 2004: the first book that I have bought after reading about it on the author's blog, Vixgirl.

Fifty Facts also notes that every cow in the EU is subsidised by $2.50 a day, more than 75% of Africans have to live on, and since 1977 there have been nearly 80,000 acts of disruption or violence abortion clinics in North America. (And that's a statistic that can only get worse, in the current climate.)

It also talks about Brazilian Avon ladies and the American belief in aliens - a good read, if a bit depressing just at the moment.