Sunday, Apr. 30, 2006

Numbers

27.5 in. Size of objects detectable on Earth by a new Israeli satellite, launched by Russia last week, that will allow Israel to gather data on Iran's nuclear program

$800 million Cost of Iran's Bushehr nuclear-power plant, which Russia is helping build

41% Portion of working-age, moderate-income Americans who lacked health insurance last year, up from 28% in 2001

15.7% Portion of all Americans who were uninsured in 2004, the most recent year for which overall data are available

0 Number of World Bank experts working on antimalaria efforts, six years after the Bank pledged to spend up to $500 million fighting the disease, according to an article in the medical journal Lancet

1 million Deaths each year from malaria, which is spread by the anopheles mosquito and kills mostly children in Africa

1,933 Number of reported cases of legal euthanasia in the Netherlands last year, up from 1,886 in 2004, the third annual increase

38 Number of reported deaths by physician-assisted suicide last year in Oregon--which has about one-fifth the population of the Netherlands--up from 16 in 1998, the first full year it was legal

42 Number of years that two Texas brothers, ages 63 and 65, have been mailing each other the same recycled birthday card

15-c- Price of the card when it was bought in 1964, when it cost just a nickel to mail

Sources: AP; Chicago Tribune; Commonwealth Fund; U.S. Census Bureau; Lancet (2); AP; Oregon Department of Human Services; AP (2)