Thursday, Oct. 18, 2007
Numbers
MONEY
48%
Percentage of Americans surveyed who say the country is divided along economic lines. The number was 26% in 1988
34%
Percentage who think they belong to the have-nots, double the percentage of 1988
HISTORY
$8,000
Cost of a facsimile of the Chinon parchment (below), the original account of the alleged misdeeds of the Knights Templar. One copy is reserved for Pope Benedict XVI, and the Vatican is selling the remaining 799 copies
700
Number of years ago the Templar, formed during the Crusades, were officially disavowed by the Vatican, though Pope Clement V acquitted them of heresy
LARCENY
$5 million
Price of a diamond-studded bracelet stolen from the Harry Winston store in Paris on Oct. 5 in one of the largest jewelry heists ever, with more than $28.4 million in baubles swiped
20%
Percentage of the retail price that stolen jewels tend to fetch because of the risk of detection
HEALTH
41
U.S. rank, out of 171 countries, of women who die from complications in pregnancy or childbirth. The U.S. death rate--1 in 4,800 women--is far higher than the European average of 1 in 16,400
14.3%
Death rate for mothers in Niger, which has the highest average