Most toilets flush in E flat. [US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention]
In 1995, the average Japanese worker took 56 per cent of his or her holiday entitlement. Last year it fell back to 48 per cent.[Ronald Dore]
Qatar has enough gas reserves to heat up every American home for the next century. [Los Angeles Times, 22nd December 2002]
If the ten candidate states join the EU next year as planned, 1,582 new translating jobs will be needed at EU offices. [UPI]
Soviet-made aeroplanes once made up 26 per cent of the world's aircraft fleet. [Wall Street Journal, 20th December 2002]
By the end of 2002, Volkswagen expects its sales in China will have exceeded those in the US for the first time. [Washington Post, 6th December 2002]
54 per cent of London taxi drivers are over 50 years old. [Transport Statistics for London 2001]
Between 1999 and 2002, the percentage of people that view the US favourably had fallen by 17 per cent in Germany-but grew by 1 per cent in France and 24 per cent in Russia. [Pew Research Centre]
80 per cent of the world's artificial Christmas trees are produced in the Shenzen region of China. [South China Morning Post, 13th January 2003]
The "zip" of zip code stands for "Zone Improvement Plan." [Chicago Tribune, 2nd December 2002]
89 per cent of donations to the Labour party in the third quarter of 2002 came from trade unions. [New Politics Network]
27.5 per cent of first degree graduates in Northern Ireland stay in education or training after graduating-the highest in the UK [Regional Trends 37]
The Amazon rainforest still covers 87 per cent of its 1950s footprint. [The Times, 27th December 2002]
