Hobson's choice

Percentage of world's currency reserves held by Japan, China, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, South Korea and Thailand: 40.5

Honduras's national debt, mainly to multilateral institutions such as the World Bank, although as a central bank official said last week, "We do not know where the country's debts are, let alone how we will repay them. The files were all washed away.": $4.4bn

Honduras's national debt repayments expressed as a percentage of its export earnings: 28.8

Number of Indian children between five and 14 who do not go to school, according to the latest figures in the 1991 census: 200 million

Number of Indian children between five and 14 who are labourers, although the figure may have multiplied by as much as nine times since 1991: 11.28 million

Number of miners who have died in South African gold mines this century, up to 1993: 69,000

Percentage of managers in UK businesses who fulfil the diagnostic criteria for psychopathy - lack of activity in the amygdala, or blockage of the neural pathways between the limbic system and the rational faculties of the brain: 6

Percentage of the UK's general population who fulfil the diagnostic criteria for psychopathy: 1

Number of scientologists in the world: 8 million

Percentage of Latvia's 64,000 sq km - apart from its 3,000 lakes and 12,000 rivers - covered by forest: 40

Chances that an inhabitant of Britain would like to live in the countryside: 4 out of 5

Average distance in miles that a carrot travels to reach supermarket shelves: 200

Number of different brands of water on sale at Colette, the design store in Rue St Honore, Paris: 60

Amount egg sales have risen a day since the start of Delia Smith's back to basics television show: 1.3 million

Complied by Will Hobson

SOURCES: European, Eastern Eye, New Nation, Financial, Times Liberation, Independent on Sunday, Guardian, European, Reuters, Financial Times, Yorkshire Evening Post.