Hobson's choice

Number of women in Sub Saharan Africa, between the ages of 15 and 49, who have HIV/AIDS: 9,900,000

Number of infants in the world, a day, who become infected with HIV

through breastfeeding: 500

Number of Holocaust survivors being cared for in Israeli mental hospitals: 1,017

Number of new houses in the Jerusalem suburb of Pisgat Ze'ev which have been unoccupied since January, as a result of protests by ultra-Orthodox demonstrators who claim that a highway to the suburb would disrupt a Jewish burial ground: 1,000

Percentage of dead bodies cremated in the U.K.: 73

Percentage of money in personal savings accounts in China's state banks which has been lost by being transferred, in emergency and unrecoverable "loans", to China's state enterprises: 50

Billions of litres of soft drink consumed last year in the UK: 10

Percentage of fruit juice content in a 500ml bottle of the "enriched citrus beverage", Sunny Delight: 5

Teaspoons of sugar in a 500ml bottle of Sunny Delight: 10

Chances that a catastrophic sports injury - resulting in death or paralysis - suffered by an American female high school or college student has been caused by cheerleading: 1 in 2

Number of calls a day, complaining about having to walk 100 or 200 metres, received by the town hall of Bourges in France in the build-up

to No Cars in the City Day: 250

Percentage increase in traffic generated within five years by every 1% increase in new lane-miles: 0.9

Damages which the French Ministry of Culture is demanding Pierre Pinnoncelli should pay for relieving himself in Marcel Duchamp's porcelain urinal, entitled "Fountain", at an exhibition in Nimes, and then giving it a "symbolic" blow with a hammer: pounds 26,000

Number of Americans wearing communication headsets as part of their employment: 3 million

Compiled by Will Hobson

SOURCES: New Scientist(x2), Toronto Globe and Mail, The Art Newspaper, BMJ(htttp://www.bmj.com), Le Monde(x2), New York Review of Books, The Face(x3), The Observer, Le Monde, The Economist, Le Monde, Arena