The World Today

Interesting Random Factoids of the Day:

Last month, a Zogby poll of Americans who had passports found that they supported John Kerry over Mr. Bush, 58 percent to 35 percent.

The U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 3.3 percent in the spring, the government reported Wednesday. That was significantly better than a previous estimate but still the weakest showing in more than a year.

Parkfield, a rural town of about 40 people, lies virtually atop the San Andreas fault, the largest and most active of California's seismic fissures. Six moderate earthquakes - in 1857, 1881, 1901, 1922, 1934, and 1966 - have shaken Parkfield since the start of record-keeping. Because the ground had been quiet since 1966, and because of the average 22-year lull between quakes, the United States Geological Survey issued an official prediction two decades ago that another earthquake would occur in Parkfield in 1988, or at least before 1993. On Tuesday, the quake broke the earth exactly where the scientists had expected, the same spot that ruptured in 1934 and 1966. And it was as strong as they had predicted - magnitude 6.0.

Israeli forces killed six Palestinians including three teenagers on Wednesday. Youths of 17 and 14 in a stone-throwing crowd that confronted Israeli forces were shot dead in Gaza's Jabalya refugee camp. Fifteen others, many of them students in school uniforms, were taken to hospital with gunshot wounds, medics said. In a separate incident in central Gaza, Israeli troops shot dead a boy of 13 and wounded four others in a crowd of stone-throwers. In Jenin, a militant died when a taxi he was in overturned while trying to elude pursuing Israeli soldiers. A comrade was shot dead as he fled on foot. Israeli troops also blew up the Jenin home of a high-profile militant commander in the Fatah faction of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. The militant leader was not there at the time.

Thirteen million gallons of water are pumped out of the [New York City subway] system daily by 309 pump plants, equipped with a total of 748 pumps. As much as three times that amount came pouring in on the days [September 8 and 18] the system flooded.

These facts taken from today's New York Times.