AMAZING FACTS

In 1997, the US maintained 13,750 nuclear warheads, 5,546 of them on ballistic missiles.

In 1998, the US spent more than $35 billion on its nuclear weapons programme.

In 1997, the US exported $15,6 billion in arms to developing countries, 54% of which went to non-democratic regimes.

Global spending on defence total more than $700 billion. Global spending on education is less than $100 billion.

Although the two-finger V for Victory sign is synonymous with Winston Churchill, it actually was the idea of a Belgian refugee in London, Victor De Laveleye.

Chemical and biological warfare have been used long before World War 1. During the Peloponnesian War in the 5th century BC, Spartans used sulphur and pitch to overcome the enemy. During ancient and medieval times, soldiers sometimes threw bodies of plague victims over the walls of besieged cities, or into water wells. During the French and Indian wars in North America (1689-1763), blankets used by smallpox victims were given to American Indians in the hope they would carry the disease.