- Global military spending rose 3.5 percent last year to $1.2 trillion:
The United States spent $529 billion, slightly less than the entire GDP of the Netherlands, on military operations in 2006, up 5 percent over the previous year, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in its latest year book."It is worth asking how cost-effective military expenditure is as a way of increasing the security of human lives," SIPRI researcher Elisabeth Skons said.
- The UK House of Commons has rejected a motion calling for a formal inquiry into the decision to go to war in Iraq. By a vote of 288 to 253). It's also been revealed that the head of the British Navy sought independent legal advice before going to war in Iraq.
