The chief economist of HSBC bank Stephen King recently raised the question in a book of what will happen when the world’s poor become rich.

The answer is obviously great news for the world’s poor, but a mixture of pros and cons for people currently living in the rich world.

He believes the West’s relative power and wealth will decline, as a share of the global pie. But depending on what Westerners’ decide to do about it, their absolute wealth – money in the hand – will either decrease or increase.

Things are bad enough for the people of Pakistan with the floods and constant bomb attacks by insurgents.

Now a handful of their heroic national cricketers have been accused of deliberately making bad plays in a match against England in order to profit from its betting.

David Petraeus has one of the most difficult jobs in the world.

After the resignation of his predecessor in June, Petraeus has taken on the role of Commander of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.

So who is this man that President Obama has so much faith in, why was he given this role, and what is his strategy?

The war in Afghanistan began in 2001 in response to the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

On Friday, a year after its completion, a historic and controversial draft report by the United Nations was leaked to the media before its scheduled release today.

It is believed that the authors feared that top UN officials were going to have it changed to avoid potentially harmful consequences from one of its findings.

This week’s events include:

• Judgement errors made over Philippines bus hijacking
• Australian election comes down to four independents
• Somali politicians gunned down in hotel
• Plane crashes in China and Nepal

Judgement errors made over Philippines bus hijacking

Eight Hong Kong tourists were killed along with the gunman after he took a bus full of people hostage on Monday in the Philippines capital city Manila.

It’s not often you get a happy disaster story. But on Sunday – two weeks after their mineshaft in northern Chile caved in – all 33 miners acknowledged they were alive.

Trapped after rocks blocked their exit, they managed to live in a shelter 700 metres (2,300 feet) underground.

But rather than bring them straight out, rescuers now say they won’t be able to get them out until Christmas, posing a serious challenge ahead for the miners.

The accident