This week’s events include:

• Israeli and Palestinian leaders begin peace talks in Washington
• President Obama announces end to the Iraq War
• Final version of UN Congo report yet to be released

Israeli and Palestinian leaders begin peace talks in Washington

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.

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.

This week’s events include:

• Pakistan continues its battle with Mother Nature
• Iraq experiences worst attack this year
• Obama supports controversial mosque near ground zero

Pakistan continues its battle with Mother Nature

Pakistan continues its fight against the impact of its worst flood in living memory.

At least 1,600 people have been killed and entire villages have been swept away along with roads and bridges.

For the best part of a century, the Anglo-Saxons have been the world’s dominant ethnic group. Together they produce a third of the world’s total economic output.

But these five countries of English origin – America, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand – may have collectively peaked.

As the world goes through a power shift, the Anglo-Saxons – as they’re colloquially known – may have to accept a less dominant future economically, politically, militarily, culturally (including on the sports field) and even morally.

Having been around for more than a century, electric cars are perhaps the greatest never-been of the automobile industry.

With the potential to have us driving cheaper, cleaner and greener, we should all be using them.

However, there are a range of issues that have prevented them from taking over the mainstream.

Most cars use a four stroke internal combustion cycle to convert petrol into energy. By mixing fuel with heat and water in an enclosed space, energy is released in the form of a gas that then propels the car forward.

This week’s events include:

• Suspiciously overwhelming victory for Kagame in Rwandan elections
• Mudslide adds to region’s tragic weather caused by jetstream
• BP investigates possible fraudulent fishing claims in Louisiana

Suspiciously overwhelming victory for Kagame in Rwandan elections

On Monday, Rwandan President Paul Kagame was re-elected in the central African nation’s presidential elections by an overwhelming 93%, causing election observers to be suspicious.

We're constantly bombarded with negative stories of new diseases and dangers that we often forget to acknowledge the positive progress being made.

So here’s a look at some good news in the development of global health.

The Millennium Development Goals

Ten years ago, 189 country leaders met to adopt the UN Millennium Declaration and establish ten Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), with targets set for 2015.

Here's the good news – in terms of the health-related MDGs, they’re doing an okay job.

The difficulty of trying to get a global agreement for climate change comes down to one core problem – unemployment in America.

As demonstrated on 27 July, US politicians have given up trying to pass an emissions trading scheme (EMS) for fear of causing jobs losses and not getting re-elected.

And with America not pulling its weight, many other countries are refusing to do so as well.

On the surface it seems unfair to blame one country for the lack of progress.