The divide

Rather than leading with Bush and General Petraeus yet again, the Gruniad should feature this story on the front page. The figures from the World Federation of United Nations Associations are stark and and reveal the state of inequality between the rich and the poor of this world today.

• 211m: Globally, the number of people affected by natural disasters every year

• 225: Number of rich people with the same combined income as 2.7 billion poor

• 18%: Proportion of people unable to read, compared with 37% illiteracy in 1970

• 1 in 5: Proportion of women who will be a victim of rape or attempted rape

• $1000bn: The cost of world corruption in 2006

• 13-15 million: children orphaned through AIDS

The vast majority of bribes go to officials in rich countries not in developing countries.