Number four in the hierarchy is Jia Qinglin, who until recently served as party chief in Beijing.

ECONOMIST: China's new line-up

Mr Luo failed to secure the anti-corruption portfolio, a role taken by Wu Guanzheng, number seven in the hierarchy, whose loyalties are uncertain.

ECONOMIST: China's new line-up

Mr Watts, who was first elected to Congress in 1994 as part of Newt Gingrich's conservative revolution, lost a power struggle with Tom DeLay, the majority whip (and number three in the hierarchy).

ECONOMIST: The retirement of J.C. Watts

So Mr Zeng has to be content as number five in the new hierarchy (he is likely to pick up the additional title of state vice-president next March).

ECONOMIST: China's new line-up

Steny Hoyer, the current number two in the House Democrats' hierarchy, says he has enough votes to win.

ECONOMIST: Bipartisanship

Regarded as number three in the al-Qaeda hierarchy, he has confessed to 30 other terrorist plots, according to the Pentagon, including the beheading of Daniel Pearl, a journalist with the Wall Street Journal, and plots to blow up Big Ben and Heathrow airport.

ECONOMIST: A dreadful dilemma for the new president

But there are number of things that just are outdated, our strict hierarchy, in terms risk aversion, things of that nature.

NPR: Ford's North American Chief Sets Sights on Restructuring

Solid state storage has become a permanent part of the storage hierarchy, improving the overall performance and reducing energy use in a growing number of storage-intensive applications and systems.

FORBES: The 25th Season of Flash

Hezbollah's protective ally, Iran, is enduring harsh economic sanctions from the West over its controversial nuclear program, and a number of Iranian nuclear scientists have been assassinated, as have a few key figures in the Hezbollah hierarchy.

CNN: Europe, name Hezbollah in terror