Crisis increasing poverty
The head of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, has said the global recovery from the economic crisis is fragile and uncertain.

Speaking in Mexico, he suggested that worldwide, the crisis had pushed up to 60 million people into poverty.

Mr Zoellick said that over the past 20 years there had been significant progress in reducing poverty particularly in China, India, Mexico and Brazil.

However he says there is still much work to be done.
Helping Haiti prepare
The inter-governmental International Organisation for Migration says it is pushing ahead with helping to prepare the people of Haiti for what is predicted to be an active hurricane season.

Hundreds of thousands remain in shelters following the devastation caused by January’s earthquake.

A spokesman for the migration organisation, Jean-Philippe Chauzy, says they are preparing for the worst case scenario.

Measures include “pre-positioning emergency shelter materials for 25,000 families”.

Havana getting
Russian tourists
For the first time since the Soviet Union collapsed almost 20 years ago, large numbers of Russians are heading back to their former cold war ally, Cuba, this time as tourists.

For many of these visitors, the island offers a nostalgic trip offering glimpses into their own recent past.

The tourists include Russians who were stationed in Cuba during the 30 year period when Moscow helped keep Fidel Castro’s revolution alive.

One of them, construction engineer Yevglenny Glottov