Poverty

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Almost a quarter of a billion people moved out of slum conditions in the past decade, driven by rapid economic growth in emerging giants India and China, but the number of people living in them continues to rise, the United Nations housing agency said on Friday.

President Barack Obama says Congress should ignore the politics around his health care overhaul and remember that the unpopular proposals that created Medicare and Social Security passed with lawmakers' courage.

Obama cites Social Security, Medicare in final push for health care overhaul. President Barack Obama says Congress should ignore the politics around his health care overhaul and remember that the unpopular proposals that created Medicare and Social Security passed with lawmakers' courage.

The GAVI vaccine alliance, which is backed by software billionaire Bill Gates, said Thursday that it needed an extra 4.3 billion dollars to save millions of lives in poor countries over the next five years.

Vaccine group seeks $4.3 billion from donors to ramp up immunization campaign for world's poor. A global vaccine initiative launched with the help of Bill Gates is seeking $4.3 billion in new funding to ramp up child immunization campaigns against deadly diseases such as hepatitis B, diarrhea and pneumonia in the developing world.

US appoints Spanish actor Antonio Banderas as Goodwill Ambassador for anti-poverty fight. Spanish actor Antonio Banderas has been named a U.N. Goodwill Ambassador for the fight against poverty, the United Nations Development Program announced Wednesday.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Development Program (UNDP) has named Spanish actor Antonio Banderas as a "Goodwill Ambassador" for the global fight against poverty, the agency announced on Wednesday.

World's richest man tells Lebanese students education and jobs best way to fight poverty. The world's richest man told a group of university students in Lebanon, his ancestral home, on Wednesday that education and jobs are the best way to fight poverty.

The Paris Club of 19 creditor countries said Wednesday it was cancelling all of Afghanistan's debt owed to its members, more than one billion dollars, after Kabul committed itself to fighting poverty.

Japan on Tuesday rescheduled 91.5 million euros (126 million dollars) in Ivory Coast's debt and urged the divided west African country to hold a long-delayed presidential election.

A firebrand Indian politician who champions the poor faced a hail of criticism Tuesday for wearing a garland of banknotes and spending million of dollars on a lavish rally.

Freddie Roach and Manny Pacquiao have never spoken about Roach's battle with Parkinson's disease but there is a candid conversation the trainer and boxer expect to have one day.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Many states have used funds from the $863 billion U.S. economic stimulus plan to help give a rising number of poor families emergency cash assistance, the Government Accountability Office said on Thursday.

China urges greater US commitments on climate change; technical, financial support. China told the United States on Wednesday to make stronger commitments on climate change and provide environmental expertise and financing to developing nations.

IMF official: Use quota method to raise funding to help poor nations adapt to climate change. The head of the International Monetary Fund on Monday proposed a plan for the world's governments to pool together to raise money needed to adapt to climate change, a rare step for an organization that normally does not develop environmental policies.

Poor countries need nuclear energy too, France says, but not nuclear cheaters. Poor countries need nuclear power, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Monday, urging rich lenders to help pay for a global nuclear expansion in the interests of fighting climate change and feeding the growing world hunger for energy.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union executive is tempering its hopes of securing a legally binding climate deal in talks this year culminating in Cancun, Mexico, focusing instead on a 2011 summit in South Africa, a source said.

LANJIGARH, India (Reuters) - As Hollywood rolls out the red carpet for the Oscars, a world away in remote eastern India, activists say the story of the blockbuster sci-fi film Avatar -- nominated for nine awards -- is being played out.

Clarification: Poverty story. In a March 2 story, The Associated Press reported in a headline that the government adopted a formula that would double the number of older people classified as living in poverty. It should have said that the number may double. As the AP story below the headline noted, final numbers won't be released until September 2011. The new poverty figure could change from early estimates, in part because the government formula will be tweaked to take into account whether a person is more likely to own a home without a mortgage and other factors.

Clarification: Poverty story. In a March 2 story, The Associated Press reported in a headline that the government adopted a formula that would double the number of older people classified as living in poverty. It should have said that the number may double. As the AP story below the headline noted, final numbers won't be released until September 2011. The new poverty figure could change from early estimates, in part because the government formula will be tweaked to take into account whether a person is more likely to own a home without a mortgage and other factors.