The world's richest man, Carlos Slim, a Mexican telecoms tycoon, hosts an annual gathering of Latin American billionaires who cultivate each other while ostensibly discussing regional poverty.

ECONOMIST: Where the influential people meet and talk

The agency says that drought, high food prices, severe poverty and regional conflict are causing the crisis.

BBC: Oxfam warns of West Africa drought 'catastrophe'

The Conference also recommended a number of strategies to improve reporting on Caribbean regional integration and the achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goals, including poverty alleviation, to which regional governments are committed.

UNESCO: Education

But many a multinational has come to India with dreams of making a killing only to be defeated by its vast distances, its regional quirks and its sheer poverty.

ECONOMIST: Premium market

Other countries, too, have problems such as creaking education systems, ageing populations, ill health, pollution, poverty, bad bureaucrats, regional tensions, uncompetitive heavy industries, cash-hungry public services and terrorism.

ECONOMIST: Life for most Russians is bleak, unhealthy and short

Poverty is a key factor in the regional disparities seen in the study, says Mira Katz, Ph.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

No-one expects Eduardo Rodriguez to solve Bolivia's entrenched problems - of widespread poverty, social exclusion, racial discrimination and regional divisions.

BBC: NEWS | Americas | Bolivia hopes for better days

Today, no country is in the old sense far away when the consequences of regional instability and terrorism - and then also climate change, poverty, mass population movements and even organised crime - reverberate quickly round the globe.

BBC: In full: Brown security statement