MADRID - WORLD economic recovery will be slow and rising unemployment could bring the threat of social crisis and protectionism, World Bank President Robert Zoellick said in an interview with Spanish Sunday newspaper El Pais.

'What began as a great financial crisis and became a great economic crisis is now becoming a great crisis of unemployment, and if we don't take measures there is a risk of a great human and social crisis, with major political implications,' he said.

BEIJING - CHINESE regional carrier Hainan Airlines made a loss of 1.4 billion yuan (S$296 million) in 2008 as high oil prices and dwindling passenger demand took their toll, state media reported on Sunday.

The Shanghai-listed company said the loss was due to a rise in the value of oil in the first half of last year and a drop in demand in the second half due to the global financial crisis, the official Xinhua news agency said.

XI'AN (China) - ONE of China's growing number of millionaires - for whom the financial crisis barely registers - Chen Yilong has just bought a private plane to add to his many luxury homes.

Lighting a cigarette in a teahouse in Xi'an, in northern Shaanxi province, the 49-year-old pauses when asked how much money he has, before saying in a conspiratorial voice: 'You can safely say I'm a multi-millionaire (in yuan).'