Russian births up, but economic crisis threatens gains

Searches for "abortion" on the Russian Internet portal Yandex have more than doubled since the onset of the financial crisis. According to the United Nations, Russia has the highest rate of abortions in the world, in a hold over from Soviet times when the operation replaced traditional forms of contraception. Last year was the first since the fall of the Soviet Union when the number of births narrowly outstripped the number of abortions in the country. AFP