MIAMI (Reuters) – The U.S. military said on Sunday it was doing its best to get as many planes as possible into Port-au-Prince, after NGOs complained shipments of aid had not been allowed to land at the U.S.-controlled airport.

More than 30 countries have rushed relief to Haiti since Tuesday’s devastating earthquake, choking the airspace and the ramp at the small airfield and delaying the arrival of urgently needed medical and food supplies.

Colonel Buck Elton, commander of the U.S. military directing flights at Haiti’s airport, said there had been 600 take-offs and landings since he took over the one-runway airport’s traffic on Wednesday, though 50 flights had been diverted.

The airport’s control tower was knocked out by the quake and U.S. military air controllers were operating from a radio post on the airfield grass, he said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – It’s too soon for Americans to plan a Cuban vacation of beach, mambo and mojitos, but the U.S. travel industry is gearing up for a return to its largest Caribbean destination before Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution.

Tour operators held a video conference with Cuban tourism officials in Havana on Wednesday and asked them if they are ready for the “rush” of Americans if the U.S. travel ban is lifted as proposed by legislation now under consideration in the U.S. Congress.

“Americans really want to see Cuba,” said Robert Whitely, president of the U.S. Tour Operators, which together with the National Tour Association also present at the event, handles 75 percent of all package tour business to the Caribbean.

“We predict that at least 850,000 Americans will go to Cuba in the first year,” Whitely said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Cuban musician barred from the United States by the Bush administration performed in Washington on Thursday and had lunch with a White House official in a new sign of a thaw in U.S.-Cuba relations.

Singer-songwriter Carlos Varela, whose songs capture the disenchantment of young Cubans, was given a three-week visa by the Obama administration, which has sought to improve ties with Cuba’s communist government.

Varela met the White House official for lunch at a Washington restaurant, according to the organizers of his trip, the Center for Democracy in the Americas, a liberal group that seeks the lifting of the U.S. travel ban and trade embargo. The group did not identify the official.

Varela also met with two members of Congress, Democratic Representatives Jan Schakowsky of Illinois and John Tierney of Massachusetts.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Cuban musician barred from the United States by the Bush administration performed in Washington on Thursday and had lunch with a White House official in a new sign of a thaw in U.S.-Cuba relations.

Singer-songwriter Carlos Varela, whose songs capture the disenchantment of young Cubans, was given a three-week visa by the Obama administration, which has sought to improve ties with Cuba’s communist government.

Varela met the White House official for lunch at a Washington restaurant, according to the organizers of his trip, the Center for Democracy in the Americas, a liberal group that seeks the lifting of the U.S. travel ban and trade embargo. The group did not identify the official.

Varela also met with two members of Congress, Democratic Representatives Jan Schakowsky of Illinois and John Tierney of Massachusetts.

WASHINGTON, Nov 19 (Reuters) – The Inter-American Development Bank, Latin America’s largest regional lender, has reversed last year’s net investment loss of $1 billion and posted an operating gain of $853 million for the first nine months of this year, its top financial officer said on Thursday.

That compares with a $384 million loss for the first nine months of 2008 as the bank’s investments were being hit by the turmoil in global markets.

IADB Chief Financial Officer Edward Bartholomew said the bank has stopped purchasing asset-backed and mortgage-backed securities that were largely responsible for last year’s losses — the first in the bank’s 50-year history.

Last month, the bank adopted new investment guidelines for its $20 billion liquid investment portfolio that will limit assets with 1- to 3-year maturity to reduced reliance on the secondary market for liquidity, Bartholomew told reporters.