Berlin - Giovanna Stefanel-Stoffel sits chatting in her office in the upper floor of a gleaming modern office block just metres from Berlin's landmark Brandenburg Gate.

Until a few years ago she was enmeshed in the fashion world as the art director of her father's famous Treviso, Venice-based Stefanel fashion designer company.

Today, in Berlin, she's caught up in the world of real estate, as the wife and business partner of multi-millionaire Bavarian property developer, Ludwig Maximilian Stoffel, 61, who along with his brother Manfred, runs the German family's Stoffel Holding company.

New York - World leaders on Monday promised a renewed effort to lift Africa out of poverty and into the "mainstream of the global economy," after a one-day United Nations conference taking stock of the continent's progress.

The new pledge came as African leaders and UN officials called for a boost in foreign development aid, even as a financial crisis in advanced economies left some concerned that aid commitments from wealthy nations might be drying up.

"Eradicating poverty, particularly in Africa, is the greatest global challenge facing the world today," read a declaration that was passed by the UN General Assembly Monday evening.

Berlin - Germany has no plans to join in the massive US bailout operation for financial institutions that have run into difficulties, a government spokesman said Monday.

Spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm said the government saw no need for such an undertaking in Germany. A foreign ministry spokesman said the US had made no approach to the Europeans so far.

The US administration is reportedly seeking participation from other countries in a 700-billion-dollar rescue fund announced in Washington.

US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said some countries had signalled their readiness to help out but there had been no firm commitments.

New York, Sept 22 : As financial crisis grip the world economy, the Wall Street’s catastrophe has trickled down to Manhattan''''s mammary meccas.

Washington - The US government is submitting a finance rescue package to Congress that is valued at 700 to 800 billion dollars, media reports said Saturday.

In the largest intervention in capital markets since the 1930s, the administration of US President George W Bush Friday proposed to mop up bad mortgage debt with its first system-wide attack on turmoil in the finance industry that threatens the nation with economic collapse.

Sydney - Prime Minister Kevin said Saturday that his mission was to make Australia "the most Asian-literate nation in the Western world."

"The 21st century will be the Asia Pacific century ... so we need to make sure that in decades ahead we are fully engaged with the region," Rudd told a gathering in Adelaide. "It will be the global powerhouse and there are great opportunities if we engage properly and engage now."

The prime minister said more Australian students should study in other Asian countries to balance the 250,000 Asians currently studying in Australia.

"They become bridges through which we do business later on and this is a very important long-term investment," he said.