Brasilia  - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva demanded Thursday that industrialized countries take responsibility in the efforts to overcome the current global financial crisis, which he said was created by "white people with blue eyes."

In a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in Brasilia, Lula again stressed that it is necessary to regulate the international financial system.

Geneva  - Since the beginning of the year, countries around the world have been implementing protectionist measures, World Trade Organization Director General Pascal Lamy said Thursday, warning that this could have a negative impact on trade.

Lamy, in a report to WTO members, said he specifically noted increases in tariffs, non-tariff measures, and anti-dumping actions.

New York  - The Beijing Vantone Real Estate Company planned to sign Thursday a lease for five floors in the new World Trade Center's Freedom Tower, making it the building's first corporate tenant, news reports said.

The US government and New York City's agencies have all agreed to lease space in the 592-meter tower, which is being built on the same land where the original twin towers were destroyed by terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

Paris - A 300-year-old history book from the private library of Adolf Hitler was auctioned off for 1,800 euros (2,430 dollars), the French weekly L'Express reported on Thursday.

The book, which was published in 1712, was part of the Nazi dictator's library in his beloved mountain residence Der Berghof in Obersalzberg, near the Bavarian resort of Berchtesgarten.

Wellington  - Former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark, 59, the new chief of the United Nations Development Programme is a no-nonsense, political junkie with a lifelong commitment to helping the poor and underprivileged.

Once labelled a radical feminist, she overcame what she dubbed "incredibly sexist" male attitudes in the New Zealand Parliament, where she has served for more than 27 years, to win promotion by "the skills and devotion of a workaholic," as she put it.

New York  - New Zealand's former Prime Minister Helen Clark was appointed on Thursday the administrator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), which holds the largest purse in the UN system to assist developing countries.

Clark, who will replace Kermal Dervis of Turkey, was selected from a short list compiled by a senior appointment panel headed by Deputy Secretary General Asha Rose Migiro.