Buenos Aires - Diego Maradona said Wednesday that he was looking forward to working as head coach of Argentina and refuted criticism from those who consider he lacks experience for the job. 

"They talk about my lack of experience, but I have 20-some years in the Argentine national team. That is why it sounds funny to me that they talk of a lack of experience," Maradona said as he left his home in the Buenos Aires suburb of Ezeiza. 

The appointment was met with cautious surprise by fans in football-crazy Argentina. While Maradona's past talent on the field is unquestioned, many are casting doubts on his qualifications to coach the senior team, based on his scarce experience managing club teams and the poor results he obtained. 

Tokyo (dpa) - The Tokyo stock market opened higher Thursday after the US Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate to spur the economy. 

A recent study presented to the American Public Health Association by Janice Sabin of the University of Washington in Seattle stated that the doctors subconsciously favored whites over blacks. To quote Sabin "This supports speculation that subtle race bias may affect health care, but does not imply that it will". Although the study did show a common racial bias among the general population, quoting Sabin "but we have to remember people are not racist if they hold an implicit bias."

Washington - The US Federal Reserve on Wednesday offered to trade 30 billion dollars each to the central banks of South Korea, Singapore, Brazil and Mexico in an effort to stop the financial crisis from spreading to the developing world. 

The creation of the new currency swap lines, which will remain open until April 30, comes as the International Monetary Fund created its own new emergency lending programme to help countries facing cash shortfalls amid the ongoing credit crisis. 

The dollar swap will "mitigate the spread of difficulties in obtaining US dollar funding in fundamentally sound and well managed economies," the Fed said in a statement. 

Bangkok - A bomb thrown early Thursday among anti-government protestors gathered at Makkahawan Bridge in Bangkok wounded at least nine people, one of them seriously, radio reports said. 

Los Angeles - Legendary music producer went on trial again Wednesday for the murder of B-movie actress Lana Clarkson, a year after a hung jury resulted in a mistrial. 

In his opening statement, prosecutor Alan Jackson portrayed Spector as a troubled man with a history of resorting to violence and armed threats when women spurned his sexual advances, as the government alleges Clarkson did. 

The case stemmed from the 2003 death of Clarkson, who was found shot to death in the foyer of Spector's castle-like home in Los Angeles after meeting him that night at a club where she was a hostess. Prosecutors allege that Spector shot her in a pique of rage, but Spector and his lawyers have argued that she was despondent and killed herself.