Hamburg - Carmakers struggling to fund lease purchase sales may turn to a German government fund originally devised to bail out banks, according to a news report Saturday.

The financial services divisions of most automakers hold banking licences in Germany and could qualify for guarantees. Interest rates on those guarantees average about 
2 per cent annually, which is significantly cheaper than commercial borrowing rates in the current credit crunch.

Taipei - A Taiwan man, infertile due to cancer, has become the father of twins after the sperm he had frozen 13 years ago, was used to impregnate his wife, a newspaper reported Saturday.

Doctors at the Taipei Medical University's College of Medicine set the local record for the use of the longest-preserved sperm in helping the couple have children, the China Times reported.

The man, identified only as Chen, was 23 and a university student in 1995 when he contracted testicular cancer. Fearing chemotherapy would make him infertile, he stored nine tubes of sperm in a sperm bank.

Baghdad - Nine Iraqi civilians were killed and dozens injured on Saturday as violent attacks continue in Iraq.

In a twin blast in al-Ramadi city, eight people were killed and 22 injured.

The attacks took place as two suicide bombers blew themselves up near a police station in the capital of al-Anbar province, about 110 kilometres west of Baghdad, the Iraqi al-Buratha news agency reported.

Earlier, one person was killed and seven injured in a bomb blast in northern Baghdad, police said.

Sao Paulo - Developing countries need a greater say in the global economy, said Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva Saturday.

"Developing country participation in (international) decision- making mechanisms needs to be strengthened," he said in his opening speech before a two-day summit of representative of the G20 nations. The meeting is to prepare for a global financial summit next weekend in Washington.

Dhaka - Reported troop movements near the border between Bangladesh and Myanmar, apparently resulting from a disagreement over offshore oil and gas rights, have ramped up tensions in the area.

Border forces along the Bangladeshi south-eastern border with Myanmar's Rakhain state were put on red alert Saturday after reports of Myanmar troop deployment on the other side of the border.

Dusseldorf - New Argentina coach Diego Maradona has an ambitious plan for his side: he wants to win the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

"That is the issue, is it not? If that is not my goal, then I might as well have stayed at home and spent some time watching television," he was quoted in Saturday's issue of the Cologne-based newspaper Express.

Maradona captained Argentina to their last World Cup triumph in 1986, when the South Americans beat Germany 3-2 in the final.