Hamburg  - Panathinaikos are one of the surprise top seeds in the knockout stages of this season's Champions League after a 1-0 victory over Anorthosis Famagusta ensured the Greeks of finishing atop Group B.

Inter Milan could have finished top, but Jose's Mourinho's team went down 2-1 to Werder Bremen as a result of second-half goals from Claudio Pizarro and Markus Rosenberg, which earned the German side a UEFA Cup berth. Zlatan Ibrahimovic netted for the Serie A side.

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Berlin -  Key members of the cast of the fantasy movie Inkheart attended its premiere Tuesday in Berlin as distributors prepared for worldwide release of the juvenile-fiction story.

The US lead, Brendan Fraser, was there, along with Eliza Hope Bennett, the British actress who plays his daughter in the film.

Director Iain Softley, also British, also took plaudits, but much of the attention at the cinema on the prestigious Potsdamer Platz went to Cornelia Funke, the Los Angeles-based author of the book the movie is based on.

Frankfurt an der Oder, Germany  - A German orchestra which is to perform at the Vatican Wednesday believes it is the first ever conducted by a woman to perform for a pope.

The Brandenburg State Orchestra of Frankfurt an der Oder is be headed by Inma Shara at the event, which marks International Human Rights Day.

Germany has two cities named Frankfurt. Shara and her 92 musicians come from the smaller Frankfurt, which is on the Polish border.

Beirut  - Thirty cheerful clowns from Germany, Italy, Morocco and Lebanon cheered the Lebanese public Tuesday by dancing in the rain in the capital Beirut.

Wearing rainbow-colored wigs and red plastic noses, the clowns put on a show in the main shopping district of Hamra street, bringing cheer to Lebanese children on the second day of the Muslim al-Adha holiday.

Some clowns walked on stilts as others danced, juggled, blew up balloons and took pictures with the crowd that gathered to watch the show in the pouring rain.

"It is meant to introduce street performances and comic relief as a way to deal with tense situations and conflict," said Tonnie Selwood Choeiri, one of the organizers.

Berlin  - A banking unit of Volkswagen AG that helps buyers to finance cars said Tuesday it was seeking assistance from the German government's bail-out scheme for banks.

Financial Services AG and Volkswagen Bank have requested an undisclosed amount in credit guarantees from Sofin, a federal government agency with a 480-billion-euro
(618-billion-dollar) war chest.

The credit crunch has made it more difficult for banks to obtain funding on capital markets.

The government fund was set up in October to stabilize the banking industry by providing credit guarantees and capital injections.