Madrid - The Spanish royal court distanced itself Friday from comments expressed by Queen Sofia in a new biography in which she opposes gay marriage, among other political comments.

The queen was making the comments "in a private framework," a statement from the Zarzuela Palace in Madrid said. The queen's comments had also been misquoted, the palace said.

The new biography, The Queen Up Close, is the first time Sofia has made public comments on political issues.

Author Pilar Urbano said Sofia spoke out against gay marriage, abortion and quotas for women in politics.

Urbano rejected the palace's claim that the queen had been misquoted.

Taipei  - Taiwan's pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) announced Friday it was to hold a three-day sit-in protest against the planned visit of top Chinese negotiator with Taiwan, Chen Yunlin.

The announcement came as a group of Chinese officials arrived in Taiwan Friday to prepare for Chen's November 3-7 visit, who was to hold talks with his Taiwanese counterpart Chiang Pin-kung on cross-strait transport, postal and food safety cooperation.

"Beginning from November 3, all people are invited to wear the yellow ribbons and join us in a sit-in protest outside the parliament building for three days to jointly safeguard Taiwan's sovereignty," the DPP said in a statement posted on its website.

Dubai - Syria has frozen its ties with Iraq following a cross-border attack by US forces on a Syrian village, the Dubai-based al-Arabiya news network reported Friday.

Dortmund, Germany  - Borussia Dortmund left back Dede hopes to return to German football action in January from a severe knee injury.

Berlin  - Three veteran aircraft were stranded Friday at Berlin's Tempelhof Airport, a day after it officially closed at the end of 85 years of operations.

With most airport staff gone, the pilots of the two Antonov biplanes and the Cessna are not allowed to just take off when they felt like it from the airport, which is surrounded on all sides by multi-storey buildings.

The three fragile old planes had been scheduled to leave during closing ceremonies Thursday, but were left parked on the apron because of steady rain and cold.

A Berlin Airports spokesman said Friday they would probably have to have their wings taken off and be removed by road to some other airfield. He said no date had been set for trucks to pick them up.

Warsaw - The newly-elected head of the Polish football federation (PZPN) faced criticism Friday that he wouldn't rid the sport of corruption.

Former Polish football great Grzegorz Lato replaced Michal Listkiewicz as president of the ailing PZPN on Thursday, promising to "clear" the sport of corruption. He also needs to fully overcome a recent spur with football's governing body FIFA.

But Lato quickly came under fire - mainly from politicians - that he would do little to change the scandal-ridden federation.

Slawomir Nowak, top aide to Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, said those who had ideas to improve the organization lost, and lost noticeably.