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Novi Sad, Serbia  - Ukraine will guarantee "safe and constant" transit of gas across its territory to Europe, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said Friday in the Serbian town of Novi Sad.

Speaking at a summit of leaders from Central and South-Eastern Europe, Yushchenko made the guarantee without elaborating on how his country would accomplish this.

Taipei  - Taiwan Friday issued a sea warning against tropical storm Linfa and advised vessels to be on high alert sailing through the Taiwan Strait, Bashi Channel and waters near the Pratas Islands.

The storm was located about 470 kilometres southwest of Taiwan's southernmost tip of Olupani as of 8 pm (1200 GMT), Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau said in a statement.

Packing maximum sustained winds of up to 108 kilometres per hour (kph) with a radius of 120 kilometres, Linfa was moving at a speed of 14 kph in a northeast-north direction, the bureau said.

Amman - Arab stock markets closed a mixed week as investors monitored the movement of crude prices, performance of global markets and the second quarter results of listed firms expected to start coming out early in July, financial analysts said Friday.

They contended that Arab bourses were still coming under the "illogical and psychological pressures" of world markets where speculation also appeared to play havoc with oil prices, a key mover of Arab stock markets.

London  - With the final decision on staging a Wimbledon title defence yet to be made due to the poor state of his knees, Rafael Nadal could also soon be feeling the pain on court after being handed a difficult draw Friday for the Wimbledon Championships.

Should the world number one Spaniard decide later to take to the court starting Monday, his first task will be getting past grass-tough veteran Frenchman Arnaud Clement in the first round

Pretoria  - Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon on Friday said that the Italian side do not play champagne football and had never done so.

"If you want to see champagne football, then you should go and watch Brazil or Barcelona," the Juventus custodian told a press conference at the Italian training ground in Pretoria.

Buffon was speaking after the Azzurri sensationally lost their Confederations Cup Group B match against Egypt 1-0 in Johannesburg on Thursday night and now are in danger of failing to advance to the semi-finals.