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.

Tokyo  - NTT DoCoMo Inc on Friday reported a net profit rise of 40 per cent to 173.1 billion yen (1.76 billion dollars) year-on-year for the July-September period on increased sales of handsets.

Stockholm - Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg on Friday criticized major Swedish banking groups for not signing on to a stability plan approved earlier this week.

Speaking to reporters after a meeting of parliament's committee on European Union affairs, Borg said he also urged the general public to "pick up the phone and call their bank to find out if they have lowered their mortgage rates" or not.

Borg said he was disappointed that the banks have not lowered mortgage rates as much as envisaged in the wake of the plan that was approved Thursday by the European Commission in Brussels.

Rome - Italy's largest natural gas and oil company, Eni, said Friday its third-quarter net profit rose 37 per cent thanks to soaring crude oil prices and boosted production.

Net profit increased to 2.94 billion euros (dollars 3.83 billion) from the 2.15 billion euros registered in the same period in 2007, Eni said in a statement.

"Eni has delivered another quarter of excellent results driven by strong production growth and good operational performance in all our divisions," Eni CEO Paolo Scaroni said in the statement.

New Delhi - United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed "deep concern" over the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Friday and asked rebel General Laurent Nkunda to engage in dialogue.

During a visit to the Indian capital New Dehli, Ban urged Nkunda to stick to the ceasefire announced by the Tutsi rebel leader.

The situation in the African state was "very threatening," Ban said, stressing the UN's neutrality in the conflict. "We are trying to help," he added.

Ban said that he has been engaged in talks with Rwanda President Paul Kagame, a supporter of Nkunda, since the beginning of his visit to India on Thursday.