Frankfurt - A downbeat end to share trading in Wall Street and across Asia, resulted in a weak start to stocks in Europe Wednesday as recession fears resurfaced.

Frankfurt - Whenever a nation takes a snapshot of its own literature to present at the Frankfurt Book Fair, the choice of which writers to concentrate on says a lot about how far it has come.

Turkey, special guest this year at the annual book-publishing event, has taken an historical approach, putting on an exhibition focused on the giants of 20th-century Istanbul intellectual life.

They are shown giant-size in 1-metre-high black and white photographs on a maze of tall walls, each with a paragraph of text in English about their poetry, novels, essays or other writing.

Frankfurt  - Orhan Pamuk, winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize for Literature, criticized Turkey on Tuesday for prosecuting outspoken authors and charged that internet providers in his homeland were blocking free access to the internet site YouTube.

In a speech at a ceremony to inaugurate the Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany, he said, "The tendency of the Turkish state to ban books and punish authors is unfortunately still there."

Frankfurt  - Posters of 20th-century giants of Turkish literature stud a special exhibition in Frankfurt that is the centrepiece of Turkey's special-guest presentation at the Frankfurt Book Fair.

The exhibition was unveiled to the media Tuesday, a day before world book publishing's biggest annual event opens for a five-day run. The organizers hope to attract interest from publishers from 100 nations in publishing Turkish literature in translation.

More than 100 writers are introduced on the posters, each with a one-metre-high black-and-white photograph and a paragraph of text in English about their poetry, novels, essays or other writing.

Frankfurt  - Exhibitor numbers at the Frankfurt Book Fair, which opens its doors Wednesday for a five-day run, have fallen 1 per cent to 7,373, according to fair director Juergen Boos on Tuesday.

He spoke as exhibitors were readying their displays for the annual publishers' event.

Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier was to inaugurate the event Tuesday evening with Turkish President Abdullah Gul and the 2006 Nobel Literature laureate from Turkey, Orhan Pamuk, attending.