Cologne, Germany - A novelist's papers, including the scroll awarding him the 1972 Nobel Prize for Literature, have been recovered from a pile of rubble in the German city of Cologne, officials said Thursday.

Manuscripts and letters by Heinrich Boell, who died in 1985, had been placed in the city archives for safekeeping. But the building collapsed, killing two people, on March 3, apparently after a pothole had formed in a construction site under the street outside.

Hamburg  - The most intense X-ray beam of its type in the world was switched on Thursday in a 2,300-metre circular tunnel under the German city of Hamburg, the Desy research institute said.

The new machine, known as a synchrotron, has been remodelled from an earlier particle accelerator at the site and is named Petra III.

Munich - Adding to the gloom in the run-up to next week's Hanover industrial fair in Germany, engineering giant Siemens warned Thursday that no end to the slump in world business was visible yet.

Heinrich Hiesinger, who heads Siemens' industrial divisions, told VDI Nachrichten, an industry newspaper, "It's difficult to predict when the recovery of the markets will kick in.

"We have to recognize that some industrial markets will not return so quickly to the record level of 2008, even after recovery."

Berlin  - Germany is likely to stay away from a UN meeting against racism next week in Geneva amid western concerns that the event may take on anti-Semitic overtones, a senior official confirmed in Berlin Thursday.

To the dismay of UN human rights chief Navi Pillay, the United States, Australia and other western nations have objected to wording about Israel in a draft declaration and said they do not plan to send any envoys to the five-day meeting in Switzerland.

Berlin  - Gearbox and hydraulics suppliers in Germany still have work in hand thanks to a pipeline of past orders, their federation said Thursday, four days before the industry's principal fair opens in Hanover.

The sector, a key supplier to engineering companies and the car industry, saw orders plummet in the fourth quarter of last year as business customers scrambled to reduce output and costly stockpiles of parts.

Nuremberg, Germany  - Two water-colour paintings of scenery by Adolf Hitler are to be auctioned in Germany this month, a Nuremberg newspaper, the Abendzeitung, said Thursday.

The paintings, "Farmhouse" and "Farm Buildings by a Stream," were both signed, according to the online catalogue, which showed them in black and white. They dated from 1914. The auctioneer in Nuremberg, Herbert Weidler, could not be reached for comment.