Ankara - An attempt to hijack a Turkish Airlines flight between Antalya and St Petersburg on Wednesday failed after passengers overpowered the unidentified man, NTV private television reported.

Transport Ministry sources told NTV that the man had claimed to be carrying a bomb and wanted the flight diverted.

The unidentified man was overcome by passengers and the flight continued to St Petersburg, NTV reported.

Istanbul, Oct 15 : Excavation work in southeastern Sanliurfa province in Turkey has led to the discovery of a Roman palace (fifth to sixth century A. D.) and floor mosaics, which feature an ancient Amazonian queen from the early Byzantine period.

According to a report in Today’s Zaman, the Anatolia news agency reported that the Haleplibahce district, one of the oldest historical residential areas of the city, constitutes an important part of the ancient city of Edessa, famous for its wall pictures depicting the Amazonian queens Hippolyte, Antiope, Melanippe and Penthesileia hunting in the forest.

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism began the excavation work two years ago after these wall pictures were found.

Baghdad  - Iraq's senior Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani met with a high-profile Turkish delegation on Tuesday in Baghdad, the first direct talks between the two sides in four years.

During the meeting at Barzani's house in Baghdad, the two sides discussed bilateral relations and ways to stabilize them, the website of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan reported.

The delegation, headed by Turkey's special envoy for Iraq Murat Ozcelik, also discussed with Barzani the developments of conflicts that take place on the Kurdish-Turkish borders.

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.