SYDNEY, Oct 2, 2007 (AFP) - The founders of Lonely Planet guidebooks said Tuesday that they decided to sell the 'backpackers' Bible' to BBC Worldwide because they wanted to 'move on' and have more time for travel.

Tony and Maureen Wheeler founded the hugely successful publishing business 34 years ago when they compiled a list of tips after setting out from Europe and travelling across Asia before reaching Australia.

MOSCOW, Sept 25, 2007 (AFP) - A Russian court on Tuesday ordered an expert analysis of whether a book by Kremlin opponent Andrei Piontkovsky was 'extremist' literature, the author told Russian radio.

Piontkovsky, a visiting fellow at Washington think-tank The Hudson Institute, has returned to Moscow to face charges that his essay collection 'Unloved Country' aims to incite inter-ethnic hatred.

The book contains attacks on the regime of President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of authoritarian rule and violating the constitution.

TOKYO, Sept 21, 2007 (AFP) - The Australian author of a controversial book on Japan's royal family warned Friday against abandoning moves to allow female succession after the birth of the country's first male heir in 40 years.

Ben Hills, whose biography of Crown Princess Masako drew protests from the Japanese government, said the birth last year of Prince Hisahito may have only postponed an imperial succession crisis.

LONDON, Sept 5, 2007 (AFP) - Norwegians enjoy the world's best quality of life, followed by Icelanders and Australians, according to an updated global league table book, while Africa dominates the bottom of the list.

Australians drink the most alcohol, Greeks smoke the most cigarettes, Japan reads the most newspapers and Ecuador has the most murders per head of population, according to the Economist's Pocket World in Figures 2008.

MOSCOW, Aug 24, 2007 (AFP) - A Moscow court on Friday postponed until next month hearing an 'extremism' case in relation to a book by anti-Kremlin writer Andrei Piontkovsky, after being told the author would return from the United States to participate.

The judge in the civil case at the Moscow district court set the next hearing for September 25, after Piontkovsky's lawyer presented a written assurance by the author that he would return on September 21.

'Piontkovsky wants to be personally present,' his lawyer, Roman Karpinsky, said.

LONDON, July 30, 2007 (AFP) - Pearson, the British publisher of the Financial Times and Penguin Books, on Monday said it made a net loss of 104 million pounds in the first half of 2007 owing to an exceptional tax charge.

But Pearson, which is in the process of selling the French financial daily newspaper Lesotho Echos, saw its share price climb after revealing that pre-tax profit almost tripled in the six months to June 30, 2007.

LONDON, July 30, 2007 (AFP) - Pearson, the British publisher of the Financial Times and Penguin Books, said Monday it had made a loss of 104 million pounds during the first six months of 2007, owing to an exceptional tax charge.

The loss by Pearson, which is equivalent to 154 million euros or 211 million dollars, compared with profit of 7.0 million pounds during the same period in 2006, its earnings statement showed.

Group revenue climbed by 2.9 percent to 1.722 billion pounds in the first half to June 30.

AMSTERDAM, July 26, 2007 (AFP) - Dutch publishing group Reed Elsevier reported on Thursday a 46-percent increase in first-half net profit to 465 million euros (642 million dollars) and stood by its growth forecasts for this year.

Reed, which counts the Lancet medical journal and New Scientist magazine among its 15,000-plus publications, put the profit down to 'a strong performance of its activities and the profit from the sale of some of the activities of its Harcourt education division in May.'