Creative Differences

Vatan, the third most popular newspaper in Turkey, has had its website blocked because a litigious crank objects to the readers' comments. "We are trying to protect ourselves," said a spokesbeing. "Vatan is always propagating against Mr Oktar and constantly publishes allegations about him. When people read these they are provoked into using these insults against him." Mr Oktar's previous achievements include denying Turkish readers access to Richard Dawkins' website and Wordpress (or, according to the Grauniad, World Presse), launching a libel suit against Google Groups, publishing the weighty Atlas of Creation, and generally demolishing the theory of evolution, using many different forms of proof and evidence, in a way that has never been employed before.

Elsewhere in Turkey, there has been a raid by Kurdish militants (not to be confused with Kurdish separatists, who fought against Saddam Hussein, or Iraqi Kurds, a subset of the Real Iraqis who collaborate with the occupation) which killed seventeen troops near the border with the Democratised Zone. Another newspaper, Taraf, claims that the Turkish army failed to act on prior intelligence about the raid, prompting the chief of staff to issue journalists a polite request to "be careful and stand in the right position". It is not yet clear whether the chief of staff will need to resort to litigation under Turkey's religious hatred laws in order to ensure his will is done.