A Turkish military hospital today said the Turkish man who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981 was not fit for obligatory military service, his lawyer said.

Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish gunman who shot Pope John Paul II, might have been released from prison by mistake and might return to his cell to serve at least 11 more months, a newspaper said today, quoting the country’s justice minister.

Turkey’s Justice Minister Cemil Cicek criticised EU officials today for pressuring Turkey to stop a freedom of expression case against renowned author Orhan Pamuk, but hinted that a court could drop the case.

A judge halted the trial of Turkey’s best-known novelist today, saying the Justice Ministry must first approve the explosive legal case that raises questions about Turkey’s commitment to free speech.

TURKISH police shot and killed a suspected leftist suicide bomber who tried to detonate his bomb inside the Justice Ministry yesterday and then fled.

Turkish police shot and killed a suspected leftist suicide bomber who tried to detonate his bomb inside the Justice Ministry today and then fled.

Amid protests from women’s groups and warnings from the EU, Turkey’s government agreed to measures that would appear to scuttle its plans to introduce legislation making adultery a crime.

SHATTERED bodies and rubble were once more strewn across the streets of Turkey's commercial capital Istanbul yesterday, in a strike against Britain that US and British leaders called a challenge to their war on terror.