TURKEY IS NUTS

BANZAI & NEWS--After nearly 30 years behind bars, the Turkish man who tried to assassinate Pope John Paul II walked out of a Turkish prison a free man Monday and promptly predicted the end of the world.

Now a gray-haired 52-year-old, Mehmet Ali Agca declared himself the "Christ eternal"  and prophesied that humanity would be wiped out this century, in a statement passed out to a scrum of television cameras and waiting reporters in Ankara, the Turkish capital.

Later, the hollow-cheeked Agca, who has spent more of his life in prison than out, was declared mentally disturbed by doctors who exempted him from mandatory military service, the Associated Press reported.