Britain's Guardian newspaper reports that Baba Vanga, the blind Bulgarian clairvoyant who died in 1996 at the age of 84, has triggered the closure of one of Afghanistan's most famous newspapers, Payman, after threats were made to the editor following an article about her.

The newspaper was forced to close after Payman confused the similar titles of two completely different stories and published an article called "Prediction of the Third World War" - the story of Bulgarian visionary Baba Vanga and her apocalyptic vision of a nuclear war.

According to The Guardian: "The cause of the fuss was a blasphemous paragraph introducing the article. It said world religions have no evidence to prove their vision of the afterlife, leaving the question of humanity's origins and the hereafter an unsolved mystery. In other words, it suggested that the prophets were liars."

The president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, the object of criticism by Payman over the years, apparently took the opportunity to shut down the publication in the light of the article. The paper had apparently vilified Karzai for his constant preoccupation with problems in Pakistan, feeling that the president's focus was a diversion from the failings of his own administration.

The Guardian continued: "The story of Baba Vanga and her accidental entanglement with Payman's closure is sad and ironic. Payman was the exact opposite of Baba Vanga. The blind Bulgarian had visions; the Afghan paper had facts."

The article ends by summarising some of Baba Vanga's prophecies, including her belief that by 2011 mankind would become robots.