The novel supposedly written by Saddam Hussein, Get Out of Here, Damned One (see last week’s MobyLives news digest), has been banned from publication in Jordan “on the grounds that it could harm relations with its eastern neighbor,” according to an Agence France Presse wire story. The Jordanian director of the “state press and publications department,” Ahmed al-Qodah, says “more than one publisher had called his department seeking approval to print the novel but they were turned down,” reports the AFP. Says al-Qodah, “We took the decision because we consider that this effort will have repercussions on the good relations between Jordan and Iraq.”

• MORE A report from The Daily Star of Bangladesh suggests that “Get Out of Here, Curse You” is a better translation of the book’s title.