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NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Saturday granted bail to Vijay Dixit, publisher of Senior Media Limited, who was arrested for publishing cartoons depicting Prophet Mohammed in a periodical brought out by the company. Metropolitan Magistrate Chandra Shekhar granted bail to Dixit, whose group brings out the fortnightly magazine 'Senior India', on his furnishing a bail bond of Rs 50,000 with one surety...

European countries are paying the price for their "miscalculations" on Islam, which have come back to haunt them in the crisis over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, according to the most influential leader of France's Muslim community, the biggest on the continent. Dalil Boubakeur says Europe's mistakes include supporting extremist Islamic groups in Iran and Afghanistan during the cold war...

KEPALA BATAS: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has accepted the New Straits Times’ (NST) front-page apology over a cartoon it published last Monday. Abdullah said no action would be taken against the newspaper following its open apology yesterday. "The NST has conceded to the Government's decision and I take it that they are very regretful over the issue," he said after opening a...

RADFORD, Va. -- Online cartoons depicting Jesus that satirize televangelists, the commercialization of Christmas and other issues have caused a stir among both Christian and non-Christian students and administrators at Radford University. In his "Christ on Campus" comic strip on the Whim Internet Magazine, Christian Keesee has featured Jesus being stabbed by Santa Claus, playing poker with other...

That began as an act of not-so-innocent bravado in Denmark last September has ceased to be a laughing matter – what with sundry ministers in Uttar Pradesh negotiating terms for contract killers. Yet, amid all the outrage, indignation and hysteria, people haven’t entirely lost their sense of humour. There are at least two interventions in the fiery debate over blasphemy worthy of a chuckle. Both...

The board of Finnish culture magazine Kaltio decided Friday to sack its chief editor, Jussi Vilkuna, after he refused to remove a cartoon featuring the Prophet Muhammad from the magazine's website. The cartoon appeared in the Finnish culture magazine Kaltio's website last Friday. On Thursday, Finnish insurance firms Tapiola, Sampo and Pohjola withdrew their advertisements from the Kaltio website...

Two student newspapers at Clemson University have reprinted the controversial cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad, upsetting Muslim students on campus and drawing a rebuke from the school’s president. The papers, the conservative Tiger Town Observer and the liberal Clemson Forum, are not funded by the school, but the Observer has an on-campus office. In an open letter e-mailed to Clemson...

One wonders what it will take for newspapers in this country to endorse the notion of a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq starting, oh, how about now? I’ll take speedy (the Murtha plan) or slow and steady (the realistic idea). But some-time-in-our-lifetime (the default position) doesn’t quite cut it, especially after the events of the past two days in Iraq. Readers will likely not respond to a call for...

GOOGLE'S PROGRAM TO SELL PRINT ads in consumer magazines moved forward Thursday, when the search giant closed the bidding in an auction for inventory in 26 magazines. Ellegirl, Motor Trend, and PC World, among others, will learn early next week which marketers won print ads. Jeff Edman--president and CEO of PC World, one of three International Data Group magazines that took part in the pilot--said...

I think as I please And this gives me pleasure. My conscience decrees, This right I must treasure. My thoughts will not cater To duke or dictator, No man can deny - Die gedanken sind frei. (Sixteenth-century German peasant song revived as a protest anthem against the Nazi regime) The news on Monday that an Austrian court has sentenced crackpot British historian David Irving to three years'...