International

COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- Denmark will launch a "massive" campaign to improve its global image, which was tattered after a Danish newspaper published caricatures of Islam's Prophet Muhammad, the prime minister said Friday. Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the campaign was not initiated because of the cartoon crisis but that the uproar had given it additional impetus. "We would have done so anyway. But the...

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) -- A group of 27 Danish Muslim organizations have filed a defamation lawsuit against the newspaper that first published the contentious Prophet Muhammed cartoons, their lawyer said Thursday. The lawsuit was filed Wednesday, two weeks after Denmark's top prosecutor declined to press criminal charges, saying the drawings that sparked a firestorm in the Muslim world did not...

With the McClatchy Company set to accept bids, starting as early as tomorrow, for the 12 Knight Ridder papers it is selling, some of the potential buyers are looking at the country as if it were a giant chessboard. The goal is not to topple a king but to become one – a king of each regional market where potential buyers already own newspapers and can achieve economies of scale by buying pieces of...

Swedish Foreign Minister Leila Freivalds resigned Tuesday after she was accused of lying about her role in the closing of a far-right Web site that solicited cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad. Meanwhile, Denmark's ambassador returned to Iran, about five weeks after violent protests over the cartoons forced the closure of the embassy in Teheran. The drawings, published in the Danish newspaper...

The Anglican Church in Wales has apologised to Muslims after printing a cartoon satirising the Prophet Muhammad in its Welsh-language magazine. The Church in Wales has issued an immediate recall of all copies of the latest edition of Y Llan - meaning Church - following the reproduction of the cartoon. The drawing, reprinted from the French daily France Soir, satirises Muhammad by depicting him...

Isfahan/Tehran - A two-day conference titled 'Constructive Religious Dialogue - Framework for World Order' was opened Saturday in Isfahan, central Iran. The conference, attended by more than 200 religious scholars from almost 40 countries, including Iran, was organized to reach an international condemnation on the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed deemed by Muslims worldwide as...

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India said on Saturday that Denmark's prime minister had put off a visit to New Delhi due next month, amid fears that the trip could provoke fresh protests by Muslims against cartoons of Prophet Mohammad. Anders Fog Rasmussen's visit was planned much before the controversy over the cartoons, first published in a Danish newspaper, erupted earlier this year, triggering a storm...

STOCKHOLM, March 17, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Danish Muslims are planning to take the publication of cartoons lampooning Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessing be upon him) by a Danish newspaper to the United Nations. "The UN is the natural place for us to file our complaint," Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted Qassem Said, spokesman for the Danish Islamic Community, as telling the...

STOCKHOLM, March 17 (Xinhuanet) -- Danish Islamite are to refer cartoon case to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights after Danish negative ruling of the case. The Danish Islamic Community organizations made the decision on Friday responding to the ruling, made by Danish State Attorney Henning Fode on Thursday, which said the publication of the prophet cartoons did not offend...

COPENHAGEN, March 16, 2006 (IslamOnline.net) – Denmark's top prosecutor decided on Wednesday, March 15, not to press charges against the country's mass-circulation daily over commissioning and printing cartoons mocking Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessing be upon him). "I have today decided not to institute criminal proceedings in the case of Jyllands-Posten's article 'The Face of Muhammad'...