International

Prosecutor’s Office of Vologda, northwestern Russia, has launched a criminal case against an editor of a local newspaper for republishing scandalous Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, Gazeta.ru reported. The journalist Anna Smirnova is accused of provoking religious hatred and abuse of authority. On Feb. 15 Nash Region+ (Our Region+) paper published cartoons found in the Internet to...

A Pakistani cleric announced Friday a $1 million bounty for killing a cartoonist who drew Prophet Muhammad, as thousands joined street protests and Denmark temporarily closed its embassy and advised its citizens to leave the country. Police confined the former leader of an Islamic militant group to his home to prevent him from addressing supporters over the cartoons, amid fears he could incite...

COPENHAGEN, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Most Danes think Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen is doing a good to average job at managing the row over the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, which have led to violent protests in many Muslim countries. The majority of Danes are split, with 41.5 percent saying Rasmussen has handled the crisis well and about 40 percent saying he has done an average job, a poll...

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Fury among Muslims worldwide over Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad has led to deadly violence and bitter accusations between the West and the Islamic world. But Niamatullah Basharat sees a silver lining. "Every Muslim feels hurt by these drawings," the Danish imam said at the small Nusrat Djahan mosque on the outskirts of Copenhagen. "But Denmark has talked more about...

BERLIN: Even as Muslim rage continues over Danish cartoons that satirized the Prophet Muhammad, another cartoon, in a German newspaper, likening Iranian soccer players to suicide bombers has provoked anger in Iran and an official demand for an apology. The cartoon, published last Friday in Der Tagesspiegel, depicts Iranian soccer players with bombs strapped to their waists standing next to a group...

February 17, 2006 ¤Ñ President Roh Moo-hyun yesterday filed a second libel suit against the mainstream Chosun Ilbo newspaper, saying a cartoon defamed him by circulating false facts. The cartoon, titled "The lie is detected fast," was published on Aug. 9 last year and addressed illegal eavesdropping by the state intelligence agency. In his written complaint submitted to the Seoul Central District...

A DRAWING by Fairfax cartoonist Michael Leunig that found its way on to an Iranian newspaper website without his approval was anti-Semitic and not an anti-war comment as claimed by the artist, Jewish groups believe. The controversy continued yesterday with a column by Michael Gawenda in The Age, critical of the cartoonist. Gawenda, the paper's former editor-in-chief and now US correspondent...

Reporters sans frontières (RSF) has launched an appeal and a petition for the immediate release of six journalists thrown into prison in Yemen and Algeria for reprinting the controversial prophet cartoons as part of informing their readers. "Whatever one thinks of the cartoons or whether they should be published, it is absolutely unjustified to jail or prosecute journalists, threaten them with...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has urged international leaders at the level of the European Union and the United Nations to use their influence on the governments of Algeria, Jordan, the Yemen and Syria to free journalists who have been arrested or detained for publishing cartoons which have caused outrage in some Muslim communities around the world. "At a time when...

The International Federation of Journalists hosted a meeting in Brussels on February 15, 2006 at which media professionals discussed the publication in Denmark and elsewhere of cartoons which have caused regrettable offence to many people in Europe and around the world. The following statement was agreed: While all professional groups understand well the need to consider cultural and religious...