International

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Saudi Arabia's top cleric called on the world's Muslims to reject apologies for the "slanderous" caricatures of Islam's Prophet Mohammed and demanded the authors and publishers of the cartoons be tried and punished, Saudi newspapers reported Saturday. Thousands of Muslims, meanwhile, took to the streets in London and several other European cities to protest the drawings that...

COPENHAGEN: Attempts by European companies in the Middle East to disassociate themselves from Denmark or Danish products are "disgraceful," according to Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen. In an interview Thursday, Rasmussen tried at the same time to shield the Bush administration and some of Denmark's partners in NATO from accusations that they had been tardy and overcautious in coming to...

London, Iran, Feb. 11 – Iran’s radical President declared on Saturday that the "real Holocaust" was occurring in Iraq and in "occupied Palestine", as he once again characterised the Holocaust in Europe as a "myth". Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was speaking to demonstrators on the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, said that European states were "being taken hostage" by Israel. He...

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's hard-line president on Saturday accused the United States and Europe of being "hostages of Zionism" and said they should pay a heavy price for the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that have triggered worldwide protests. Denmark - where the drawings were first published four months ago - warned Danes to leave Indonesia, saying they faced a "significant and...

DHAKA, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Bangladesh's biggest Islamic political party called on Saturday for exemplary punishment of those involved in printing cartoon images of Prophet Mohammad which have outraged Muslims around the world. "Enemies of Islam are out to harm the faithful through a sinister campaign of so-called freedom of speech," Moulana Motiur Rahman Nizami, chief of the Jamaat-e-Islami party...

COPENHAGEN, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Denmark's ambassadors and embassy staff in Indonesia and Iran have left the two countries after receiving threats linked to the printing of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in a Danish newspaper. "The ambassador and the expatriate staff at the embassy in Tehran have temporarily left Iran. This is due to information about serious, concrete threats against the...

When a Danish newspaper published cartoons lampooning the prophet Muhammad in September, few people outside the Scandinavian nation took notice -- until a group of Danish Muslim organizations turned to Islamic leaders in the Middle East after their attempts to bring the issue to the attention of Danish authorities had failed. Now, as the tempest of Muslim rage over the caricatures thunders across...

Muslim demonstrators have been torching embassies, stoning churches and threatening mass murder to protest cartoons characterizing Muslims as violent extremists and express their outrage at those who say they are intolerant. The damage these demonstrators are doing to the image of Islam is incalculable, far beyond what any poison-penned cartoonist could accomplish. So why are they doing it...

Hundreds of Muslims chanted and carried banners and signs outside The Inquirer building Saturday afternoon, protesting the newspaper's decision to reprint a controversial caricature of the prophet Muhammad. Many said they felt the paper had defamed their religion by publishing an image that has angered Muslims across the world and resulted in mass protests and the burning of embassies. Many...

Copenhagen/Oslo - Hopes rose Friday in the Nordic region that the storm triggered by the controversial publication of cartoons of Prophet Mohammed had largely subsided. Observers highlighted that the religious mourning ceremonies of Ashura, which commemorate the anniversary of the martyrdom of Prophet Mohammed's grandson Imam Hussein, passed Thursday without any reports of attacks on Danish or...