International

MOGADISHU, Feb 6 (Reuters) - A 14-year-old boy was shot dead when a protest against the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad turned violent in northeastern Somalia on Monday, residents and hospital sources said. They said police intervened after demonstrators started hurling stones at offices of international aid groups in the town of Bosaso, which lies in the semi-autonomous...

All of this heat about the Danish cartoons is shedding no light on the important questions of free speech, genuine tolerance, multiculturalism and society today. The row over the cartoons of Muhammad is itself a cartoon caricature of a political debate. Worse, it is a kiddie-cartoon, with the childish raspberry that those anti-Islamic daubs represent being met by an infantile tantrum of protests...

Unflattering, some say offensive or sacrilegious, newspaper cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad are casting the spotlight on the battle between free speech and religious beliefs. The conflict is focused on Europe, where the cartoons - and the 300-year-old concept of a free press - originated, and where large Muslim populations make the drawings particularly divisive. Newspapers elsewhere, from North...

Feb 6, 2006 – KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - A Malaysian newspaper editor has quit after he embarrassed his Muslim boss by reprinting controversial Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in a bid to illustrate a story about worldwide fury over the caricatures. The Sarawak Tribune reprinted the cartoons in its Saturday edition after its editor-on-duty made an "oversight" in looking to illustrate the...

The Fiji Daily Post has defended the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed which have caused a storm of protest across Europe, the Middle East and now in Fiji. The cartoons by various Danish artists depicting Islam's holiest prophet was originally published in September by the daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten. The Fiji Daily Post reprinted the cartoons in its Sunday Post edition of...

PARIS -- A French newspaper that published caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad evacuated its offices after receiving a threatening call. Police say the caller threatened to blow himself up at the offices of France Soir in a Paris suburb (Aubervilliers). Police sent a team with sniffer dogs. About 60 employees evacuated the building but were able to go back in two hours later. Anti-terrorism police...

COPENHAGEN (AFX) - Danish daily newspaper, Jyllands-Posten is talking to Danish Muslim representatives about a joint declaration, news agency Ritzaus Bureau reported, citing Carsten Juste, chief editor at Jyllands-Posten. Juste has agreed to a proposal for talks by Ahmed Akkari, spokesman for 27 Danish Muslim organizations, to help calm worldwide tensions over the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed...

Iran’s biggest-selling newspaper has waded into the Muhammad controversy by launching a competition to find the 12 "best" cartoons about the Holocaust. Farid Mortazavi, graphics editor for Tehran's Hamshahri newspaper, said that the deliberately inflammatory contest would test out how committed Europeans were to the concept freedom of expression. "The Western papers printed these sacrilegious...

Iran's biggest-selling newspaper has chosen to tackle the West's ideals of "freedom of expression" by launching a competition to find the 12 "best" cartoons about the Holocaust, the Associated French Press reported on Monday. Farid Mortazavi, graphics editor for Tehran's Hamshahri newspaper, said that the deliberately inflammatory contest would test out how committed Europeans were to the concept...

The Jerusalem Post today became the first Israeli newspaper to publish the controversial Danish cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad that have sparked furore across the Muslim world. A facsimile of the original page from the Danish paper Jyllands-Posten, in which all twelve cartoons were published, on September 30, is featured in today's edition of the paper. The image is one column wide and...