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Today, 08 November 2009

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Yesterday, 07 November 2009

› Malema’s life in danger

› Leicester sting Bok Bs

› Eskom chair faces the axe

› Nedbank, ANCYL make up

› Hofmeyr addresses Joost

Fresh protests against newspaper cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed erupted across Afghanistan on Monday, with one demonstrator killed and four wounded in clashes with police, officials said.

Police opened fire after protestors threw stones at them in a second day of demonstrations by more than 1000 people in eastern Laghman province, provincial information director Hamraz Nangarhari told AFP.

One of the protestors was seriously wounded and died in hospital in the nearby city of Jalalabad, doctor Mohammad Farid said. Four other wounded were admitted to the hospital, he said.

Religious clerics were among the crowd in the provincial capital Mihtarlam and made speeches demanding the closure of Denmark's embassy and the expulsion of Danish forces based in Afghanistan, Nangarhari said.

'Blasphemous' cartoons

The 12 cartoons, which Muslims say are blasphemous, first appeared in a Danish newspaper in September and have been reprinted in several dailies, most of them European, since then.

"The protestors were asking the government to close the Danish embassy in Afghanistan and to recall the Afghan envoy to Denmark," Nangarhari said.

"They also wanted the expulsion of Danish troops under the NATO-led peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan and the trial and punishment of the publishers of the cartoons in an Islamic court."

Danish peacekeeping force in Afghanistan

Denmark has more than 170 troops in Afghanistan, helping to stabilise the country after the ouster of the Taliban four years ago, and plans to expand the force this year to 360.

In the capital Kabul about 300 people marched on Denmark's embassy where they torched a Danish flag and threw stones at the embassy, shouting "Death to Denmark, death to Norway, death to America, death to Bush."

One banner read: "We cannot tolerate any insult to our religion."

About 100 NATO-led peacekeepers and Afghan police were deployed outside the embassy.

Protest

Around 1000 protestors also gathered in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif and burnt the flags of France, Denmark and Norway, demanding the government cut diplomatic ties with these countries, in which the cartoons have published.

Some shouted, "Freedom of speech does not mean you can say or draw whatever you want... the enemies want to destroy Islam, we are ready to die for Mohammed and for Islam," an AFP correspondent said.

Hundreds of people also protested in the southern city of Kandahar, shouting "Death to the enemies of Islam, long life to Islam", an AFP correspondent said.

More than 5000 people marched in Parwan province, adjoining Kabul, and there was a small protest in Nangahar, the interior ministry said. There were reports of demonstrations in Kapisa, also near the capital.

Hundreds of people marched in protest in northern Kunduz and other provinces at the weekend.

'Strong objection' to drawings

President Hamid Karzai has voiced "strong objection" to the drawings, one of which shows the Prophet Mohammed with a bomb-shaped turban, saying they were an insult and should never appear again.

But on Friday, amid growing uproar in Muslim countries about the images, he urged Muslims to have the "courage to forgive and not make it an issue of dispute between religions or cultures."

AFP