Indonesia: Rioters clash with police over cartoons

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Danish citizens were advised to leave Indonesia on Tuesday as angry protests over the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad spread across Asia, with some rioters clashing with police. Thousands took to the streets in Pakistan, some shouting "Hang the man who insulted the prophet," and hundreds of Muslims turned out in the predominantly Christian Philippines. In the second straight day of violence in Afghanistan, rioters clashed with police and NATO peacekeepers during demonstrations against the publication of cartoons mostly in the Western press. Norwegian troops used tear gas to disperse stone-throwing protesters outside their base in Maymana, a city in the northwest, said Squadron Leader Annie Gibson-Sexton, a spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force. Malaysia's prime minister slammed the foreign media and a local daily on Tuesday for running the drawings, one of which shows Muhammad wearing a turban shaped as a bomb. More than 5,000 people rallied in Pakistan and hundreds of Muslims in the southern Philippines burned a Danish flag. Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said his government had temporarily closed diplomatic missions in Palestinian territories - where it shares a building with the Danish mission.