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Danish embassy in Beirut torched
Lebanese demonstrators have set the Danish embassy in Beirut on fire in protest at the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
Thousands of people attended a rally and clashes broke out with security forces sent to protect the building.
Denmark urged its citizens to leave the country as soon as possible.
The violence came a day after mobs in neighbouring Syria torched the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus in anger at the pictures.
Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller urged anti-Danish protesters in Muslim countries to calm tensions.
"It is a critical situation and it is very serious," Mr Moeller told Danish public radio.
...
Huge crowds attended Sunday's protest in Beirut. It turned violent after Islamic extremists tried to break though security barriers protecting the Danish embassy building.
Some 2,000 riot police and army troops fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse the crowd and fired their weapons into the air.
But smoke was later seen rising from the building after demonstrators broke into it.
Some protesters threw stones at the security forces and burned Danish flags.
Security officials said at least 18 people were injured, AP news agency reported.
The embassy building, which also houses commercial offices, was believed to be unoccupied.
Some people in the crowd are not happy with the violence, thinking this was going to be a peaceful demonstration, reports the BBC's Jim Muir from the scene of the violence.
He says some of the wilder elements in the crowd have succeeded in turning it into a very angry and quite violent demonstration.
In other developments:
* Hundreds of people rally in Afghanistan in protest at the cartoons
* Jordanian authorities arrest two tabloid editors for printing the cartoons
* Iran recalls its ambassador to Denmark
* An Iraqi militant group in the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi calls for attacks on Danish and non-Muslim targets in Iraq
* Britain's main opposition Conservative Party says slogans by anti-Danish protesters in London amount to incitement to murder
Denmark and Norway condemned Syria for failing to stop Saturday's attacks in Damascus and urged their citizens to leave the country.
"The principle of diplomatic relations is that diplomats can work safely and the fact that this has been broken is extremely serious," Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere told a news conference in Oslo.
The US also criticised Syria's approach, saying it was "inexcusable" for such damage to be inflicted on diplomatic missions.
More
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4682560.stm
Denmark urged its citizens to leave the country as soon as possible.
The violence came a day after mobs in neighbouring Syria torched the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus in anger at the pictures.
Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller urged anti-Danish protesters in Muslim countries to calm tensions.
"It is a critical situation and it is very serious," Mr Moeller told Danish public radio.
...
Huge crowds attended Sunday's protest in Beirut. It turned violent after Islamic extremists tried to break though security barriers protecting the Danish embassy building.
Some 2,000 riot police and army troops fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse the crowd and fired their weapons into the air.
But smoke was later seen rising from the building after demonstrators broke into it.
Some protesters threw stones at the security forces and burned Danish flags.
Security officials said at least 18 people were injured, AP news agency reported.
The embassy building, which also houses commercial offices, was believed to be unoccupied.
Some people in the crowd are not happy with the violence, thinking this was going to be a peaceful demonstration, reports the BBC's Jim Muir from the scene of the violence.
He says some of the wilder elements in the crowd have succeeded in turning it into a very angry and quite violent demonstration.
In other developments:
* Hundreds of people rally in Afghanistan in protest at the cartoons
* Jordanian authorities arrest two tabloid editors for printing the cartoons
* Iran recalls its ambassador to Denmark
* An Iraqi militant group in the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi calls for attacks on Danish and non-Muslim targets in Iraq
* Britain's main opposition Conservative Party says slogans by anti-Danish protesters in London amount to incitement to murder
Denmark and Norway condemned Syria for failing to stop Saturday's attacks in Damascus and urged their citizens to leave the country.
"The principle of diplomatic relations is that diplomats can work safely and the fact that this has been broken is extremely serious," Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere told a news conference in Oslo.
The US also criticised Syria's approach, saying it was "inexcusable" for such damage to be inflicted on diplomatic missions.
More
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4682560.stm
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Reuters reported that a cloud of black smoke was billowing from the site on Sunday, while AFP said angry crowds rampaged through a Christian neighbourhood of Beirut.
Lebanese security forces earlier fired tear gas at the crowd of about 20,000 marching towards the Danish mission.
The Danish government on Sunday called on its nationals to leave Lebanon, saying they "should remain indoors until the travel possibilities have been clarified".
Twenty-eight people were wounded in the Beirut clashes, some were treated for inhaling teargas and others had sustained fractures, a civil defence medic said.
The protesters also attacked property and shops in Ashrafiyeh district, throwing stones, breaking windows and overturning cars, an AFP journalist said.
More
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/A04B9CE5-1DD0-4267-B3F6-F38F25F40148.htm
With police signalling that they will launch an investigation into the behaviour of protesters in London who called for those insulting Islam to 'be beheaded', protesters in the Syrian capital, Damascus, defied tear gas and water cannon to enter the Danish embassy and replace that country's flag with another which read: 'No God but Allah, Mohammad is His Prophet.'
Last night the Danish embassy, which was empty when attacked, was a charred hulk. The Norwegian embassy was still burning. As well as the dramatic scenes in Damascus - not known for its Islamic militancy - rising tensions among Muslims over the publication of 'blasphemous' cartoons in Denmark threatened to boil over across the globe.
· In London, 700 Muslims held a second day of angry protests outside the Danish embassy, many holding placards glorifying the events of 7 July and 9/11.
· Metropolitan police sources told The Observer that arrests could follow this week after investigations of the behaviour on Friday of some protesters who demanded the 'massacre' of 'those who insult Islam'. They may have breached laws against inciting hatred or terrorism.
· Groups representing British Muslims appealed for calm, saying the demonstrations and violence had gone too far.
· In Iran, the President told his commerce minister to consider cancelling trade contracts with European countries whose newspapers used the cartoons.
· The Hamas leader, Dr Mahmoud Zahar, told the Italian daily Il Giornale that the cartoons were an offence that should be punished by death.
Last week hundreds of Palestinians marched through the streets of Gaza City, some storming European-owned buildings and burning German and Danish flags, while in Nazareth 6,000 people held the first protest on Israeli soil against the publication of the cartoons.
People at a demonstration in Iraq, organised by followers of radical Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, issued a statement condemning the Danish, Norwegian and French newspapers that ran the drawings and called for the withdrawal of Iraq's ambassadors from those countries.
The Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, who had previously criticised newspapers for reprinting the cartoons, condemned the escalating violence last night. 'The violence is totally unjustified and to be condemned. I am glad that the British Muslim leaders have been very responsible.' He said Islam was a tolerant faith but 'you have people who are hotheaded and who will say they are adherents to a religion' in any faith.
Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, added her voice to international appeals for calm. 'I can understand that religious feelings of Muslims have been injured and violated but I I feel it is unacceptable to see this as legitimising the use of violence,' she said.
Politicians from the Polish Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz to the European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, expressed disapproval of the decision to publish the cartoons.
Last night the Metropolitan police signalled that they wanted to arrest people suspected of stirring up racial hatred during the demonstrations outside the Danish embassy in London. It is understood that a number of those identified by police last week were known to hold militant views. These included members of Hizb ut-Tahrir, the radical organisation banned in a number of European countries and Anjem Choudary, a key ally of Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed, the exiled leader of the radical Islamic group al-Muhajiroun who des
More
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1702682,00.html
A number of armored trucks were also torched by the protestors, said the Doha-based Al-Jazeera channel.
Lebanese police fired tear gas on the protestors as they attempted to prevent them from assembling in front of the Danish consulate.
Some angry protestors seized an armored car but agreed to give it up to police in return for allowing them to head for the consulate building.
The attack came only one day after angry Syrians stormed and set fire to the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus over the inciting cartoons.
Twelve cartoons, first published last September by Denmark's mass-circulation Jyllands-Posten and then reprinted by several European dailies, have caused an uproar in the Muslim world and triggered a new cultural battle over freedom of speech and respect of religions.
Incensed Muslims have demonstrated against Denmark, burnt its flags and boycotted its products, while several Muslim ambassadors have been recalled in protest.
More
http://islamonline.net/English/News/2006-02/05/article01.shtml