3 killed as Pakistan cartoon protests escalate

Riots near South Waziristan
There also was rioting Wednesday in the northwestern town of Tank, near the South Waziristan tribal region where security officials have said al-Qaida-linked foreign fighters are hiding. Protesters set fire to 30 shops selling CDs, DVDs, and videos, said Attiq Wazir, a police official. Suspected Islamic militants had warned music shops to close, witnesses said.

One policeman was injured when a protester opened fire to resist arrest.

CARTOON FURY U.S. cartoonists weigh in on the controversy

On Tuesday, a security official said members of the outlawed militant group Sipah-e-Sahaba and others from Jamaat al-Dawat — which is linked to the outlawed Laskhar-e-Tayyaba group — were among the rioters, and were trying to turn the furor over the cartoons against Musharraf’s government.

In the eastern city of Lahore, fighting flared for a second straight day Wednesday. A 30-year-old man was shot dead in a clash with police as about 1,500 students rallied outside a university, hospital and police officials said.

U.S. restaurants torched
Thousands of protesters went on a rampage in Lahore on Tuesday, burning Western businesses including McDonald’s, KFC and Pizza Hut restaurants.

In Israel, Amitai Sandarovich, a cartoonist for the Yediot Ahronot daily, said he was asking Jewish artists to draw anti-Semitic cartoons.

Sandarovich said he came up with the idea after an Iranian newspaper launched a contest for cartoons about the Holocaust in response to the Prophet Muhammad drawings.

“I think that a strong nation needs to know how to laugh at itself, and the Jewish nation has a long history of laughing at itself,” Sandarovich said.

Austria denounces violence over cartoons
Austrian President Heinz Fischer, whose country holds the EU presidency, denounced violence over the drawings, saying the response was inappropriate.

But he told the European Parliament that freedom of expression must not go against the need to protect religious sensitivities and values of other cultures.

“I take respect for religious feelings ... as an important element in the coexistence of people and nations,” Fischer said. He noted that Islam is interpreted to ban any depiction of Muhammad, adding that “one must not offend against this principle twice — not only by disrespecting this ban, but also by reinforcing this hurtful violation of a taboo in the form of a caricature.”

He also condemned unidentified governments for inciting violence, an apparent reference to the leadership of Syria and Iran which the United States has accused of stoking the violence.

“I strongly and unreservedly condemn the attitude of governments who allow diplomatic missions, embassies and innocent people to be attacked,” Fischer said.

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