Iran daily holds Holocaust cartoons competition

8216;8216;A serious question for Muslims8230;is this: 8220;Does Western free speech allow working on issues like America and Israel8217;s crimes or an incident like the Holocaust or is this freedom of speech only good for insulting the holy values of divine religions?8217;8217; the paper said today.

8216;8216;Hamshahri, far from any conflict-seeking attitude or illogical behaviour, has called on the artists of the world to use free speech to send cartoons on these issues to take part in the contest,8217;8217; it added.

Davoud Kazemi, who is in charge of the contest, said that each of the 12 winners would have their cartoons published and receive two gold coins worth about 280 as a prize.

Meanwhile, dozens of hardline religious students pelted the Danish embassy in Tehran with stones and petrol bombs on Tuesday in a second successive day of violent protests in Iran over cartoons.

About 20 protesters managed to climb over the high wall protecting the embassy compound, where a tree appeared to have been set ablaze. Those who entered were ejected by police. It was not clear whether they had entered the embassy building itself, which was abandoned by embassy staff on Sunday. Dozens of riot police kept an eye on the protesters outside the embassy compound who chanted 8216;8216;Death to Denmark8217;8217;.

Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller called his Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki 8216;8216;and demanded in clear terms that Iran does all it can to protect the embassy and Danish lives,8217;8217; a spokesman said adding, 8216;8216;Iran will be held responsible for any damage to Danish interests.8217;8217;

Iran8217;s Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said Mottaki had instructed the Interior Ministry to protect diplomatic missions. 8216;8216;Citizens are free to protest, however the territories of diplomatic facilities should not be violated,8217;8217; Asefi was quoted as saying by state television.

Iran has also raised duties on Danish-flagged shipping and could ban Danish shipping entirely from its ports, newspapers reported on Tuesday. Danish shipping and oil company AP Moeller-Maersk is likely to be most affected by the measure, announced by Iranian Commerce Minister Masoud Mirkazemi.

The EU stepped up pressure on Arab and Muslim countries to control protests reminding 19 nations of their treaty obligation to protect diplomatic missions.

In a strongly worded statement issued late on Monday, EU President Austria said it had instructed its embassies in the Middle East, Asian and African countries to demand increased security measures for European citizens and premises after a wave of anti-European violence by angry Muslim protesters.

8216;8216;The authorities in Egypt, Algeria, Ethiopia, Iran, Jordan,Indonesia, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, the UAE and the Palestinian territories were also reminded of their obligations under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations to protect the diplomatic missions of the EU member states,8217;8217; the statement said.

Protests over cartoons around the world

LONDON: A British man who dressed as a suicide bomber and took part in a protest in London against the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad was arrested on Tuesday at the instigation of the Home Office. Newspaper pictures of Omar Khayam wearing what looked like a suicide bomber8217;s body harness and of protesters carrying placards with slogans such as 8216;8216;Massacre those who insult Islam8217;8217; had provoked calls for the police to act. Police said Khayam, who was on parole at the time of the protest, was arrested in Bedford for breaching his parole conditions and had been returned to jail.

ANKARA: Turkish security forces arrested a high school student on Tuesday over the killing of an Italian Catholic priest and Turkish television said the teenager had confessed to a crime which has shocked this Muslim nation.The student told police he was influenced by cartoons lampooning the Prophet Mohammad, NTV commercial television said. The report could not be immediately confirmed. The state Anatolian news agency said the student, aged 16, had been carrying a 9 mm pistol when he was captured in the Black Sea city of Trabzon, where Andrea Santoro, 61, was gunned down on Sunday while praying.

VATICAN CITY: The head of the Vatican body responsible for Inter-Faith Relations 0n Tuesday called for calm and restraint among Christians and Muslims as protests continued across the Islamic world against cartoons satirising the Prophet Mohammed.8216;8216;We all have the responsibility not to increase the tension and to calm spirits on both sides,8217;8217; said British archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, adding that Vatican would seek a dialogue with Muslim leaders. 8216;8216;We will speak to our Muslim partners to see, together with them, what we can do,8217; said8217; Fitzgerald. 8212;Agencies