Ministers forced out as cartoon row escalates

ITALY: The row over controversial Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad forced two ministers out of their jobs in Europe and the Middle East after clashes between police and protesters claimed 11 lives in Libya.

The protest in Benghazi was the bloodiest so far over caricatures of the Prophet that Muslims regard as blasphemous.

Initially resisting calls for his resignation, Italian Reforms Minister Roberto Calderoli stepped down after he was widely blamed for bloody clashes in Libya over cartoons of the Prophet which he had made into T-shirts and wore on television.

In Tripoli, the General People's Congress fired Interior Minister Nasser al-Mabrouk Abdallah and police chiefs in Benghazi saying "disproportionate force" had been used to disperse protesters who tried to storm the Italian consulate.

The Congress hailed the dead as "martyrs" and declared Sunday a day of mourning across Libya.

Italian diplomats in Tripoli said Libyan authorities had told them at least 11 were dead and nearly 40 wounded.

After Calderoli resigned, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi spoke with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi by phone. "(They) fully agreed that this serious episode must not affect in a negative way the friendly relations between Italy and Libya," Berlusconi's office said in a statement.

As thousands of Muslims rallied in central London to keep up the cycle of cartoon protests around the world, there was fresh bloodshed in Pakistan when four people were wounded in gunfire at a demonstration in the central Punjab region.

Protests in Pakistan this week have resulted in at least five deaths, and on Friday it became the latest country where Denmark has decided to temporarily close its embassy. Denmark urged any Danes in Pakistan to leave as soon as possible.

In a bid to harness the escalating violence, Pakistan on Saturday banned protests in Islamabad. As the ban was introduced the country's main Islamist alliance, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), said it would go ahead with its Sunday demonstration,

"The rally will be held in Islamabad. It will be a peaceful rally," Shahid Shamsi, an MMA spokesman said.

The shooting in Pakistan on Saturday occurred as hundreds of protesters pelted police with stones and tried to block a road in the town of Chiniot. It was unclear whether police or protesters fired the shots.

Police detained 40 activists of the student wing of an Islamist group in the city of Multan as they staged a protest in defiance of a government ban on public rallies in Punjab.

- ROME, Sunday, Reuters