reward, gold for cartoonist

Taliban bounty for killing cartoonist

A top Taliban commander has offered a reward of 100 kilograms of gold to anyone who kills the person responsible for "blasphemous" cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed, the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) has reported.

If someone killed the cartoonist responsible for the cartoons in Denmark, the "Taliban will give 100 kilograms (244 pounds) of gold," Mullah Dadullah said in a telephone call to AIP from an unknown location, the Pakistan-based private news agency reported on Wednesday.

Dadullah also said the Taliban would give five kilograms of gold to anyone who killed a Danish, Norwegian or German soldier, AIP said.

AIP said Dadullah was operating as chief commander of the Taliban waging an anti-government insurgency in Afghanistan.

The agency quoted Dadullah as saying the Taliban's list of would-be suicide bombers had grown since the publication of the cartoons.

Eleven demonstrators have been killed since Friday in violent protests over the cartoons in Afghanistan.
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Khamenei: Cartoon row is 'zionist conspiracy'

Tehran: The West's publication of the cartoons was an Israeli conspiracy motivated by anger over Hamas's win in the Palestinian elections, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Tuesday.

Speaking to Iranian air force personnel, Khamenei the cartoons were a scandal, particularly as they came "from those who champion civilisation and free expression."

"The West condemns any denial of the Jewish holocaust, but it permits the insult of Islamic sanctities," Khamenei said.

The caricatures amounted to a "conspiracy by Zionists who were angry because of the victory of Hamas," he said, referring to the Palestinian movement that won a landslide victory in last month's elections. ...
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