World News
20-09-2012   16:16
Actress sues man behind anti-Muslim film, protests continue
An actress in an anti-Islam film that triggered violent protests across the Muslim world sued a California man linked to its production on Wednesday for fraud and slander, saying she had received death threats after the video was posted on YouTube.   

Actress Cindy Lee Garcia, who also named Google Inc  and its YouTube unit as defendants, asked that the film be removed from YouTube and said her right to privacy had been violated and her life endangered, among other allegations.  However, Califorina judge denied her request.

It was the first known civil lawsuit connected to the making of the video.

Protests continue:

The vulgar depiction of Islam's Prophet Muhammad in an American-made movie has angered Muslims across the world, with many taking to the streets to rally against the film. In recent days, the decision by a French satirical magazine to release cartoons crudely depicting the prophet has added to the tension.          

Hundreds of Pakistanis angry at an anti-Islam film that denigrates the religion's prophet clashed with police in the Pakistani capital Thursday, the most violent show of anger in a day that saw smaller demonstrations in Indonesia, Iran and Afghanistan.              

In Pakistan, a crowd of more than 1,000 people tried to make their way to the U.S. Embassy inside a guarded enclave that houses embassies and government offices.         

The demonstrations are expected to grow in Pakistan on Friday, the traditional day of prayer in the Muslim world. The Pakistani government has called a national holiday for Friday so that people could come out and demonstrate peacefully against the film.          

In Indonesia, about 50 students from an Islamic university gathered in Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi province. They burned tires and forced a McDonald's restaurant to close. The door was later covered with a sign saying, "This must be closed as a symbol of our protest of the 'Innocence of Muslims' made in the U.S.," referring to the title of the film.               

In Iran, hundreds of students and clerics gathered outside the French embassy in Tehran to protest the publication of the caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in the French weekly. Protesters chanted "Death to France" and "Down with the U.S." and burned the flags of the United States and Israel. The demonstration ended after two hours.          

In Kabul, a few hundred people demonstrated in the downtown area against the film, chanting ant-American slogans before dispersing peacefully.            

Violence over the amateurish movie, "which portrays the prophet as a fraud, womanizer and child molester, has left at least 30 people in seven countries dead", including the American ambassador to Libya, according to AP.         

AP added that the satirical French weekly Charlie Hebdo featured several caricatures of the Prophet showing him "naked in what the publishers said was an attempt to poke fun at the furor over a privately-made U.S. film trailer mocking Islam and Mohammad."             

In this context, France stepped up security Wednesday at its embassies across the Muslim world.

Charlie Hebdo, whose offices were firebombed last year, was brandishing its right to free speech. But the publication raised concerns that France could face violent protests like the ones targeting the United States.

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REUTERS/AP
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