Yea the protests, growing a little bit old now…
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**(CNN) – Eleven people were killed and an Italian consulate was burned in Libya on Friday night during protests to denounce the publication of cartoons depicting the Muslim prophet Mohammed, sources in Libya said. **
There also was a “high number” of injuries, said an official with the Italian Embassy in Tripoli.
The Italian consulate and surrounding area in Benghazi were evacuated after the protesters torched the building, Italian officials said.
Another demonstration was held in Sebha, where demonstrators gathered after Friday prayers and issued a statement urging respect for religious shrines and beliefs.
The state-run Libyan news agency, Jamahiriya, or Jana, reported on its Web site that the casualties occurred when protesters clashed with police. The public prosecutor has been asked to investigate the way police dealt with the demonstrators, the news agency said.
Benghazi, in northeast Libya, is the country’s second-largest city. Sebha is in central Libya.
Jana described the protests as massive but peaceful. It gave no crowd estimates.
The government “strongly denounces” the actions of those who burned part of the Italian consulate, Jana reported. Police were able to prevent most of the attackers from entering the building, but a few went inside and some vehicles outside were burned, the news agency reported.
“The participants in this demonstration expressed in a statement their denunciation and condemnation of such encroachment on Islam and Muslims, stressing the necessity to condemn and criminalize this heinous action,” Jana reported.
Protests over the cartoons have escalated in recent weeks, more than four months after they appeared in a Danish newspaper. Some Muslims consider depictions of Mohammed blasphemous
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/africa/02/17/libya.cartoons/index.html