Gardaí have been given more time to question three men in connection with a suspected plot to murder a Swedish cartoonist.

The leader of al-Qaida in Iraq offered money for the murder of a Swedish cartoonist who recently produced images deemed insulting to Islam, in a statement carried by Islamist websites today.

Scores of Muslims staged a demonstration today against a Swedish newspaper and demanded that its chief editor apologise for publishing a drawing depicting the Prophet Mohammed with a dog’s body.