Clashes as Pakistani forces block cartoon rally

PAKISTANI security forces arrested hundreds of Islamic hard-liners and virtually sealed off the capital Islamabad yesterday before using gunfire and tear gas to disperse a protest that had been banned by the government after a wave of deadly riots.

Elsewhere in the Muslim world, demonstrators with wooden staves and stones tried unsuccessfully to storm the US embassy in Indonesia, while tens of thousands rallied in the Turkish city of Istanbul as the violence unleashed by cartoons of Mohammed continued.

Troops patrolled the deserted streets of the northern Nigerian town of Maiduguri, where thousands of Muslims attacked Christians and burned churches on Saturday, killing at least 15 people during a protest against the cartoons. Most of the victims were beaten to death by rioters.