Muhammed Cartoon Chronicles - Feb. 18, 2006

* Rioting in Nigeria left at least 16 people dead, as police moved to disperse demonstrators caught up in the unabated furore over the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, witnesses and police said. The protesters in the northern city of Maiduguri turned on the Christian minority, burning churches and shops, as army troops and police reinforcements were deployed to restore order, police spokesman Deputy Commissioner Haz Iwendi told AFP.

* A similar protest in the city of Katsina also turned ugly, and one rioter was shot dead by police as marchers pelted officers with stones.

* The Nigerian violence followed Friday's clashes in Libya, in which police killed 11 anti-Italian demonstrators, protesting the "provocative and outrageous" anti-Islamic insults of Italy's Reform Minister Roberto Calderoli. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi moved to restore damaged ties with Islamic nations, belatedly forcing Calderoli's resignation for provoking the deadly clashes in Libya by wearing T-shirts lampooning the Prophet Mohammed.
An embarrassed Berlusconi said he hoped the resignation would "avoid acts of retaliation against our businesses and against our soldiers abroad."Calderoli, a 49-year-old strongman of the fiercely anti-immigrant Northern League party, sparked outrage when he announced this week he was having T-Shirts printed with the controversial drawings of the Prophed Mohammed first published in a Danish newspaper.

* Peaceful demonstrations also took place in several European countries with at least 10,000 protestors marching in London.

Liberal Ass Bandits, however, still fail to realize we are in war against global Islamic fundamentalism.