With NEWS WIRE SERVICES
A Pakistani cleric announced a $1 million bounty for killing the Danish cartoonist who drew the now-infamous caricatures of the Prophet Muhammed. In Libya, at least 11 people were killed when a protest over the cartoons turned violent.

Armed police fired bullets and tear gas on a crowd of more than 1,000 demonstrators in the Libyan city of Benghazi, and the Italian Consulate was set on fire, Italian and Libyan officials said. No Italians inside the compound were injured, the Italian Foreign Ministry said.

In Pakistan, Denmark temporarily closed its embassy and advised its citizens to leave the country. The cartoons were first published in September by a Danish newspaper and reprinted last month by papers in other, mostly European, nations.
Mohammed Yousaf Qureshi, a cleric in the northwestern city of Peshawar, announced rewards amounting to more than $1 million for anyone who killed the cartoonist behind the caricature.

"If the West can place a bounty on Osama Bin Laden ... we can also announce reward for killing the man who has caused this sacrilege of the holy Prophet," the cleric said.

Here in New York, police said about 800 people turned out for a peaceful rally outside the Danish Consulate in midtown. Organizers called for respect and religious tolerance.

"We have to be wise enough as Muslims to not get provoked," said Iman Siraj Wahhaj, one of the organizers. "However, just because you have the right to say something doesn't mean it's right to say it."