The overwhelming majority of those protesting the notorious Danish cartoons have, of course, never seen them. The same goes for the overwhelming majority of those defending them. Whatever one thinks of them, there is a strong case that newspapers by this point have a responsibility to print them just to let their readers see what is at the center of a global protest wave. But, with depressing predictability, in the US and much of Europe this falls to the ideological conservative press, which then get to smirk and gloat about how the rest of the world is too intimidated by the Muslim menace. A sneering case in point is Human Events, "the National Conservative Weekly," which has all twelve cartoons on its website.

From South Africa's Mail & Guardian, from wire sources, Feb. 15:

Italian minister to wear Muhammad cartoon T-shirt
A prominent Italian government figure planned on Wednesday to wear a T-shirt sporting cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that have sparked violent reactions from Muslims around the world.

Yet more evidence of the Western democracies' sterling commitment to freedom of expression. From the Washington Post:

LONDON, Feb. 15 -- The House of Commons on Wednesday backed a bill that would make "glorification" of terrorism a criminal offense, a measure that Prime Minister Tony Blair called crucial to Britain's battle against religious extremists.

This is—potentially—a breakthrough. Can there be a negotiated settlement to the long-standing problem of Tibet? Or, as some have suggested, will there be new CIA "destabilization operations in Tibet, if there is fresh unrest there following the death of the Dalai Lama, when the Chinese are expected to designate a Dalai Lama of their choice"? From Reuters, Feb. 15:

BEIJING - Envoys of Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, arrived in China on Wednesday for secretive talks on allowing more autonomy for the Buddhist region, Tibet's government-in-exile said.

From Africa News Dimension, Feb. 15:

Around 10,000 Eritrean-Americans marched from the White House to the Department of State in Washington , DC to urge the U.S. government to ensure the enforcement of the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission's (EEBC) "final and binding" decision to demarcate the border between the two countries.

From Reuters, Feb. 14:

Militias in Somalia are looting shipments of aid for drought victims and forcing aid drivers to pay bribes, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

"Death to Denmark!" Does it get any more surreal than this? From the foreign press on the escalating anti-cartoon protests:

Police clobbered stone-throwing protesters with batons and fired tear gas in the Pakistanian city of Peshawar on Wednesday - Pakistan's third consecutive day of violent protests over the Prophet Muhammad cartoons, witnesses said.

From the London Times, Feb. 12:

The CIA’s top counter-terrorism official was fired last week because he opposed detaining Al-Qaeda suspects in secret prisons abroad, sending them to other countries for interrogation and using forms of torture such as “water boarding