Top stories from DAWNS Digest.
US Embassies Face Protests Across the Muslim World; German Embassy in Sudan Attacked
Friday is typically a big day for political protest in much of the Muslim world. Given the events of this past week, things may get hairy today. “Protesters also clashed with police in Yemen, where one person died and 15 were injured on Thursday when the US embassy compound was stormed, and crowds gathered against the California-made film in Malaysia, Bangladesh and Iraq. According to Al-Jazeera, protests were also taking place at US consulates in India and Qatar, while thousands gathered to protest at the Swiss embassy in Tehran, where US interests are dealt with. Hundreds tried to reach the US consulate in Jerusalem Friday but were turned away by Israeli police. The film was blamed for an attack on the US consulate in Libya’s eastern city of Benghazi that killed the US ambassador and three other Americans on Tuesday, the anniversary of the Sept 11, 2001 al-Qaida attacks on the United States. In Nigeria, where radical Islamist sect Boko Haram has killed hundreds this year in an insurgency, the government put police on alert and stepped up security around foreign missions. State-backed Islamist scholars in Sudan called a mass protest after Muslim prayers on Friday and an Islamist group threatened to attack the U.S. embassy in the capital Khartoum. The government also criticized Germany for tolerating criticism of the Prophet. (JPost http://bit.ly/SKFhj1)
Guatemala Earthquake Erupts, Forcing 33,000 to Evacuate
Airline travel may also be hindered. “A long-simmering volcano outside one of the Guatemala’s most famous tourist attractions exploded into a series of powerful eruptions Thursday, hurling thick clouds of ash nearly two miles (three kilometers) high, spewing rivers of lava down its flanks and forcing the evacuation of more than 33,000 people from surrounding communities. Guatemala’s head of emergency evacuations, Sergio Cabanas, said the evacuees were leaving some 17 villages around the Volcan del Fuego, which sits about six miles southwest (16 kilometers) from the colonial city of Antigua. The ash was blowing south and authorities said Antigua was not currently in danger, although they expected the eruption to last for at least 12 more hours. The agency said the volcano spewed lava nearly 2,000 feet (600 meters) down slopes billowing with ash around Acatenango, a 12,346-foot-high (3,763-meter-high) volcano whose name translates as ‘Volcano of Fire.’” (CSM http://bit.ly/Q6GXNH)
Horn of Africa