Key events in the cartoon controversy
2005
Sept. 30: Danish newspaper Jyllands Posten publishes 12 depictions of the Prophet Mohammed.
Oct. 11: Street protests erupt in Denmark. Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen refuses to meet a group of ambassadors from 11 Islamic countries about the cartoons.
December: Islamic Faith Community, a Danish network of 27 Muslim organizations, goes on a trip to the Mideast, carrying a dossier with the cartoons.
2006
Jan. 26: Libya closes its embassy and Saudi Arabia withdraws its ambassador from Denmark.
Jan. 30: Jyllands Posten apologizes to Muslims for any offense but defends its right to publish the cartoons.
Late January-early February: Some newspapers in France, Germany, the United States, Britain, Iceland, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland, Hungary, Greenland, Bulgaria, Portugal, and New Zealand reprint the cartoons.
Feb. 5: One person is killed and 50 injured as a crowd burns down the Danish embassy in Beirut.
Feb. 6: Anticartoon protests flare in Algeria, Egypt, Indian-held Kashmir, Indonesia, Lebanon, Nigeria, the Palestinian territories, and Thailand. Three people die in Afghanistan.
Feb. 7: Four more people die in Afghanistan. In Tehran, protesters attack the Danish and Norwegian embassies. President Bush assures Rasmussen of his ''support and solidarity."
Feb. 8: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accuses Syria and Iran of inciting the violence.
Feb. 9: The Malaysian government shuts a local newspaper for publishing the cartoons. Indonesian police charge the editor of a weekly tabloid with blasphemy for reprinting them.
Feb. 10: Police in Egypt fire tear gas and rubber bullets at demonstrators, injuring 30. In Nairobi, Kenya, police fire tear gas at flag-burning protesters.
Feb. 11: Denmark's ambassadors to Iran and Indonesia leave because of threats against them.
Feb. 13: Javier Solana, European Union foreign policy chief, begins a diplomatic initiative to the Middle East to calm Muslim anger.
SOURCE: News reports
Kathleen Hennrikus/Globe Staff
