Protests: Pakistan PM Orders YouTube Shutdown

Pakistan's Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf has ordered that YouTube be suspended in the country, as protests against a US-made film about the Prophet Mohammed raged in Indonesia and Afghanistan.

Mr Ashraf's office said in a statement that the ministry of information had been ordered to block YouTube in Pakistan so that the "blasphemous" video could not be viewed.

The announcement came after thousands of people took to the streets across the world, hurling rocks and petrol bombs, as well as burning buildings and flags.

One person was killed and two injured in Warai, in the Upper Dir district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan.

Police said a crowd of about 800 had set fire to a police station, a magistrate's house and the local press club.

In the Afghan capital Kabul, an angry crowd set fire to police cars and storage containers.

The main violence centred on Jalalabad road, where Nato and US military bases are located, Kabul police chief Mohammad Ayoub Salangi said.

Gunmen from the crowd opened fire at police, but no one was hurt, police said. "We have not shot back and we won't," said Mr Salangi.

Police say the crowds were shouting "Death to America!" and "Death to those people who have made a film and insulted our Prophet".

Men grabbed rocks from the roadside and lobbed them at Camp Phoenix, a US military base that lies along the Jalalabad road.

Meanwhile, Indonesians hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails at the US Embassy in Jakarta.

It marked the first violence in the world's most populous Muslim country since outrage exploded last week.

Eleven police officers were taken to hospital after being pelted with rocks and attacked with bamboo sticks, said police.

Four protesters were arrested and at least one was taken to hospital.

Protesters also burned a picture of President Barack Obama, who spent part of his childhood living here.

They also tried to torch a fire engine parked outside the embassy, ripping a hose from the vehicle and igniting it.

The violence came as the head of Hizbollah called for days of protests in Lebanon over the video.

Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said the Shi'ite militant group is organising five days of demonstrations across the country this week.

He said protesters around the world should not only "express anger" at US embassies but urge leaders to act.

He called for an international agreement making it illegal to attack any divine religion.

Former prime minister Tony Blair today urged politicians and religious leaders to condemn the protests sweeping the Muslim world.

He dismissed the film as "laughable" and insisted the response was "wrong".

The video, Innocence Of Muslims, produced in the US, portrays the prophet as a fraud, womaniser and homosexual.

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