Iran Closes Newspaper Over Cartoon Furor

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- The government closed one of the country's top three newspapers Tuesday, detaining its editor and cartoonist for publishing a caricature that caused members of Iran's Azeri minority to riot in protest.

State television reported that the Press Supervisory Body had closed the state-owned newspaper Iran "due to its publication of divisive and provocative materials."

The closure was indefinite, the television reported. It was the first time a newspaper had been banned since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took office last year.

On Friday, the Farsi-language newspaper published a cartoon showing a cockroach speaking Azeri, the language of an ethnic group in northwestern Iran.



The cartoon provoked riots Monday in Tabriz, the capital of Eastern Azerbaijan province. Police fired tear gas as rioters smashed windows of the local governor's office.

Tehran Prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi said the paper's cartoonist and editor-in-chief had been detained.

trouble is they havent a sense of humor
you think?
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