US - Newspaper publishes Muhammad cartoon

The Philadelphia Inquirer is the first major US newspaper to run one of the cartoons.

Bennett compared it to decisions in the past to publish photographs of the bodies of burned Americans hung from a bridge in Iraq, as well as a photograph by Andres Serrano showing a crucifix submerged in a jar of urine.

"You run it because there's a news reason to run it," Bennett said. "The controversy does not appear to have died down. It's still a news issue."

The Inquirer's decision apparently places it among a minority of American publications to publish the cartoon.

The Associated Press, the nation's largest wire service, declined Bennett's request to transmit photographs of the cartoon "because they didn't meet AP standards for acceptable content," Santiago Lyon, the news agency's director of photography, said in a statement.

Acceptable to Muslims, that is.
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