Angry demonstrations against an anti-Islam film made in the US have spread to several countries across the Middle East and North Africa. 
 
 
 
 Clashes between police and demonstrators near the US embassy in Sanaa on Thursday killed four people, a security official said. 
 
 
 
 "Four people were killed and 34 others were wounded in the clashes that lasted from morning until late in the evening" in the area around the US embassy in Sanaa, the official said. 
 
 Earlier on Thursday, a security official said that Yemeni police shot dead a protester in confrontations outside the embassy, shortly after ejecting crowds that briefly stormed the mission's compound. 
 
 The protesters removed the embassy's sign on the outer wall and brought down the US flag and burned it, according to witnesses. 
 
 A number of diplomatic vehicles were torched as security forces used water cannons and warning shots in a bid to drive them out. 
 
 In Egypt, 224 people were injured in protests, eight of whom needed to be transfered to hospital, the health ministry said. 
 
 
 
 In Libya, where the US ambassador and three embassy staff were killed during protests in Benghazi on Tuesday, officials said they had made "four arrests" over the attack. 
 
 
 
 In the Iranian capital, Tehran, up to 500 people protested over the issue chanting "Death to America!" and death to the movie's director, an AFP photographer at the scene said. 
 
 The rally, near the Swiss embassy that handles US interests in the absence of US-Iran diplomatic ties, ended peacefully two hours later. 
 
 
 
 US flags burned 
 
 Meanwhile, Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi has condemned the film that has sparked an outcry in his country. 
 
 "We Egyptians reject any kind of assault or insult against our prophet. I condemn and oppose all who... insult our prophet," Morsi, on an official visit to Brussels, said in remarks broadcast by Egyptian state television. 
 
 President Morsi appealed for calm, saying Egyptians "reject any kind of assault" against Prophet Muhammad 
 
 "[But] it is our duty to protect our guests and visitors from abroad... I call on everyone to take that into consideration, to not violate Egyptian law... to not assault embassies," he added. 
 
 Egyptians have clashed with police outside US embassy in the capital, Cairo, for the third day. 
 
 About 30 people have been injured, including more than 10 riot police in the overnight clashes, as the fallout from a film ridiculing Islam's prophet continued to rage on Thursday. 
 
 Police have used tear gas to disperse the crowd, as interior ministry said at least 12 people have been arrested. 
 
 American flags were also burned in Tunisia, outside the US embassy in the capital, Tunis. 
 
 Police fired tear gas at demonstrators who shouted their opposition to the film, and chanted slogans against the US. 
 
 A small crowd also burned an American flag in Gaza City where Hamas, the elected government there, has condemned the film. 
 
 Despite the Egyptian government's call for calm, protesters chanted in the streets and fires burned. 
 
 Innocence of Muslims, the film that mocked Prophet Muhammad, was allegedly produced in the US by a filmmaker with ties to Coptic Christian groups, and excerpted on YouTube with dubbing in Arabic. 
 
 On Wednesday, about 200 demonstrators took part in protests in the Egyptian capital. 
 
 They rallied into the night chanting "leave Egypt" but there was however no repeat of the previous day's events when angry crowds climbed the walls of the complex and tore down an American flag, which they replaced briefly with a black, Islamist flag. 
 
 YouTube block 
 
 Meanwhile, YouTube, the video website owned by Google Inc, has said it will not remove the film clip, but it has blocked access to it in those countries. 
 
 Al Jazeera's Rosiland Jordan reports on US-Middle East relations following protests 
 
 The Afghan government has ordered an indefinite ban on YouTube to prevent access to the film deemed offensive to Muslims, officials said on Thursday. 
 
 The US prosecutor-general said on Wednesday that four people were being questioned after Tuesday's events. 
 
 Nine Coptic Egyptian-Americans were also put on an airport watch list. They are believed to have contributed to the production of the anti-Islam film that led to the embassy protest. 
 
 The man behind the protests told Al Jazeera he just wanted to combat insults against Islam through legal and peaceful means. Wesam Abdel Wareth, the protest organiser, said his group was not happy that young people who joined their protest brought down the US flag. 
 
 He also said there was no co-ordination with protesters in Libya, and he condemned the violence there. 
 
 On Tuesday, Egypt's prestigious Al-Azhar mosque condemned a symbolic "trial" of the Prophet organised by a US group, including Terry Jones, a Christian pastor who triggered riots in Afghanistan in 2010 by threatening to burn the Quran. 
 
 But it was not immediately clear whether the event sponsored by Jones also prompted the embassy events. 
 
 Egypt 'neither enemy, nor ally' 
 
 
 
 Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama has called the leaders of Egypt and Libya to discuss security co-operation following the violence in Cairo and Benghazi, the White House has said. 
 
 Iraqi supporters of Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr burn Israeli and US flags in the Iraqi city of Kut [AFP] 
 
 Obama urged Egypt to uphold its commitments to defend US diplomatic facilities and personnel and called on Libya to work with US authorities to bring those behind the deadly attack on the US consulate to justice. 
 
 Morsi promised Egypt "would honour its obligation to ensure the safety of American personnel", the White House said. 
 
 Obama told Morsi that while "he rejects efforts to denigrate Islam ... there is never any justification for violence against innocents". 
 
 Whatever the cause, the events appeared to underscore how much the ground in the Middle East has shifted for Washington, which for decades had close ties with Arab dictators who could be counted on to crush dissent. 
 
 Obama's administration in recent weeks had appeared to overcome some of its initial caution after the election of Morsi, offering his government desperately needed debt relief and backing for international loans. 
 
 Egypt is neither an ally nor an enemy of the United States, Obama said on Wednesday. 
 
 "I don't think that we would consider them an ally, but we don't consider them an enemy," Obama said in excerpts of an interview with Telemundo aired by MSNBC. ||||| SANAA/CAIRO (Reuters) - Demonstrators attacked the U.S. embassies in Yemen and Egypt on Thursday in protest at a film they consider blasphemous to Islam, and American warships headed towards Libya after the U.S. ambassador there was killed in related violence this week. 
 
 In Libya, authorities said they had made four arrests in the investigation into the attack that killed ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americas in Benghazi on Tuesday. 
 
 President Barack Obama has vowed to bring to justice those responsible for the Benghazi attack, which U.S. officials said may have been planned in advance, possibly by an al Qaeda-linked group. 
 
 U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Washington had nothing to do with the crudely made film posted on the Internet, which she called “disgusting and reprehensible.” 
 
 The amateurish production, entitled the “Innocence of Muslims,” and originating in the United States, portrays Mohammad as a womanizer, a homosexual and a child abuser. 
 
 For many Muslims, any depiction of the Prophet is blasphemous and caricatures or other characterizations have in the past provoked violent protests across the Muslim world. 
 
 Demonstrations spread further on Thursday, with U.S. embassies again the targets of popular anger among Muslims questioning why the United States has failed to take action against the makers of the film. 
 
 Hundreds of Yemenis broke through the main gate of the heavily fortified U.S. embassy compound in the capital Sanaa, shouting “We sacrifice ourselves for you, Messenger of God.” They smashed windows of security offices outside the embassy and burned cars. 
 
 A security source said at least 15 people were wounded, some by gunfire, before the government ringed the area with troops. 
 
 In Egypt, protesters hurled stones at a police cordon around the U.S. embassy in central Cairo after climbing into the embassy compound and tearing down the American flag. The state news agency said 13 people were hurt in violence which erupted late on Wednesday, following initial protests on Tuesday. 
 
 Around 200 demonstrators gathered outside the U.S. embassy in Kuwait shouting slogans such as “God is great.” They hoisted banners, one of which bread in English: “USA stop the bullshit. Respect us.” 
 
 Kuwaiti riot police encircled the crowd of men protesting peacefully in their traditional Kuwaiti dress. 
 
 On Thursday, the U.S. consulate in Berlin was partially evacuated after an employee fell ill on opening a suspicious envelope. Bangladeshi Islamists tried to march on the U.S. embassy in Dhaka and Iranian students protested in Tehran. 
 
 Earlier in the week, there were protests outside U.S. missions in Tunisia, Morocco and Sudan. 
 
 The U.S. ambassador to Libya was killed during a protest against the film on Tuesday at the U.S. consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi when Islamists armed with guns, mortars and grenades staged military-style assaults on the mission and a safe house refuge. 
 
 A Libyan doctor at a Benghazi hospital said Stevens died of smoke inhalation. U.S. information technology specialist Sean Smith also died at the consulate, while two other Americans were killed when a squad of U.S. troops sent by helicopter from Tripoli to rescue diplomats from the safe house came under mortar attack. 
 
 FIRST U.S. AMBASSADOR KILLED SINCE 1979 
 
 Stevens, 52, had spent a career operating in perilous places, mostly in the Arab world, and became the first American ambassador killed in an attack since Adolph Dubs, the U.S. envoy to Afghanistan, died in a 1979 kidnapping attempt. 
 
 Tuesday’s incident, on what was the 11th anniversary of al Qaeda’s attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, has created an unwanted foreign policy crisis for Obama ahead of his bid for reelection in November. 
 
 Speaking at a campaign rally in Colorado on Thursday, Obama said he had ordered his administration to do whatever was necessary to protect Americans abroad and that aides had been in contact with other governments “to let them know they’ve got a responsibility to protect our citizens.” 
 
 The U.S. military dispatched two destroyers toward the Libyan coast, in what an official said was a move to give the administration flexibility for any future action. The first ship, the USS Laboon, was already in position and the other destroyer, the USS McFaul, was at least a day away, a U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. 
 
 “We don’t know if they are affiliated with a particular group or not, there are a lot of suspicions but the we have to go through with the investigation and find out who these people are and if they belong to a particular group, then we have to deal with that group.” 
 
 The U.S. military also dispatched a Marine Corps anti-terrorist team to boost security in Libya, whose leader Muammar Gaddafi was ousted in a U.S.-backed uprising last year. 
 
 Republican Mitt Romney, Obama’s challenger, criticized the government’s response to the crisis earlier this week, saying it was disgraceful to be seen to be apologizing for American values of free speech. 
 
 Obama’s campaign accused Romney of trying to score political points at a time of national tragedy and the challenger also provoked some criticism from within his own party. 
 
 Campaigning on Thursday, Romney stopped short of repeating the charge but said that under Obama the United States seemed to be at the mercy of world events rather than shaping them, and argued for a stronger military, at a time when U.S. armed forces are facing an unprecedented budget squeeze. 
 
 Obama’s administration again sought to calm Muslim tensions on Thursday. 
 
 Clinton said Washington rejected the film’s message absolutely, and added: “It appears to have a deeply cynical purpose: to denigrate a great religion and provoke rage.” 
 
 At the same time, Clinton noted the history of religious tolerance in the United States and its commitment to freedom of speech and said there was no justification for people to respond with violence. 
 
 “I know it is hard for some people to understand why the United States cannot or does not just prevent these kinds of reprehensible videos from ever seeing the light of day,” she said. “I would note that in today’s world, with today’s technologies, that is virtually impossible. 
 
 “But even if it were possible our country does have a long tradition of free expression which is enshrined in our constitution and our law. And we do not stop individual citizens from expressing their views no matter how distasteful they may be,” she added. 
 
 Protesters break the windows of the U.S. embassy in Sanaa September 13, 2012. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah 
 
 AL QAEDA LINK SEEN 
 
 Among the assailants in Benghazi, Libyans identified units of a heavily armed local Islamist group, Ansar al-Sharia, which sympathizes with al Qaeda and derides Libya’s U.S.-backed bid for democracy. 
 
 Former Libya militant commander Noman Benotman, now president of Britain’s Quilliam think tank, said Western officials were investigating a possible link with a paramilitary training camp about 100 miles south of the eastern Libyan town of Derna, near the Egyptian border. 
 
 U.S. officials said there were suggestions members of al Qaeda’s North Africa-based affiliate may have been involved. 
 
 Libya’s new Prime Minister Mustafa Abu Shagour confirmed arrests had been made in the investigation into the attack and more could be expected. 
 
 “We don’t know if they are affiliated with a particular group or not, there are a lot of suspicions but ... we have to go through with the investigation and find out who these people are and if they belong to a particular group, then we have to deal with that group.” 
 
 “We ... assure the people that we are going after them, that we are going to bring them to justice and they have to be punished for their act. This is not acceptable. 
 
 A spokesman for Ansar al-Sharia denied it had played a role in the attack on the U.S. consulate and blamed the violence on firing on the protesters by consulate staff. 
 
 “It was a peaceful protest, and the firing on the protesters inflamed the situation and gave it a different course,” Hani Mansouri told a news conference in Benghazi. 
 
 At the same time, Mansouri said the United States should have had the wisdom to evacuate its ambassador on the September 11 anniversary as a precaution. 
 
 Yemen, a key U.S. ally, is home to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), viewed by Washington as the most dangerous branch of the militant network established by Osama bin Laden. 
 
 Clashes near the U.S. embassy there flared up on and off but died down as night fell. Residents living nearby said they feared more violent protests after Friday prayers. 
 
 “It is a dangerous situation,” one resident told Reuters. “I cannot wait until the morning to move my family to another neighborhood until the situation is totally calm.” 
 
 In Nigeria, the government put police on high alert and stepped up security around all foreign missions, also fearing an Islamist backlash, possibly after Friday prayers. 
 
 An actress in the California production that has provoked the unrest said the video as it appeared bore no resemblance to the original filming. She said she had not been aware it was about the Prophet Mohammad. 
 
 Many Muslim states focused their condemnation on the film and will be concerned about preventing a repeat of the fallout seen after publication in a Danish newspaper of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad. This touched off riots in the Middle East, Africa and Asia in 2006 in which at least 50 people were killed. 
 
 Afghan President Hamid Karzai has called the making of the movie a “devilish act” but said he was certain those involved in its production were a very small minority. 
 
 The U.S. embassy in Kabul has appealed to Afghan leaders for help in “maintaining calm” and Afghanistan ordered the YouTube site shut down so Afghans would not be able to see the film. YouTube, owned by Google Inc, said it would not remove the clip but had blocked access in Egypt and Libya. 
 
 Slideshow (17 Images) 
 
 Libyan leader Mohammed Magarief and Yemeni President Mansour Hadi both apologized to the United States over the attacks and Egypt’s Islamist President Mohamed Mursi condemned them on television while also rejecting any “insult to the Prophet”. 
 
 Russian President Vladimir Putin, a sharp critic of last year’s Western military intervention in Libya and of Western backing for Syria’s rebels, called Stevens’ death a tragedy and said he believed Western support for rebels in Arab countries was causing chaos. ||||| Story highlights Thousands protest in Falluja; Bangladesh blocks YouTube due to video 
 
 Demonstrations occur in Lebanon, Afghanistan, Indonesia and Pakistan 
 
 They join those who'd protested a video that mocks the Prophet Mohammed 
 
 A U.S. Muslim leader says there should be "no reaction to such an insignificant production" 
 
 Protests sparked by an online film that mocks Islam's holy prophet entered a second week Monday, raising questions about whether the furor is isolated or a sign of broader anti-American sentiment in the Muslim world. 
 
 On Monday, demonstrators took to the streets in Afghanistan, Indonesia, Pakistan, Yemen, Lebanon and Iraq. Answering a call from the leader of Hezbollah -- deemed a terrorist organization by the United States -- thousands packed the streets of Beirut's southern suburbs and chanted "Death to America!" 
 
 Monday's protests weren't on the scale as those last week, nor did they provoke the same level of international crisis by endangering U.S. diplomatic missions. Still, the fact the demonstrations are continuing -- and that they have occurred, now, in more than 20 countries -- suggests the anti-American furor tied to the inflammatory film isn't going away. 
 
 Plus, the issue has provided political fodder for Islamist leaders including Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Lebanon's Hezbollah movement, who had urged people to protest Monday against the film. 
 
 Speaking to largely peaceful crowd in Beirut, some of them waving the yellow flag of Hezbollah, Nasrallah asked the protesters and, in fact, all Muslims worldwide to push for laws to criminalize "insulting monotheistic faiths and their great prophets, from Abraham to Moses to Jesus and Mohammed." 
 
 JUST WATCHED Why the film upset so many Muslims Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Why the film upset so many Muslims 04:16 
 
 JUST WATCHED Media misfire on anti-Islam movie Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Media misfire on anti-Islam movie 05:12 
 
 JUST WATCHED Protests in Afghanistan turn violent Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Protests in Afghanistan turn violent 02:03 
 
 "The world until now cannot comprehend ... the degree of insult this disgusting film caused to the Prophet Mohammed," he added. 
 
 Earlier in the day in Afghanistan, hundreds of demonstrators attacked police officers along a road leading to the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. In neighboring Pakistan, at least one person died when protesters clashed with police in an anti-American demonstration in the tribal region along the Afghan border. 
 
 In Iraq, hundreds of protesters in Falluja, about 60 kilometers (35 miles) west of Baghdad, demanded the U.S. ambassador's expulsion from the country and a boycott of American products. The protesters carried flags and banners, including one that read, "It's time for all Muslims around the world to stand together against the enemy of Islam." 
 
 And in Indonesia, protesters threw rocks and used slingshots to launch marbles at riot police outside the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta. Police responded with tear gas. 
 
 The United States has made it clear that it did not sanction the low-budget, amateurish 14-minute movie trailer posted on YouTube and produced privately in the United States. The clip, which has been banned by YouTube in several countries, mocks the Prophet Mohammed as a womanizer, child molester and killer. 
 
 Islam forbids any depictions of Mohammed, and blasphemy is taboo among many in the Muslim world. 
 
 The film clip was relatively obscure until last Tuesday, when rioters breached the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and upset protesters attacked the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, killing Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. 
 
 A wave of protests since then has rippled from Morocco to Malaysia, spurring U.S. officials to increase security at diplomatic missions and demand other governments to take action. 
 
 U.S. ambassador: Protests have 'nothing to do with' U.S. 
 
 The demonstrations are part of inevitable turbulence in a region that has undergone tremendous change over the past year, said the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice. 
 
 "It's a change that the United States has backed because we understand that when democracy takes root, when human rights and people's freedom of expression can be manifested, it may lead to turbulence in the short term. But over the long term, that is in the interest of the United States," she told CNN on Sunday. 
 
 Appearing on several Sunday talk shows, Rice contended that the mobs outside U.S. embassies -- particularly in nations like Egypt, that have strong ties to the United States -- are a minority and "have largely lost in these emerging democratic processes." As U.S. officials have pointed out, the number of protesting outside U.S. diplomatic missions represent a fraction of the populations in their countries. 
 
 "And just as the (majority of) people of these countries are not going to allow their lives to be hijacked by a dictator, they're not going to allow an extremist mob to hijack their future and their freedom," she said. 
 
 Rice insisted the protests are nothing more than outrage over the online video. 
 
 "This is not an expression of hostility in the broadest sense toward the United States or U.S. policy," Rice told Fox News. "It's proximately a reaction to this video -- and it's a hateful video that had nothing to do with the United States and which we find disgusting and reprehensible." 
 
 But that is not the view of an independent American Islamic organization, whose executive director said the issue has gone beyond sensitivity over the "Innocence of Muslims." 
 
 "The film was just an excuse to lead to these kind of riots in the street," Zainab Al-Suwaij of the American Islamic Congress told CNN. 
 
 She urged U.S. government officials to pressure officials in countries where demonstrations have taken place to control their people. 
 
 "The only language that they do understand over there is the pressure that comes from the government," she said. 
 
 Investigation into ambassador's killing 
 
 Libya has taken steps to arrest those responsible for last week's deadly consulate attack, bringing in dozens for questioning over the weekend, Libyan officials said. The exact number of arrests was unclear. One Libyan official said those arrested included suspects from Mali and Algeria, as well as al Qaeda sympathizers. 
 
 Wanes al-Sharif, a deputy interior minister whose jurisdiction included eastern Libya, was fired one day after the Benghazi attack, according to documents obtained Monday by CNN. No reason was given for al-Shari's dismissal. Notably, he told reporters after the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi assault that he'd ordered a security force mobilized during the unrest "to leave the area because of the large number of protesters." 
 
 The debate, meanwhile, continues as to whether this attack was planned or spontaneous. 
 
 Mohamed al-Magariaf, the head of Libya's General National Congress said there was "no doubt" the attack was premeditated, telling CBS on Sunday that it "was planned by foreigners, by people who entered the country a few months ago, and they were planning this criminal act since their arrival." 
 
 But an unnamed senior Libyan government official said there has been no evidence to indicate the attack was planned, or that al Qaeda was involved. And he disputed al-Magariaf's estimate that 50 people were arrested over the weekend, saying the number was much lower. 
 
 Echoing White House statements from last week, U.S. diplomat Susan Rice also said U.S. authorities have no evidence the Benghazi attack was "premeditated." 
 
 If it was planned, that could indicate a more potent anti-U.S. hostility in Libya -- despite Rice's assertion that the United States is "quite popular in Libya, as you might expect, having been a major partner in their revolution." 
 
 The FBI is also investigating the Libya attack but has yet to enter the country because of volatility there. In the meantime, FBI agents are interviewing witnesses outside Libya, federal law enforcement officials said. 
 
 While U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta told reporters over the weekend that the worst of the violence appeared to be over, the United States is maintaining tight security anyway. 
 
 Nonessential personnel have been ordered to leave American diplomatic missions in Sudan, Tunisia and Libya. In Yemen, consular services have been suspended until the end of the month. And Monday, the U.S. State Department -- citing "current safety and security concerns" -- urged U.S. citizens to avoid all travel to Lebanon. 
 
 But the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, the scene of five consecutive days of protests, returned to full staffing Sunday, the U.S. State Department said. 
 
 Filmmaker in hiding, video blocked 
 
 Federal officials say the man behind the film that sparked worldwide protests is Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, a convicted felon with a history of using aliases to hide his actions. Nakoula is on probation for bank fraud. 
 
 Nakoula and his family have left their Cerritos, California, home for an unidentified location, the Los Angeles Sheriff's department said Monday. 
 
 Reports that Nakoula, who initially told The Wall Street Journal he was an Israeli, is a Coptic Christian have raised concern about a possible backlash against the minority religious group in Egypt, where tensions between Copts and Muslims have risen recently. 
 
 Nakoula denied that he made the film, according to Bishop Serapion, the head of the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Los Angeles, citing a phone conversation with him last week. At a news conference Monday, the Coptic leader condemned violence by protesters which, he said, "only serves to continue the hate." 
 
 "There should have been no bloodshed," echoed local Muslim leader Maher Hathout, chairman of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California, at the same Los Angeles event. "As a matter of fact, there should have been no reaction to such an insignificant production." 
 
 Despite U.S. government officials' firm condemnation, some in the Muslim world -- especially those raised in regimes in which the government must authorize any film -- cannot accept that a movie like "Innocence of Muslims" can be made without being sanctioned by Washington, said Council of Foreign Relations scholar Ed Husain. 
 
 "They're projecting ... their experience, their understanding (that) somehow the U.S. government is responsible for the actions of a right-wing fellow," said Husain, a senior fellow at the New York think thank. 
 
 (Google is YouTube's parent company.) Afghanistan and Pakistan have also ordered an indefinite block of YouTube to prevent people there from watching the clip. A day after the protests broke out, YouTube announced it was restricting access to the video and since then, Google India has blocked access.(Google is YouTube's parent company.) Afghanistan and Pakistan have also ordered an indefinite block of YouTube to prevent people there from watching the clip. 
 
 Bangladesh joined them Monday night is restricting YouTube access in the wake of protests in that Asian nation, a senior officer with the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission said and the state-run BSS news service likewise reported. 
 
 But if the ongoing protests are about more than just a low-budget film clip, these moves may do little to curb the violence. 
 
 "It's a bigger picture than the film only," warned 
 
 Zainab Al-Suwaij, of the American Islamic Congress, warned those behind the protests have "a lot of other political goals" and are using the film as "just an excuse." 
 
 "The political goals that these radical groups have ... are much bigger than just bad quality film that's been put on YouTube," she said. ||||| Image caption Dozens died in clashes between the police and protesters in Pakistani cities 
 
 The US state department has condemned a Pakistani minister's offer of $100,000 (£61,600) for the death of the American maker of an anti-Islam film. 
 
 It said the step was "inflammatory and inappropriate". 
 
 Railways Minister Ghulam Ahmad Bilour made the offer after a wave of protests against the film across Pakistan and the wider Muslim world. 
 
 Dozens have died in clashes between police and protesters in Pakistan and countries such as Tunisia and Sudan. 
 
 Sunday saw a fresh round of protests over the film in Pakistan, Nigeria, Greece and Turkey. 
 
 Most passed off peacefully, but in the Greek capital Athens, riot police and demonstrators clashed. Six people were arrested. 
 
 A state department official told the BBC: "The president and secretary of state have both said the video at the core of this is offensive, disgusting, and reprehensible - but that is no justification for violence, and it is important for responsible leaders to stand up and speak out against violence. 
 
 "Therefore we find Mr Bilour's announcement is inflammatory and inappropriate. We note that the prime minister's office has dissociated itself from his comments." 
 
 In hiding 
 
 The exact origins of Innocence of Muslims, the low-budget film that has prompted the unrest, are unclear. 
 
 The alleged producer of the trailer of the film, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, is in hiding. 
 
 Anti-US sentiment grew after a trailer for the film dubbed into Arabic was released on YouTube earlier this month. 
 
 US citizens have been urged not to travel to Pakistan, and the US embassy has paid for adverts on Pakistani TV showing President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemning the film. 
 
 Although US targets have borne the brunt of protests against the film, anti-Western sentiment has been stoked further by caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad published this week in the satirical French magazine, Charlie Hebdo. 
 
 France shut embassies and other missions in about 20 countries across the Muslim world on Friday. 
 
 An 18-year-old man who threatened the magazine's editors on Facebook has been charged with terrorism-related activity following his arrest in the southern French city of Toulon, a judicial source told AFP news agency on Sunday.
– Clashes between police and protesters angry over an anti-Islam film continued for the fourth day today, and US embassies were bracing for more protests in the Islamic world as traditional Friday prayers commence. Updates from Al Jazeera, AFP, NPR, and the AP: Libya: The airspace over Benghazi has been declared a no-fly zone after the death of US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans in violence there, but there have been no recent reports of major violence. Egypt: Security forces are blocking the route to the embassy as hundreds protest. More than 200 people were injured and at least 12 have been arrested. The Muslim Brotherhood initially called for a nationwide protest of the film, but changed its mind after violence escalated. Yemen: Four were killed in Sanaa yesterday, including one protester shot dead by police, as 2,000 protesters were blocked from the US embassy. Iran: As many as 500 people protested the movie in Tehran, chanting slogans against America and against the film's director, but the protest ended peacefully. Other cities: American flags were burned outside the US embassy in the Tunisian capital, in Gaza City, and in Afghanistan. There were demonstrations in Indonesia, Kuala Lumpur, Kashmir, and Sudan, and more protests are expected in Iraq, Jordan, and Israel. Google has not removed clips from the anti-Islam film, Innocence of Muslims, from YouTube, but has blocked access to the clips in the protesting countries.