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Four dead after anti-American riots erupt in Afghanistan
At least four people were killed and dozens injured in a riot in eastern Afghanistan yesterday after police fired on demonstrators protesting about reports that the Qur'an had been desecrated by US soldiers in Guantanamo Bay.

Offices in Jalalabad were set on fire, shops sacked and consulates and UN buildings attacked by rioters, according to witnesses. Police fired to disperse crowds several times and army helicopters were said to have "buzzed" the crowds. Doctors in the city confirmed that four people had died.

This was the second day of protests in the city sparked by claims in Newsweek magazine that interrogators in Cuba, where hundreds of prisoners captured in Afghanistan are held, kept copies of the Qur'an in toilets, and "in at least one case flushed a holy book down the toilet". The US state department said it was investigating the claims. ...