PROTESTERS IN IRAN CARRY EFFIGY MADE OF PAGES OF BANNED NEWSPAPER IN ROW OVER CARICATURE, 2003-01-12...

Religious protesters in Qom, a centre of Islamic teaching 80 miles (130 km) southeast of the Iranian capital Tehran carry an effigy made from pages of a banned newspaper on January 12, 2003 during a demonstartion over a caricature published in a reformist newspaper owned by the brother of Iran's conservative supreme leader. The caricature, which depicts a robed, bearded figure sitting under a giant thumb, is considered by some clerics to bear a clear resemblance to the Islamic Republic's founding father Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who died in 1989. The Hayat-e No newspaper which published the drawing was closed down on January 11, 2003. Scores of liberal newspapers have been closed by Iran's hardline judiciary over the past three years. REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl CJF/WS