US judge rejects call to ban YouTube anti-Muslim film

A US judge rejected Thursday a request by an actress in the anti-Islamic video that set off violent Muslim protests to ban YouTube from showing the trailer in the United States.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Louis Lavin refused the request by lawyers for actress Cindy Lee Garcia for a restraining order to prevent the online video-sharing service from continuing to show the trailer.

Here is a breakdown of events over a US-made film considered highly offensive to Islam, "Innocence of Muslims".

The film by a Coptic Christian filmmaker calls Islam a "cancer" and has prompted often violent anti-American protests in more than 20 countries around the Muslim world. More than 30 people have been killed.

The publication by a French weekly satirical magazine on Wednesday of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed threatened to further stoke Muslim anger.

-- SEPTEMBER 2012 --

- 11: A large angry mob, including assailants using heavy weapons, attacks the US consulate in Libya's eastern city of Benghazi. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other diplomatic officials are killed.

- In Egypt, some 3,000 mainly Salafist demonstrators protest at the US embassy in Cairo.

- 12: Libya blames followers of the deposed regime of late strongman Moamer Kadhafi and Al-Qaeda for the consulate attack.

- US President Barack Obama condemns the "outrageous" attack but vows he will not break America's bond with Libya.

- 13: In Yemen the US embassy is attacked and clashes between police and demonstrators kill four people. More than 200 are wounded when protesters hurl stones at the US mission in Cairo.

- 14: In Sudan, two people are killed when some 10,000 demonstrate near the US embassy. Protesters set the German mission ablaze.

- In the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, one person is killed in clashes between security forces and Islamists.

- In Tunis, four people die in clashes at the US embassy and nearby American school.

- 15: Taliban militants storm an airfield in Afghanistan's Helmand province, killing two US Marines.

- Al-Qaeda's Yemeni branch says the attack on US diplomats in Libya was in "revenge" for the killing of its number two, Sheikh Abu Yahya al-Libi, in a drone strike in June.

- 16: Libya announces the arrest of 50 suspects over the Benghazi killing.

- 17: Two protesters die in Pakistan. Demonstrations also take place in Afghanistan and Azerbaijan.

- Salafist cleric in Egypt Ahmad Fouad Ashoush issues a fatwa against the film's cast and crew.

- 18: A suicide car bombing in Kabul kills 12 people, nine of them foreigners. Afghan insurgent group Hezb-i-Islami claims responsibility.

- Hundreds of Muslim protesters in Indian Kashmir clash with security forces.

- The US says it is taking "aggressive steps" to protect its embassies and staff around the world.

- Egypt's public prosecutor orders that seven US-based Egyptian Copts be tried over their role in the film.

- 19: French satirical weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo publishes cartoons of a naked Prophet Mohammed. Two organisations lodge complaints of incitement to hatred, defamation and public insult against the magazine.

- France steps up security and decides embassies, consulates, cultural centres and international French schools in around 20 Muslim countries will be closed on Friday, the day of weekly Muslim prayers.

- Thursday, 20: Up to 50 people are wounded as thousands of Pakistanis clash with police, notably in Islamabad and Lahore. Smaller demonstrations are held in Kabul, Tehran and the Nigerian city of Zaria.

- US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns flies to Tripoli for a ceremony in honour of the four Americans killed in Benghazi.

- The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation calls for international action against hate-speech.

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