WRITER SHOT AHEAD OF TRIAL OVER CARTOON

AMMAN A Jordanian writer was shot dead by a suspected Islamist gunman Sunday outside the courtroom where he was due to stand trial for offending Islam by sharing a cartoon on Facebook.

Nahed Hattar, a 56-yearold intellectual from Jordan’s Christian minority, was gunned down on the steps of a courthouse in Amman in what appeared to be a religiously motivated attack. The gunman was arrested at the scene and identified as Riyad Ismail Abdullah, a 49-year-old imam.

The killing is a fresh blow to Jordan’s image as a bastion of stability amid the sectarian violence that is wracking much of the Middle East.