Controversial Danish cartoonist plans to retire

COPENHAGEN - Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, who has been the subject of several plots due to his controversial cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed with a bomb in his turban, said Thursday that he was considering retirement from his newspaper job.

Westergaard won notoriety - also outside Denmark - for the cartoon published in September 2005 by the Jyllands-Posten daily. The cartoon, one of 12 commissioned by the newspaper, outraged many Muslims and sparked violent protests worldwide in early 2006.

He has been on leave from his freelance job with Jyllands-Posten since November 2009 for unspecified reasons.

“Around June 1, I will talk to the editor-in-chief. I am soon 75, and have enough to do,” the cartoonist told the Danish news agency Ritzau, adding that he himself wanted to decide when it was time to call it a day.

January 1, Westergaard was forced to barricade himself in a reinforced room when a 28-year-old Somali-born man broke into his home and threatened him.

Since then, Westergaard has had regular police protection.