Showing posts with label Charlie Hebdo attack: Rush to buy new "survivors" issue. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Charlie Hebdo attack: Rush to buy new "survivors" issue. Show all posts

Charlie Hebdo attack: Rush to buy new "survivors" issue

Charlie Hebdo attack: Rush to buy new "survivors" issue, Long queues have formed at newsstands in France for the latest edition of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

Three million copies are being printed - a week after Islamist gunmen murdered eight journalists at the magazine and four other people in Paris.

The cover shows a cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad weeping while holding a sign saying "Je suis Charlie" ("I am Charlie").

It is believed earlier cartoons of the Prophet prompted the attack.

The slogan "Je suis Charlie" has been widely used following the shootings.

In a separate attack in Paris two days later, four Jewish men died after an Islamist gunmen took hostages at a kosher shop in the French capital. A police woman was shot dead in a third shooting believed to have been carried out by the same attacker.Referring to last week's shocking events, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said his country was at war with extremism and terrorism - but not with Muslims.

He was speaking on Tuesday after funeral ceremonies were held for seven of the victims in France and Israel.

France has deployed 10,000 troops at various sites across the country - including synagogues, mosques and airports - in response to the attacks.Wednesday's edition of Charlie Hebdo has an unprecedented print run of three million copies. Normally only 60,000 are printed each week.

Demand for what is being called the "survivor's issue" of the magazine is high, correspondents say, especially as the proceeds will go to the victims' families.

Kiosk owners told French media they had received large numbers of reservation requests, while at one shop in Paris all copies were reportedly sold out within 30 minutes.Hugh Schofield in Paris on the new edition:

There's the full-page cartoon of a weeping Muhammad on the front cover, but inside there are no more caricatures of the Prophet.

There are plenty - in the paper's characteristic scurrilous vein - of Muslim extremists. In one cartoon, two terrorists are seen ascending to heaven and asking: "Where are the 70 virgins?" In the background, the murdered staff at Charlie Hebdo are enjoying an orgy.

An editorial thanks the millions of people who have declared themselves as Charlie in the past few days - but it says it wants no more of the past insinuations that by provoking Muslims, it has somehow brought trouble on itself.The issue will be available in six languages - including English, Arabic and Turkish - some in print and some online.

Editor-in-chief Gerard Biard told reporters: "We are happy to have done it and happy to have been able to do it, to have achieved it. It was tough. The front page... was complicated to put together, because it had to express something new, it had to say something relating to the event that we had to deal with."

The front cover of the edition had been widely published in advance by French media.Outside France, the Washington Post, Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine, Corriere della Sera in Italy and the UK's Guardian are among publications to show the cartoon.

Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet has published a section of the magazine, including a small image of the cover in one of its columns.

Very few outlets in the Middle East and North Africa have shown the image.

Charlie Hebdo's decision to publish another cartoon of the Prophet has already generated threats from militant Islamist websites and criticism from the Islamic world, the BBC's Chris Morris in Paris reports.

Meanwhile, controversial French comedian Dieudonne M'bala M'bala was arrested on Wednesday for "defending terrorism".

Police opened an investigation into the comic on Monday, after he wrote on a Facebook post "I feel like Charlie Coulibaly" - merging Charlie Hebdo with the name of supermarket gunman Amedy Coulibaly.

Suspect on the run
The three days of violence in Paris began after brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi attacked the magazine's office. They shouted "We have avenged the Prophet Muhammad" after the shootings.The brothers were later killed by French security services after a stand-off in a town north of Paris.

Separately, Coulibaly - whom investigators have linked to the brothers - killed the four men at the kosher supermarket on Friday, apparently before police stormed the building. Coulibaly is also believed to have shot dead the policewoman the day before.

His partner Hayat Boumeddiene is now thought to be in Syria. She has been identified as a suspect by French police, although she left France before the attacks.

Wednesday 7 January 10:30 - Two masked gunmen enter Charlie Hebdo offices, killing 11 people, including the magazine's editor. Shortly after the attack, the gunmen kill a police officer nearby.
11:00 - Police lose track of the men after they abandon their getaway car and hijack another vehicle. They are later identified as brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi.
Thursday 8 January 08:45 - A lone gunman shoots dead a policewoman and injures a man in the south of Paris. Gunman later identified as Amedy Coulibaly.
10:30 - The Kouachi brothers rob a service station near Villers-Cotterets, in the Aisne region, but disappear again.
Friday 9 January 08:30 - Police exchange gunfire with the Kouachi brothers during a car chase on the National 2 highway northeast of Paris.
10:00 - Police surround the brothers at an industrial building in at Dammartin-en-Goele, 35km (22 miles) from Paris.
12:15 - Coulibaly reappears and takes several people hostage at a kosher supermarket in eastern Paris. Heavily-armed police arrive and surround the store.
16:00 - Kouachi brothers come out of the warehouse, firing at police. They are both shot dead.
16:15 - Police storm the kosher supermarket in Paris, killing Coulibaly and rescuing 15 hostages. The bodies of four hostages are recovered.