Four dead in Niger amid widespread Muslim anti-Charlie protests

In Niger’s second largest city of Zinder, four died and 45 were wounded in end-of-week clashes with police. The French cultural centre was set alight and half a dozen churches in the country were attacked. In Jerusalem, Palestinian protesters carried flags of Hamas and chanted slogans against Mahmoud Abbas for taking part in the anti-terrorism demonstration in Paris. In Algiers, hundreds of Muslims chanted “I am not Charlie, I am Mohammed.”

Turkish President Erdogan said that publishing the cartoons had nothing to do with freedom of expression but with “terrorizing the freedom of others." At the Fatih mosque in Istanbul, some protesters also prayed for the memory of the Kouachi brothers, the two suspects who died in a shootout with police following the Paris attacks.

Outside the French consulate in Karachi, a local photographer, Assif Hassan, was hit by gunfire and seriously wounded and others were injured in nationwide protests in Pakistan against Charlie Hebdo cartoons of the prophet.

In view of the huge demand, Charlie Hebdo announced Saturday that seven million copies of the first edition after the Islamist terrorist attack are being printed.