Riot police guard newspaper office

FEARS OF MUSLIM PROTESTS AFTER CHARLIE HEBDO PRINTS NEW CARTOONS OF MOHAMMAD RIOT police are today guarding the offices of satirical weekly newspaper _Charlie Hebdo_ fearing Muslim protests

after its latest issue hits the streets with cartoons of Mohammad. The magazine, whose Paris offices were firebombed last November after a mocking cartoon of the prophet, has nude

caricatures of him today which come in the wake of a wave of attacks by irate Muslims upset over a controversial anti-Islam film. Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said he "disapproved

of all excess" and called on "everyone to behave responsibly". But he added that "freedom of expression is one of the fundamental principles of our republic" if

people disagreed with the paper they could take legal action. The government has ordered increased security at its embassies, fearing the widespread protests that led, in Libya, to the death

of the US ambassador. Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who is on an official visit to Egypt, said he "condemned" the publication of the cartoons. However, he added that planned

Muslim protests in Paris and Toulouse over the anti-Islam film _Innocence of Muslims_ would be banned. Last weekend 152 people were arrested as 250 people demonstrated outside the US embassy

in Paris in protest at the film and there have been renewed calls on social networks for a new protest this weekend. Today _Charlie Hebdo_ director, Charb, said: "If we start by asking

if we have the right to draw Mohammad and if it's dangerous or not to do it then the next question is going to be 'Can we draw Muslims?' then it's 'Can we draw

human beings?'" The paper's front page today is a take-off of the hit film _Intouchables_ with an Orthodox Jew pushing an Imam in a wheelchair. Its website was not accessible

this morning. Editor, Stephane Charbonnier, told _i>TELE_ news programme that if it stopped printing satire because of fear then it would produce 16 blank pages each week. In a statement,

the French Muslim Council said the paper was stirring up anti-Muslim sentiment at a difficult time and while "deeply attached to freedom of speech" feels "nothing can justify

insult and inciting hatred". The Jewish organisation Conseil Représentatif des Institutions Juives de France (Crif) called the paper "irresponsible".