https://www.scmp.com/rss/317495/feed Two masked gunmen stormed the office of French satire newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris and slaughtered 12 people on January 7, 2015, in apparent revenge against the weekly's publication of cartoons ridiculing the Prophet Mohammed. Eight more people died, including three attackers, in the subsequent hunt for the gunmen near Paris. The violence led to a world-wide campaign of condemnation against terror and solidarity with the slain journalists. A record-breaking 3.7 million people marched across... en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com A relative of one of the jihadist killers of journalists at French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo has been arrested in Bulgaria after trying to get to Syria, a judicial source said Sunday. Mourad Hamyd, brother-in-law of Cherif Kouachi who was behind the January 2015 attack in Paris that killed 12, was first detained in Turkey last month on suspicion of seeking to enter Syria, the source said. The 20-year-old student was then expelled to neighbouring Bulgaria, where he was sent to a detention... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/2000831/brother-law-charlie-hebdo-killer-arrested-while-trying-get-syria?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/2000831/brother-law-charlie-hebdo-killer-arrested-while-trying-get-syria?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 08 Aug 2016 05:55:46 +0000 Western consulates are warning a French comedian convicted for inciting racial hatred could spark public disorder in Hong Kong if a planned two-night performance in Cyberport goes ahead. The French and Israeli consulates have contacted the police and the government raising concerns about artist Dieudonné M’bala M’bala’s upcoming two-night show on the 28th and 29th this month. M’bala M’bala, of Cameroonian origin, is a well known hate-speech artist and holds a string of convictions in France and... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/1901879/hong-kongs-french-and-israeli-consulates-condemn-race-hate?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/1901879/hong-kongs-french-and-israeli-consulates-condemn-race-hate?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 16 Jan 2016 16:30:45 +0000 Officers shot and killed a knife-wielding man wearing a fake explosive vest at a police station in northern Paris on Thursday, French officials said, a year to the day after an attack on the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo launched a bloody year in the French capital. Luc Poignant, a police union official, said the man cried out “Allahu akbar”, Arabic for “God is great”. The man was wearing what looked like an explosive vest, but it was fake, according to two French police officials who... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1898953/man-knife-and-fake-explosive-vest-shot-dead-paris-police-station-year?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1898953/man-knife-and-fake-explosive-vest-shot-dead-paris-police-station-year?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 07 Jan 2016 13:24:22 +0000 French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo will mark a year since the jihadist attack on its offices with a cover featuring a bloodied, gun-toting, bearded God figure, under the headline: “One year on: The assassin still at large”. One million copies of the special edition will go on sale in France Wednesday, on the eve of the first anniversary of the killing of 12 people at the magazine’s Paris offices by brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi. Eight Charlie Hebdo staff were among the victims of the... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1897975/charlie-hebdo-marks-year-attack-provocative-cover?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1897975/charlie-hebdo-marks-year-attack-provocative-cover?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 04 Jan 2016 10:45:30 +0000 Security measures for Hong Kong screenings of a French documentary about the terror attack on the Charlie Hebdo office in January have been stepped up following the recent attacks in Paris and worldwide terror alerts. But the father and son directors of Je Suis Charlie, who are in the city to meet the audience today at a screening of the documentary, said anyone could be a target of terrorists despite tightened security measures and the best way to react is not to retreat but to celebrate the... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/1884833/terror-fears-stalk-hong-kong-french-film-festival?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/1884833/terror-fears-stalk-hong-kong-french-film-festival?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 28 Nov 2015 18:45:15 +0000 The attack on Charlie Hebdo in January left 12 dead and 11 injured, a massacre carried out by Saïd and Chérif Kouachi, brothers who were linked to al-Qaeda in Yemen. A movement gathered, bringing four million French people to the streets in the days following the attack. Donations of at least US$18 million, in what Vanity Fair called "tragedy money", have flowed in from supporters since. These events are covered in a new documentary, Je Suis Charlie, which premiered at the Toronto film festival... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-entertainment/article/1860772/documentary-about-charlie-hebdo-massacre-wants-us?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-entertainment/article/1860772/documentary-about-charlie-hebdo-massacre-wants-us?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 23 Sep 2015 22:00:30 +0000 A student allegedly planning a church attack in France has been arrested, the country's interior minister said yesterday, just over three months after Paris was hit by a jihadist killing spree. In a baffling series of events, the 24-year-old Franco-Algerian IT student - known to intelligence services for wanting to fight in Syria alongside jihadists - was detained on Sunday in Paris after he himself called police over a bullet injury to his leg. "Several war weapons, hand guns, ammunition,... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1773817/french-police-foil-terrorist-attack-churches-franco-algerian-student?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1773817/french-police-foil-terrorist-attack-churches-franco-algerian-student?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 22 Apr 2015 15:15:00 +0000 Like the rest of Paris in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attacks, I was outraged. Outraged that this could happen, here or anywhere. Outraged by the senseless killings but also outraged by some of the news coverage, notably that by the now much-maligned Fox News "expert" Nolan Peterson, who declared several of Paris' neighbourhoods "no-go zones" comparable to Baghdad, where Sharia law rules and most Parisians dare not tread. I've not been to Baghdad recently but Peterson's analysis is way off,... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel/article/1729158/delightful-stroll-through-no-go-zones-paris?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel/article/1729158/delightful-stroll-through-no-go-zones-paris?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 04 Mar 2015 04:45:30 +0000 French police sealed off a housing estate in Marseille on Monday after hooded gunmen opened fire on a police car with Kalashnikov rifles in what a senior local official suggested was an incident related to drug crime. France has been on high alert following Islamist attacks in Paris last month that killed 17 people. Last week, two soldiers protecting a Jewish organisation and radio station were wounded in a knife attack in the city of Nice. The shooting in Marseille happened just as Prime... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1708627/hooded-gunmen-fire-french-police-marseilles?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1708627/hooded-gunmen-fire-french-police-marseilles?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 09 Feb 2015 11:03:11 +0000 France's most-wanted woman once loved the warm waves of the Dominican Republic, posing in a black bikini with her future husband, a petty thief. As her faith deepened, she exchanged the bathing suits for headscarfs and mosques in Malaysia, a pilgrimage to Mecca, and now, authorities say, the jihadist cauldron of Syria. Hayat Boumeddiene said she lived to travel; now she is on the run. She fled to the Islamic State the day before her husband attacked a kosher supermarket in Paris, investigators... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1700975/hayat-boumeddiene-frances-most-wanted-womans-path-jihadism?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1700975/hayat-boumeddiene-frances-most-wanted-womans-path-jihadism?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 03 Feb 2015 14:00:00 +0000 French police on Tuesday arrested eight people suspected of involvement in a network that allegedly sent people to Syria to wage jihad, the interior minister said. Bernard Cazeneuve told reporters the suspects were arrested around Paris and the southeastern city of Lyon. Last week, crack security forces arrested five people in the small town of Lunel in southern France, from where around 20 young people have left for Syria. Some 1,400 people living in France have either joined the jihadist cause... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1700983/eight-arrested-french-probe-suspected-jihadist-network?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1700983/eight-arrested-french-probe-suspected-jihadist-network?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 03 Feb 2015 13:34:11 +0000 One of the world's leading comics festivals opened in France under tight security as the event was dedicated to the murdered cartoonists of Charlie Hebdo. The festival in the southwestern town of Angouleme also created a first on Thursday when it gave its coveted Grand Prix lifetime achievement award to a manga artist, with Japan's Katsuhiro Otomo scooping the prize. This year's guests - including some of the world's biggest names in comics and graphic novels - were under unprecedented... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1696481/comics-festival-pays-tribute-charlie-hebdo?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1696481/comics-festival-pays-tribute-charlie-hebdo?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 30 Jan 2015 14:45:45 +0000 Dozens of US lawmakers paid tribute to the victims of the Islamist attacks in Paris by holding up pencils during US President Barack Obama's State of the Union speech. Democratic Congresswoman Gwen Moore led the show of support in which about 40 lawmakers - mainly Democrats - waved yellow pencils as Obama declared the US stands "united with people around the world who've been targeted by terrorists, from a school in Pakistan to the streets of Paris." The pencil has become a global symbol of free... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1688619/pencil-tribute-paris-attack-victims-us-lawmakers?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1688619/pencil-tribute-paris-attack-victims-us-lawmakers?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 21 Jan 2015 23:40:49 +0000 France unveiled a raft of measures on Wednesday to curb radicalisation and better monitor jihadists two weeks after an Islamist killing spree in Paris that sent shockwaves across Europe. Jitters from the worst attack on French soil in decades have spread to the country’s neighbours and the European Union is also expected to reveal new counterterrorism measures on Wednesday. In Paris, Prime Minister Manuel Valls announced more than 700 million euros (US$800 million) will be spent over the next... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1688469/france-monitor-3000-people-involved-terrorist-networks?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1688469/france-monitor-3000-people-involved-terrorist-networks?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 21 Jan 2015 10:39:28 +0000 Pope Francis may not have been terribly far from these shores when he said that thing he said – about people who insult religion having to expect a punch – last week. He was flying from Sri Lanka to Manila. Not for the first time, though, Hong Kong has felt somewhat removed and remote this month from matters exercising minds in other parts of what might still just about usefully be termed “the free world”. It's not that the Charlie Hebdo slayings haven't been a topic of conversation, nor even... https://www.scmp.com/comment/blogs/article/1688229/hong-kongs-press-freedom-comes-under-attack-it-appears-were-not?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/blogs/article/1688229/hong-kongs-press-freedom-comes-under-attack-it-appears-were-not?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 21 Jan 2015 03:25:01 +0000 Five Russians from Chechnya have been detained in southern France on suspicion of preparing an attack, local prosecutors said on Tuesday. The five suspects were detained on Monday in the town of Beziers near the Mediterranean coast, around 70 kilometres from Montpellier. The prosecutor said certain “products” had been recovered during their searches, without giving further details. One of those arrested lived in Beziers, and another “probably” in Montpellier, the prosecutor added. The addresses... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1683746/five-russians-held-france-suspicion-planning-attack?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1683746/five-russians-held-france-suspicion-planning-attack?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 20 Jan 2015 14:15:43 +0000 Iranian authorities have shut down a newspaper and suspended its licence after it published a front page depicting George Clooney at the Golden Globes alongside the headline “I am Charlie, too”. A media court in Tehran ordered the reformist daily Mardom-e-Emrooz, which was in its first month of publication, to be closed down at the weekend because it had shown solidarity with the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo following the deadly shootings at its offices. Iran’s press watchdog, which... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1682797/iranian-newspaper-shut-down-showing-solidarity-charlie-hebdo?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1682797/iranian-newspaper-shut-down-showing-solidarity-charlie-hebdo?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 20 Jan 2015 02:58:21 +0000 Publishers are rushing to reprint Voltaire's 1763 Treatise on Tolerance following a run on copies after the deaths of 12 people in the attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo, according to French publisher Gallimard. Written after the execution for murder of Protestant merchant Jean Calas, championed by Voltaire as a wrongly convicted victim of Catholic persecution, the treatise has also done well on amazon.fr, with editions including a free Kindle ebook and a €2 (HK$18) paperback, and becoming... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1681730/voltaires-treatise-tolerance-becomes-bestseller-following-paris-attacks?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1681730/voltaires-treatise-tolerance-becomes-bestseller-following-paris-attacks?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 18 Jan 2015 22:30:00 +0000 At least 10 people have been killed in violent protests in the West African nation of Niger as protests over the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo’s depiction of the Prophet Mohammed continue to roil the Muslim world. About 1,000 youths wielding iron bars, clubs and axes rampaged through the capital, Niamey, hurling rocks at police who responded with tear gas. President Mahamadou Issoufou said that five deaths were reported after demonstrations in Niamey on Saturday. Another five people died... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1681813/10-people-killed-protests-niger?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1681813/10-people-killed-protests-niger?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 18 Jan 2015 22:29:57 +0000 The terrorist attacks that shook Paris fall under the category of unimaginable - because of their spectacular, yet unexpected quality. From piloting jetliners into iconic skyscrapers to massacring a roomful of popular cartoonists, these attacks push us out of our comfort zone. Because of their spectacular and transgressive nature, these attacks are potentially transformative events. The US Patriot Act, signed into law in October 2001, is perhaps the most striking such example. Because they are... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1680525/defiance-and-security-cooperation-likely-follow-paris?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1680525/defiance-and-security-cooperation-likely-follow-paris?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 18 Jan 2015 18:00:00 +0000 Almost half of French oppose publication of cartoons depicting Islam’s Prophet Mohammed, according to a poll Sunday, as global debate deepened on the limits of free speech in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo killings. The Ifop poll found 42 per cent believe Mohammed cartoons seen as offensive by many Muslims should not be published. Fifty per cent said they backed “limitations on free speech online and on social networks.” However, 57 per cent said opposition from Muslims should not prevent the... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1681632/almost-half-french-oppose-publishing-mohammed-cartoons-poll?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1681632/almost-half-french-oppose-publishing-mohammed-cartoons-poll?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 18 Jan 2015 08:01:06 +0000 Police on Saturday fired tear gas at a fresh demonstration in Niger against French weekly Charlie Hebdo’s publication of a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed, as thousands of Muslims demonstrated in cities across the world, resulting in a few deaths. At least 1,000 youths assembled at the grand mosque in the capital Niamey,  some of them throwing rocks at police while others burned tyres and chanted  ”Allahu Akbar” (”God is Greatest”). Four people were killed and 45 injured in protests in Niger’s... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1681019/charlie-hebdo-demos-turn-violent-muslims-vent-fury-niger-pakistan?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1681019/charlie-hebdo-demos-turn-violent-muslims-vent-fury-niger-pakistan?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 17 Jan 2015 04:45:45 +0000 Belgian police arrested 13 people during a dozen raids overnight, smashing a plot to kill police officers “in public roads and in police stations”, prosecutors said on Friday. Two Islamist suspects were shot dead during a gun battle after one of the police raids in the eastern town of Verviers on Thursday night. “The group was on the verge of carrying out terrorist attacks to kill police officers in public roads and in police stations,” spokesman Eric Van der Sijpt told a news... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1680555/belgium-high-alert-after-deadly-terror-police-raid-suspected-islamists?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1680555/belgium-high-alert-after-deadly-terror-police-raid-suspected-islamists?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 16 Jan 2015 10:05:32 +0000 US Secretary of State John Kerry clasped French President Francois Hollande in a warm embrace on Friday and said the US shared France’s pain after its deadliest attack in half a century. In an unusual move, Hollande trotted down the steps of the Elysee Palace to greet Kerry, who hugged the French president in front of a phalanx of photographers. “I know you know that we share the pain and the horror of everything that you went through,” said Kerry. “Our hearts are with you.” Hollande said the... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1680538/police-arrest-12-linked-paris-shootings-us-kerry-arrives?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1680538/police-arrest-12-linked-paris-shootings-us-kerry-arrives?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 16 Jan 2015 09:14:40 +0000 Yemen's al-Qaeda branch has claimed responsibility for the deadly Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris, with a top commander saying it was revenge for the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. The claim came in a video posting by Nasr al-Ansi, a top commander of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula - or AQAP as the branch is known - via the group's Twitter account. In the video, Ansi said the assault on the magazine's office, which killed 12 people - including editors, cartoonists and... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1679713/yemens-al-qaeda-branch-claims-responsibility-charlie-hebdo-slaughter?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1679713/yemens-al-qaeda-branch-claims-responsibility-charlie-hebdo-slaughter?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 14 Jan 2015 13:45:15 +0000 This is the moment video cameras caught the partner of one of the Paris attackers arriving in Turkey, as police continue to search for possible accomplices of the gunmen who carried out last week's terrorist attacks. The video shows Hayat Boumeddiene, now France's most wanted woman, at immigration at Istanbul airport on 2 January, six days before her partner, Amédy Coulibaly, killed a policewoman in Paris. Coulibaly went on to murder four hostages at a kosher supermarket, before being killed in... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1679509/moment-paris-suspect-caught-camera?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1679509/moment-paris-suspect-caught-camera?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 13 Jan 2015 17:00:45 +0000 With a printing press, medals of honour and ceremonies thousands of miles apart, France and Israel paid tribute on Tuesday to those killed in the Paris terrorist attacks. In Bulgaria, authorities said a Frenchman already under arrest had ties to the Paris gunmen who left 17 victims in their wake. Defying the bloodshed and terror of last week, a caricature of the Prophet Mohammed is to appear on Wednesday on the cover of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, weeping and holding a placard with... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1679067/defiant-charlie-hebdo-puts-mohammed-first-cover-paris-attacks?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1679067/defiant-charlie-hebdo-puts-mohammed-first-cover-paris-attacks?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 13 Jan 2015 08:47:54 +0000 As many as six members of a terrorist cell involved in the Paris attacks may still be at large, including a man who was seen driving a car registered to the widow of one of the gunmen, French police said. Brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi and their friend, Amedy Coulibaly, were killed Friday by police after a murderous spree at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket. The three all claimed ties to Islamic extremists in the Middle East. Two police officials said Monday that... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1679006/six-paris-terror-suspects-may-still-be-large-say-police-sources?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1679006/six-paris-terror-suspects-may-still-be-large-say-police-sources?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 13 Jan 2015 03:15:00 +0000 The White House acknowledged on Monday it should have sent a senior official to the massive rally against terrorism in Paris, as President Barack Obama came under fire for failing to travel to France. “We should have sent someone with a higher profile to be there,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. Washington was represented at the event by the US ambassador to France, Jane Hartley. “Our president should have been there, because we must never hesitate to stand with our allies.” Ted... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1679003/us-admits-regret-over-lack-senior-representation-paris-rally-against?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1679003/us-admits-regret-over-lack-senior-representation-paris-rally-against?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 13 Jan 2015 03:12:25 +0000 A suspect accused of killing four people in a supermarket siege outside Paris last week had been on a US terror watch list, CNN reported on Monday. Amedy Coulibaly, who is suspected of taking hostages and slaying four Jewish shoppers at the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket to the east of the city, had been on a US terror database “for a while,” a law enforcement official told CNN. The US network said Coulibaly was on the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE), the government’s central... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1678989/french-supermarket-siege-suspect-had-been-us-terror-watchlist-while-media?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1678989/french-supermarket-siege-suspect-had-been-us-terror-watchlist-while-media?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 13 Jan 2015 01:45:30 +0000 The weapons wielded by gunmen sowing mayhem at Charlie Hebdo magazine and a Jewish supermarket in Paris this week were powerful but - for those in the know - available in France, experts say. Kalashnikov assault rifles, the M82 grenade launcher, hand grenades, explosive material, Tokarev handguns: everything in the arsenals possessed by the Kouachi brothers and Amedy Coulibaly would be available from the same sources supplying urban crime gangs. "Unfortunately these types of military weapons... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1678891/weapons-used-attacks-france-readily-available-country?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1678891/weapons-used-attacks-france-readily-available-country?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 12 Jan 2015 17:15:00 +0000 Israeli leaders said they would welcome with open arms French Jews who fear for their safety in the wake of attacks by Islamist extremists against the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and shoppers at a kosher supermarket in Paris last week. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of his cabinet linked arms with French politicians on Sunday during a march in Paris to commemorate the 17 people killed in three days of bloodshed in France. Netanyahu said: "I wish to tell to all French... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1678892/israeli-leaders-offer-home-french-jews-who-want-leave-country?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1678892/israeli-leaders-offer-home-french-jews-who-want-leave-country?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 12 Jan 2015 17:00:15 +0000 France announced an unprecedented deployment of thousands of troops and police to bolster security at “sensitive” sites including Jewish schools on Monday, the day after marches that drew nearly four million people across the country. “We have decided ... to mobilise 10,000 men to protect sensitive sites in the whole country from tomorrow [Tuesday] evening,” Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said after an emergency security meeting. France to deploy thousands to protect Jewish, "sensitive... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1678647/france-calls-10000-troops-bolster-security-sensitive-sites?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1678647/france-calls-10000-troops-bolster-security-sensitive-sites?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 12 Jan 2015 10:07:28 +0000 The year 2014 wasn’t a good one for journalists and political satirists. Two American reporters were among a handful of Western hostages beheaded by the militant group Isis in August and September. After that came a series of cyber attacks on Sony Pictures for ridiculing North Korea’s paramount leader Kim Jong-un in the comedy The Interview. Here in Hong Kong, we learned in horror the brutal knife attack on Kevin Lau, former chief editor of the Ming Pao Daily, outside his apartment building on... https://www.scmp.com/comment/blogs/article/1678595/we-are-charlie-reflections-charlie-hebdo-shooting-and-free-speech?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/blogs/article/1678595/we-are-charlie-reflections-charlie-hebdo-shooting-and-free-speech?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 12 Jan 2015 04:30:45 +0000 Posthumous video emerged yesterday of the gunman who killed a policewoman and four hostages at a kosher grocery, pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group and defending the attacks on the satirical newspaper and the Jewish store. The video emerged as dozens of world leaders gathered in Paris to join more than a million French citizens marching in an unprecedented tribute to the 17 victims of last week's Islamist militant attacks. Speaking fluent French and broken Arabic in the video,... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1678451/paris-grocery-gunman-claims-allegiance-group?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1678451/paris-grocery-gunman-claims-allegiance-group?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 11 Jan 2015 12:43:29 +0000 A German tabloid that reprinted cartoons from the French satirical paper Charlie Hebdo lampooning the Prophet Mohammed was firebombed yesterday as fears grew that the bloodshed in France could signal the start of a wave of attacks in Europe. With security services on high alert after a killing spree in Paris by Islamic extremists, police in the northern German port city of Hamburg said no one was injured in the blaze at the headquarters of the regional daily Hamburger Morgenpost, which caused... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1678404/german-newspaper-firebombed-after-reprinting-charlie-hebdo-cartoons?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1678404/german-newspaper-firebombed-after-reprinting-charlie-hebdo-cartoons?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 11 Jan 2015 07:45:00 +0000 A German newspaper in the northern port city of Hamburg that reprinted Mohammed cartoons from the French satirical paper Charlie Hebdo was the target of an arson attack early Sunday, police said. “Rocks and then a burning object were thrown through the window,” a police spokesman said. “Two rooms on lower floors were damaged but the fire was put out quickly.” The regional tabloid daily, the Hamburger Morgenpost, had splashed three Charlie Hebdo cartoons on its front page after the massacre at... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1678403/arson-attack-german-paper-ran-charlie-hebdo-cartoons?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1678403/arson-attack-german-paper-ran-charlie-hebdo-cartoons?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 11 Jan 2015 07:37:55 +0000 Shortly before black-masked gunmen stormed the east Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, an image went out from the satirical magazine's Twitter account. Poking fun at Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the militant Islamic State organisation, the caricature depicted him speaking into a microphone, offering new year's greetings and wishes of good health. The spoof captured the spirit of an irreverent French institution that on Wednesday became the site of a national tragedy. The gunmen struck at... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1678243/french-magazine-charlie-hebdo-drew-line-sand-freedom?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1678243/french-magazine-charlie-hebdo-drew-line-sand-freedom?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 10 Jan 2015 22:30:15 +0000 French imams condemned violence committed in the name of Islam during Friday prayers as the country reeled from the massacre at Charlie Hebdo magazine. The same message - distancing the country's five million Muslims from the jihadists responsible for the attacks - was relayed at more than 2,300 mosques across France. "We denounce the odious crimes committed by the terrorists, whose criminal action endangers our willingness to live together," said the rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris, Dalil... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1678307/french-imams-condemn-violence-committed-name-islam?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1678307/french-imams-condemn-violence-committed-name-islam?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 10 Jan 2015 22:30:15 +0000 From the father who hid his toddler inside a supermarket refrigerator to the employee who texted tactical information to police from beneath a sink, authorities praised the quick instincts of survivors in the hostage incidents that gripped France on Friday. At the printworks office besieged by two gunmen believed to have carried out the Charlie Hebdo massacre, one employee took refuge under a sink in the canteen upstairs and, though terrified, overcame his fear and communicated with police... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1678202/quick-thinking-hostages-texted-police-hid-fridge-under-charlie-hebdo?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1678202/quick-thinking-hostages-texted-police-hid-fridge-under-charlie-hebdo?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 10 Jan 2015 04:45:00 +0000 Two brothers wanted for a bloody attack on the offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo were killed on Friday when anti-terrorist police stormed their hideout, while a second siege by an accomplice at a supermarket ended with the deaths of four hostages. A fourth suspect, Hayat Boumeddiene - the common law wife of the supermarket attacker - was still at large and believed to be armed. It was unclear how she escaped as police surrounded the building. One of the two brothers said shortly... https://www.scmp.com/news/article/1678189/gunmen-killed-bloody-end-french-sieges?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/article/1678189/gunmen-killed-bloody-end-french-sieges?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 09 Jan 2015 18:15:45 +0000 Elite French police stormed a printworks and a Jewish supermarket Friday, killing two brothers wanted for the Charlie Hebdo attack and an apparent accomplice who had taken hostages in two separate sieges that traumatised France. Explosions rocked a small printing firm in the village of Dammartin-en-Goele, northeast of Paris, and smoke poured from the building as the heavily armed forces mounted their assault as night fell. The two Islamists launched a desperate escape bid, charging out of the... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1677918/hostages-taken-shootout-near-paris-amid-manhunt-charlie-hebdo-shooters?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1677918/hostages-taken-shootout-near-paris-amid-manhunt-charlie-hebdo-shooters?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 09 Jan 2015 08:45:15 +0000 Je suis Charlie - I am Charlie - the slogan of solidarity with the murdered editor, cartoonists and journalists of Charlie Hebdo, the French satirical weekly, caught fire on social media and in spontaneous demonstrations that spread throughout Europe. Nous sommes tous Charlie! Sadly, it is too late for the dead journalists, and later than you think for press freedoms, which have been badly eroded worldwide; the hope must be that the assassinations may waken political and media leaders to... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1677862/some-who-seek-silence-voices-press-only-murder-will-do?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1677862/some-who-seek-silence-voices-press-only-murder-will-do?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 09 Jan 2015 06:45:30 +0000 Utter horror. That was my immediate reaction, like many other people, as I followed the unfolding news of the brazen terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo in broad daylight at the heart of this enchanting city. There is no other way to describe the slaughter of 12 innocent citizens, most of whom were journalists at work in their office, as other than barbaric and totally unacceptable in a civilised society. The victims and their loved ones deserve our utmost sympathy. But we will all also be victims... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1677856/barbaric-attack-charlie-hebdo-blot-frances-years-tolerance?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1677856/barbaric-attack-charlie-hebdo-blot-frances-years-tolerance?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 09 Jan 2015 05:00:45 +0000 France deployed elite forces in the hunt for two brothers accused of killing 12 people in an Islamist attack on the Paris offices of satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo, as the pair spent a second night on the run despite a huge security operation. The manhunt came as the head of Britain’s domestic spy agency MI5 warned that Islamist militants were planning other “mass casualty attacks against the West” and that intelligence services may be powerless to stop them. Friday was expected to see... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1677799/armed-gendarmes-swoop-french-villages-manhunt-charlie-hebdo-attackers?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1677799/armed-gendarmes-swoop-french-villages-manhunt-charlie-hebdo-attackers?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 09 Jan 2015 02:00:15 +0000 France remained on high alert yesterday as security forces desperately hunted two brothers suspected of murdering 12 people at a satirical magazine and two mosques were attacked in an apparent backlash following the Islamist terror attack. Tensions were also fuelled after a gunman shot dead a policewoman and wounded a city employee with an automatic rifle just to the south of Paris. It was not known if the incident was linked to Wednesday's targeting of the Charlie Hebdo office in the French... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1677755/france-mourns-police-hunt-charlie-hebdo-gunmen?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1677755/france-mourns-police-hunt-charlie-hebdo-gunmen?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 08 Jan 2015 19:00:30 +0000 As the editor in charge of the opinion pages of newspapers in New York and Los Angeles, what was the hardest part of my job? Dealing with annoying, demanding bosses? Calming down angry readers? Smoothing the enormous egos of neurotic writers? No, that was the easy part. The hard part was supervising the truly creative artist - the crazy mind that could twist a lance into your brain to make a point that you knew in your heart was true but mere writers somehow found impossible to capture quite so... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1676855/charlie-hebdo-attackers-can-never-defeat-truth?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1676855/charlie-hebdo-attackers-can-never-defeat-truth?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 08 Jan 2015 05:45:00 +0000 Correction: One of the illustrations, by Lucille Clerc, was mistakenly attributed to British artist Banksy https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1676843/10-cartoons-take-aim-massacre-french-journalists-charlie-hebdo?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1676843/10-cartoons-take-aim-massacre-french-journalists-charlie-hebdo?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 08 Jan 2015 04:30:30 +0000 The youngest of three French nationals being sought by police for a suspected Islamist militant attack that killed 12 people at a satirical magazine on Wednesday turned himself into police, an official at the Paris prosecutor’s office said. This came as another gunman wearing a bullet-proof vest and carrying an automatic rifle opened fire on police, seriously injuring two officers in southern Paris on Thursday. One person was detained but the authorities said it was too early to say if the... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1676399/ten-dead-shooting-french-satarical-magazine-charlie-hebdo?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1676399/ten-dead-shooting-french-satarical-magazine-charlie-hebdo?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 07 Jan 2015 11:19:58 +0000