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Charlie Hebdo survivors’ edition a sell out

AAP

AAP

The first issue of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo to be published since a jihadist attack decimated its editorial staff last week, has sold out within minutes at kiosks across France.

“It was incredible. I had a queue of 60-70 people waiting for me when I opened,” said a woman working at a newspaper kiosk in Paris on Wednesday.

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“I’ve never seen anything like it. All my 450 copies were sold out in 15 minutes.”

The new issue features a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed on its cover, holding a “Je Suis Charlie” sign under the headline “All is forgiven”.

It has already drawn ire from Muslim groups in some countries that oppose depictions of Islam’s founder.

The magazine has printed up to three million copies of its “survivors’ issue” – profit from which will go to victims’ families.

That dwarfs its usual 60,000 print run.

“Our Mohammed is above all just a guy who is crying,” says cartoonist Luz, who designed the new front cover.

“He is much nicer than the one followed by the gunmen.”

New copies are expected to reach newsstands across France in the coming days.

Distributors say Charlie Hebdo will print two million more copies of this week’s issue after overwhelming demand on Wednesday morning.

“The editor decided this morning to increase the print run to five million,” head of press distribution firm MLP Veronique Faujour says.

One newsstand just off Paris’ Champs Elysee sold out at 6.05am – five minutes after opening.

At Saint-Lazare, people hoping to buy a copy scuffled when they realised there weren’t enough to go around.

Meanwhile, a French comedian has been arrested for a Facebook comment sympathising with one of the Paris gunmen, a judicial source says.

AAP

French humorist Dieudonne. Photo: AAP

The source says comedian Dieudonne was taken into custody for being an “apologist for terrorism” after writing the Facebook comment.

Prosecutors had opened the case against him on Monday after he posted “Tonight, as far as I’m concerned, I feel like Charlie Coulibaly” – mixing the popular slogan “Je Suis Charlie” used in homage to the journalists killed at magazine Charlie Hebdo, with a reference to gunman Amedy Coulibaly.

Coulibaly killed four Jews at a kosher supermarket on Friday and a policewoman the day before.

The comedian made international headlines in 2013 when French footballer Nicolas Anelka was banned for five matches by English football authorities for using a hand-gesture created by Dieudonne that many people consider anti-Semitic.

Dieudonne made his controversial Facebook post after attending Sunday’s unity march against extremism that brought more than 1.5 million people onto the streets of Paris after the attacks.

He described the march – considered the biggest rally in modern French history – as “a magical moment comparable to the big-bang”.

The government has in the past banned Dieudonne’s shows because it considers them “anti-Semitic”.

In response to the Interior Minister’s comment, the comedian said the government was trying to “ruin my life” when “I am only trying to make people laugh”.

He has removed the offending remark from his Facebook page.

with AAP

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