Charlie Hebdo to publish new Muhammad cover

The Charlie Hebdo weekly's first act of defiance was the release of the cover of what it has dubbed the "survivors issue," just days after Islamist gunmen stormed the Paris offices of the satirical weekly, killing 12 people.

The caricature features a crying Muhammed in a white turban holding up a sign that reads "Je suis Charlie." Above the prophet is written "all is forgiven" in French.

In another expression of defiance, the magazine announced that it would print three million copies of Wednesday's edition. The weekly usually prints 60,000 copies, with as few as half of those actually being sold.

Charlie Hebdo's editorial staff, including its cartoonists, were no stranger to death threats prior to the January 7 attack, after which the gunmen were heard shouting that they had "avenged the Prophet Muhammad."

The weekly first began receiving threats after it republished cartoons of Muhammad by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in 2006. Five years later, suspected Islamists firebombed its offices, but there were no injuries.

Security stepped up

Meanwhile, in light of last week's deadly attack on Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket in Paris, which killed 17 people in all, the government announced that 10,000 soldiers would be deployed to "sensitive sites" across the country by this Tuesday evening.

"This is the first time that our troops have been mobilized to such an extent on our own soil," Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told reporters following an emergency security meeting.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve told French media outlets that 4,700 additional police officers were being deployed to protect 717 Jewish schools and places of worship.

All three of the gunmen involved in last week's attacks were killed in two separate standoffs, but French police said on Monday that they believed that as many as six members of a related terrorist cell may still be at large.

pfd/bk (dpa, AFP, AP)