PARIS - The French government has called for restraint after learning that a satirical weekly plans to publish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad on Wednesday just as an anti-Islam video has ignited Muslim protests around the globe.
The Paris offices of the paper,
Charlie Hebdo, were firebombed last November after it published a mocking caricature of Mohammad, and in 2005 Danish cartoons of the Prophet sparked a wave of protests across the Muslim world in which at least 50 people were killed.
Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, asked about the publication, said any provocation now could only be condemned.
French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault issued a statement saying: "In the current climate, the prime minister wishes to stress his disapproval of all excess and calls on everyone to behave responsibly."
