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Pakistan slams French paper for reprinting Mohammed cartoons

Pakistan's foreign office condemned on Tuesday the decision by French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo to reprint cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

Thousands of people marched in Pakistani cities in 2015 after the weekly magazine first ran the images, deemed by many in the conservative Muslim country to be blasphemous.


"#Pakistan condemns in the strongest terms the decision by the French magazine, Charlie Hebdo, to re-publish deeply offensive caricature of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)," the ministry of foreign affairs tweeted.

"Such a deliberate act to offend the sentiments of billions of Muslims cannot be justified as an exercise in press freedom or freedom of expression. Such actions undermine the global aspirations for peaceful co-existence as well as social and inter-faith harmony".

Under Pakistan's strict blasphemy laws, insulting the prophet can carry the death penalty.

Among those injured during a January 2015 march in Karachi was AFP photographer Asif Hassan, who recovered after being shot in the back.

Protesters at the time shouted slogans including "death to France", "death to the blasphemers" and "(We are) ready to sacrifice life for Prophet Mohammed".

Twelve people, including some of France's most celebrated cartoonists, were killed on January 7, 2015, when brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi went on a gun rampage at the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris.

The paper said Tuesday it was reprinting the cartoons to mark this week's start of the trial of alleged accomplices to the attack.

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Black and mixed ethnicity children face systemic bias in UK youth justice system, says YJB chair

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Black and mixed ethnicity children face systemic bias in UK youth justice system, says YJB chair

Highlights

  • Black children 37.2 percentage points more likely to be assessed as high risk of reoffending than White children.
  • Black Caribbean pupils face permanent school exclusion rates three times higher than White British pupils.
  • 62 per cent of children remanded in custody do not go on to receive custodial sentences, disproportionately affecting ethnic minority children.

Black and Mixed ethnicity children continue to be over-represented at almost every stage of the youth justice system due to systemic biases and structural inequality, according to Youth Justice Board chair Keith Fraser.

Fraser highlighted the practice of "adultification", where Black children are viewed as older, less innocent and less vulnerable than their peers as a key factor driving disproportionality throughout the system.

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