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A student newspaper has been forced to recall thousands of copies after it became the first British paper to publish one of the controversial cartoons satirising the prophet Muhammad.

University of Cardiff student newspaper Gair Rhydd - which means Free Word in Welsh - was forced to recall copies after it reprinted one of the 12 cartoons originally published in a Danish newspaper, which have resulted in Muslim protests around the world.

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This is getting ridiculous, burning embassies because of a cartoon ffs

By Alasdair Sandford
BBC News, Paris

The copies of French satirical weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo were not in the rack as usual, but face down behind the counter.

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The newsagent was aware the huge front-page portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad would cause offence to some.

He expected the paper to sell out quickly. Several people had been asking about Charlie Hebdo the day before.

A five-minute walk up the road in an area with a large French north African community, the newsagent said he had already sold two copies, even though it was not yet daylight.

Sure enough, across the country most of the run of 160,000 copies was snapped up by mid-morning. The magazine promised to print thousands more.

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The Malaysian government has suspended publication of a regional newspaper after it reprinted controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

The Sarawak Tribune, distributed across part of Malaysian Borneo, is the first newspaper in the country to be shut down in almost 20 years.

Sarawak is one of the few areas in Malaysia where Muslims are in a minority.

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Muslim scholars who gathered for an emergency meeting have called for changes to the law to stop images of the Prophet Muhammad being published.

Members of the Muslim Action Committee (MAC) who met in Birmingham called for changes to the Race Relations Act and the Press Complaints Commission code.

They are to stage a protest march in London on 18 February, expected to attract 20,000 to 50,000 people.

The MAC was responding to the cartoons which satirise Muhammad.

Shaikh Faiz Saddiqi, who chaired the meeting, said Wednesday's gathering of about 300 Islamic religious leaders was the largest meeting of its kind he knew of in his 25 years of living in the UK.

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