INDIA SUMMARIZED

Charlie Hebdo's editor, Stéphane Charbonnier, center, said the cartoons were published in defense of freedom of the press. By SCOTT SAYARE and NICOLA CLARK PARIS(September19) — Calling itself a defender of free speech and a denouncer of religious backwardness, a French satirical newspaper on Wednesday published several crude caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, images viewed as a provocation by many Muslims and condemned by the French government as irresponsible at a time of violence and unrest across the Islamic world. Lebanese army soldiers secured the area around the official residence of the French ambassador to Lebanon, in Beirut on September 18. A French policeman stood guard outside Charlie Hebdo's offices in Paris on September18. In South Asia and the Middle East, protests continued Wednesday over an amateur video, titled “The Innocence of Muslims” and produced in the United States, which also disparages the prophet. Given that context, the French government had...