10 Charlie Hebdo protesters die in Niger

Somali students protest over the recent issue of Charlie Hebdo. Photo / AP

At least 10 people have been killed in violent protests in the West African nation of Niger over the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo's depiction of the Prophet Muhammad.

President Mahamadou Issoufou said five deaths were reported after demonstrations in Niamey, the capital, yesterday. Another five people died on Saturday in the town of Zinder after prayer services there. The victims were inside churches and bars that were set ablaze, he said.

The violence erupted after Charlie Hebdo published its first issue since the January 8 attack on its headquarters by Islamic extremists that left 12 people dead.

The magazine, which had long antagonised Muslims with its depictions of the Prophet, carried a cover cartoon depicting Muhammad holding a "Je Suis Charlie" sign.

According to mainstream Islamic tradition, any physical depiction of the Prophet Muhammad - even a respectful one - is considered blasphemous.

While many Muslims have expressed disgust at the deadly assault on the magazine's Paris office, many are also offended by its cartoons lampooning Muhammad.

As protesters in the streets of Niamey burned the French flag and the embassy there urged French citizens to stay at home, President Francois Hollande confirmed his country's commitment to "freedom of expression".

"I'm thinking of countries where sometimes they don't understand what freedom of expression is, because they have been deprived of it. But also we have supported these countries in their fight against terrorism," said Hollande.

The rioters in Niger, a former French colony, set up roadblocks and ransacked French-linked businesses.

Some people carried signs saying "I am not Charlie", responding to the slogan of solidarity with the staff of Charlie Hebdo used in Western nations after 12 people were killed by gunmen who claimed to be taking revenge for the magazine's depictions of the Prophet.

"They offended our Prophet Muhammad. That's what we didn't like," said demonstrator Amadou Abdoul Ouahab. "This is the reason why we have asked Muslims to come, so that we can explain this to them, but the state refused. That's why we're angry today."

Most of Niger's 17 million-strong population is Muslim, but it has several million Christians and followers of other religions.

Pakistan also saw violent demonstrations in the port city of Karachi. City police battled activists from the Jamaat-e-Islami party who tried to approach the French consulate.

Television cameras caught glimpses of guns brandished by some of the men. Police resorted to firing in the air and dousing the crowd with a water cannon.

'Human rights' allow terror leader to stay

A convicted al-Qaeda terror fundraiser with links to the Paris attacks is residing in Britain after using the Human Rights Act to prevent his deportation back to his native Algeria.

Baghdad Meziane, who was jailed for 11 years in 2003 for running a terrorist support network, has successfully staved off Home Office attempts to deport him - despite the Government's repeated insistence he constitutes "a danger to the community of the United Kingdom".

Meziane was a close associate of Djamel Beghal, a convicted terrorist who mentored two of the Paris attackers while they were in jail together.

The pair lived close to each other in Leicester and Meziane, 49, once supplied Beghal with a false passport allowing him to travel to an al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan.

The Home Office has been attempting to remove Meziane, a father of two children born in Britain, for almost six years since his release from jail in 2009. However, it has been thwarted by Meziane's claim that his deportation would breach his human rights to a family life and that he might face torture if he was sent home.

There is now a growing row over whether Britain's security and intelligence agencies have sufficient powers to tackle the terrorist threat.

Lord Evans of Weardale, a former head of MI5, says Britain's anti-terror laws are "no longer fit for purpose" as it is becoming easier for jihadists plotting attacks to evade the intelligence services and the police.

Evans says new laws are vital to give intelligence agencies "accountable and proportionate" ability to better monitor services including Facebook, WhatsApp and Snapchat.

Parliament's secret intelligence watchdog said plans for a sweeping overhaul of the laws underpinning the operations of MI5, MI6 and GCHQ would be announced within weeks.

The blueprint, to be published by the Intelligence and Security Committee, will set out "very radical" law reforms to help security services keep pace with the "tremendous changes in technology" that are allowing terrorists to evade detection online.

- Telegraph Group Ltd, Observer, AP