10 years after attack, Charlie Hebdo is uncowed and still provoking

Charlie Hebdo marks 10 years since attack with God-mocking edition, defiance against extremists, and controversial cartoons.

French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo is set to publish a special God-mocking edition next week to mark 10 years since an attack on its offices by jihadist gunmen that left eight staff members dead.

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The anniversary of the shocking attack on freedom of expression is being used by the atheist publication to send a message of defiance to the extremists who burst into its offices on January 7, 2015, then fled shouting they had "killed Charlie Hebdo".

"They didn't kill Charlie Hebdo," editor-in-chief Gerard Biard told AFP in a recent interview, adding that "we want it to last for a thousand years".

The attack by two Paris-born brothers was revenge for Charlie Hebdo's decision to repeatedly publish caricatures lampooning the Prophet Mohammed, Islam's most revered figure.

The massacre of some of France's most famous cartoonists signalled the start of a gruesome series of Al-Qaeda and Islamic State plots that claimed hundreds of lives in France and western Europe over the following years.

Next week's edition is set to feature the results of a typically provocative competition launched in November to draw the "funniest and meanest" depictions of God. It will be revealed on Sunday evening.