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| Charlie Hebdo's |
Security is being stepped up at some of France's embassies after a French satirical magazine published obscene cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, reports the BBC.
Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said he was "concerned" after the issue of Charlie Hebdo appeared on news-stands.
French embassies, consulates, cultural centres and international French schools in some 20 countries will be closed on Friday as a precaution.
Riot police have been deployed around the magazine's offices in Paris.
The magazine has confirmed that its website has been attacked. It was not accessible as of Wednesday morning.
Its paper edition features caricatures which play on both the uproar in the Islamic world over an amateur video which mocks Islam and the row over the publication in France of topless photos of the Duchess of Cambridge.
A central tenet of Islam bans the portrayal of its founder, the Prophet Muhammad.
Some 30 people have died in violent protests which erupted early last week over the Innocence of Muslims video, which was made in the United States.
The dead include the US ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, and three other Americans, who died in Benghazi. US and other Western embassies have come under attack in mainly Muslim countries.
Friday's closures relate to possible protests following weekly Muslim prayers.
While no list of countries affected was immediately available, the embassy in Jakarta announced on its website that it would close on Friday.
French schools in Tunisia were due to close from Wednesday afternoon until Monday morning.
Source: ThisDayLive
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