Charlie Hebdo: a French satirical weekly magazine

Charlie Hebdo: a French satirical weekly magazine featuring cartoons, reports and jokes
Charlie Hebdo, a French satirical weekly magazine, featuring cartoons, reports, polemics, and jokes was in news in first week of January 2015.

It was in news after masked gunmen on 7 January 2015 attacked its Paris office killing at least 12 people. The killed ones included five of Charlie Hebdo's cartoonists, including the editor Charbonnier.

The magazine has been under threat since 2006, the year when it published cartoons on Prophet Mohammad under title Muhammad overwhelmed by fundamentalists (Mahomet débordé par les intégristes). Earlier, it was firebombed in 2011.

History of Charlie Hebdo
• Charlie Hebdo first appeared in 1970 as a successor to the Hara-Kiri magazine, which was banned for mocking the death of former French President Charles de Gaulle.
• Hara-Kiri magazine was launched as a monthly magazine in 1960 by Georges Professeur Choron Bernier and François Cavanna
• In February 1969, Hara-Kiri launched its weekly issue named Hara-Kiri Hebdo focusing current affairs. It was later in May 1969 renamed as L’Hebdo Hara-Kiri
• In 1970, the Hara-Kiri magazine was renamed as Charlie Hebdo deriving its name from a monthly comics magazine called Charlie which had been started by Bernier and Delfeil de Ton in 1969
• In 1981 publication ceased, but the magazine was resurrected in 1992
• The magazine's current editor is Gérard Biard who took over the role after Charbonnier, who had been editor since 2009, was killed on 7 January 2015