16:59  Link between killing of policewoman, Charlie Hebdo attack: Cops : French police are now officially linking the Charlie Hebdo shooting to the attack in which a policewoman was killed in southwestern Paris yesterday morning. Police have also asked the press to move away from the industrial complex, into the village of Dammartin-en-Gole in car convoys.

16:49  'Muhammad isn't sacred to me' :  This is the Catholic League's response to the Charlie Hebdo attack.

"Killing in response to insult, no matter how gross, must be unequivocally condemned. That is why what happened in Paris cannot be tolerated. But neither should we tolerate the kind of intolerance that provoked this violent reaction.

"Those who work at this newspaper have a long and disgusting record of going way beyond the mere lampooning of public figures, and this is especially true of their depictions of religious figures. For example, they have shown nuns masturbating and popes wearing condoms. They have also shown Muhammad in pornographic poses.

"While some Muslims today object to any depiction of the Prophet, others do not. Moreover, visual representations of him are not proscribed by the Koran. What unites Muslims in their anger against Charlie Hebdo is the vulgar manner in which Muhammad has been portrayed. What they object to is being intentionally insulted over the course of many years. On this aspect, I am in total agreement with them.Stephane Charbonnier, the paper's publisher, was killed today in the slaughter.

"It is too bad that he didn't understand the role he played in his tragic death. In 2012, when asked why he insults Muslims, he said, "Muhammad isn't sacred to me.'

"Had he not been so narcissistic, he may still be alive. Muhammad isn't sacred to me, either, but it would never occur to me to deliberately insult Muslims by trashing him.Anti-Catholic artists in this country have provoked me to hold many demonstrations, but never have I counseled violence. This, however, does not empty the issue. Madison was right when he said, "Liberty may be endangered by the abuses of liberty as well as the abuses of power.'

16:19  Hostage believed to be a woman: @ObjectivityNews tweets: The attackers said "We do not kill woman", they have 1 hostage, said to be a woman, if true officials have hope hostage will live.

16:15  Battle tank at Dammartin-en-Goele: A picture tweeted by the Telegraph shows a battle tank at Dammartin-en-Goele where the suspects are holed up.

16:05  Police sniper on building opposite : At least one police sniper in position on a roof opposite the printing works where the hostage situation is.

15:58  Ironical, that the two men are hiding in a printing factory.

15:57  'Two fugitives want to die as martyrs':  The Paris correspondent for The Guardian Angelique Chrisafis tweets: Yves Albarello, UMP MP for Seine-et-Marne has told @itele: "the two fugitives declared they wanted to die as martyrs."

15:53  Avoid filming scene outside Dammartin-en-Goele: @prefpolice Dear journalists, refrain fr filming scene to avoid communicating positions of police #DammartinEnGoele.

During the Mumbai terror attacks the terrorists were alerted to the security personnel positions in the Taj and Oberoi hotels and outside on the streets as well, thanks to 24X7 coverage.
 
15:49  Governor's rule imposed in Jammu and Kashmir: Governor's rule imposed in Jammu and Kashmir. This comes after Jammu and Kashmir Governor NN Vohra sent a report to the Centre on the political impasse in the state after Omar Abdullah wanted to be relieved as caretaker Chief Minister.

 15:48  French prez to give green signal for swoop down on suspects shortly:   French president Francoise Hollande heading to the interior ministry to give the green light for start of special forces operations to seize the Kouachi brothers, reports France24.

15:40  The Guardian view on Charlie Hebdo: show solidarity, but in your own voice:   Journalists were murdered for exercising free speech. They trampled on religious taboos. But the principal conflict is not between liberty and majority Muslim opinion, rather it is between a handful of terrorists and everyone else. Here's the Guardian's take on the Charlie Hebdo massacre.

15:31  Asterix, Obelix and Dogmatix pay tribute to Charlie Hebdo. That's of course, the work of Uderzo, easily one of the best cartoonists of all time.

15:24  French govt 'almost certain' hostage takers are Charlie Hebdo suspects :  Dammartin-en-Goele is a thickly wooded area and is larger than Paris. Police are protecting people in buildings near the factory where the hostage takers are. The printing press where the suspects are has less than a dozen workers, but it is not known how many workers are in the building right now. French government "almost certain" hostage takers are Charlie Hebdo suspects.

15:12  Dammartin-en-Goele residents asked to stay indoors:  Residents of Dammartin-en-Goele have been asked to stay indoors. Students have also been confined to their schools, says the statement on the town's website.

15:09  Charles de Gaulle airport near hostage town partially shut :  Two out of four runways shut at Charles de Gaulle airport closed due to hostage taking, Le Monde reports. A helicopter air ambulance has been stationed near to the scene of the siege amid fears of further serious injuries, say reports.

15:03  Flights being cancelled at Charles de Gaulles airport :  BREAKING Now reports that flights being cancelled and abandoned at Charles de Gaulles airport, close to hostage scene.

14:53  French prosecutor denies one person have been killed in hostage-taking.  

14:47  Le Figaro newspaper says that negotiations are under way with the two kidnappers but this remains unconfirmed.

14:46  Factory where Charlie Hebdo suspects have taken hostages :  Photo of the printing factory in Dammartin-in-Goele where the suspects have taken hostages. Reports of one fatality and one injury.

14:41  No hostages: French interior minister :   French interior minister did not confirm the presence of hostages as has been widely reported by the media. The brothers are believed to be holed up inside the office of a printing company.

14:38  One dead, several injured in shootout in town suspects are holed up in:  The BBC reports that one person is believed to be dead. Shots have been heard in the printing company the suspects are hiding in. France's RTL Radio says that 20 people have been injured in a shootout near to the scene of reported hostage taking in northeast Paris.

14:33  Five choppers hover over town suspects holed in :  French newspaper Le Figaro reports that five police helicopters have been sent to the town of Dammartin-en-Goele, about 40km (25 miles) from what had been the search area. The entrance to the village has been blocked by security forces. The French government says that an operation to detain the suspects underway.

14:30  The Kouachi brothers now holed up in a company building in Dammartin-en-Golle in Seine et Marne region.

14:28  'Police operation is taking place at Dammartin-en-Goele' :  French government confirms that a police operation is taking place at Dammartin-en-Goele. 

14:25  8000 police round-the-clock hunt for suspects:  French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve says 88,000 police and security forces have now been mobilised across the country, as the search for the suspects is continuing for a third day.

14:20  Car heading towards Paris:  Paris newspaper Le Monde says that an employee in the Kuehne Nagel warehouse in Dammartin-en-Goele heard two gunshots. "And within five minutes there was all this security, police helicopters," the employee adds.The suspects have carjacked a Peugeot and have now take one person hostage and is believed to be close to Charles de Gaulle airport .

Kouachi, 32, is a known jihadist convicted in 2008 for involvement in a network sending fighters to Iraq, but not much is known about his 34-year-old brother, Said.

14:12  Charlie Hebdo: Terror accused take one person hostage:   The car chase is reportedly taking place on the N2 road, which leads from the region in which the manhunt was taking place toward Paris, the Telegraph reports.

Other reports suggest the chase is going on in the direction of Paris, close to the Charles de Gaulle airport. Europe 1 radio reports that a hostage has been taken inside a business in Dammartin-en-Gole, and could be in the car with the gunmen, reports the Telegraph.

14:09  Charlie Hebdo suspects on the move again:  Helicopters and hundreds of police - including black-uniformed officers from the elite counter-terrorist unit RAID - have scoured forested woods near Paris and gone house to house in the village until late on Thursday.

Latest reports said the suspects are on the move again in another car.

14:02  Hostage-taking underway?:  Hostage-taking under way, according to RTL at place where gunfire heard. The attackers are believe to have abandoned the car in the forest. Helicopters with night vision were tracking the car.

14:00   Charlie Hebdo: Gunshots fired in car chase near Paris:  Charlie Hebdo update: Shots fired in a car chase in north-east Paris, says AFP quoting police source. A while ago, the getaway car used by the two suspects was found.

The Telegraph reports that a gunfight is reportedly underway with individuals in Seine-et-Marne near Dammartin-en-Gole, where French police had been searching for the Kouachi brothers.

13:55  The Lunchbox nominated for the Baftas :   Ritesh Batra's 2013 film, The Lunchbox, has been nominated for the Baftas -- the British film awards -- under the 'Film Not in the English Language' section. In the race are also, Ida, Leviathan, Trash, Two Days, One Night.

The Lunchbox is written and directed by Ritesh Batra, and produced by Guneet Monga, Anurag Kashyap, and Arun Rangachari and stars Irrfan Khan, Nimrat Kaur and Nawazuddin Siddiqui in lead roles. The film was screened at International Critics' Week at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, and later won the Critics Week Viewers Choice Award.

13:39  Explosion at wind power station in Maharashtra :

Just in: Three workers have died and four injured after an explosion at a construction site of a wind power station in Satara district in Maharashtra. Early reports say gelatin sticks were being used at the construction site.

13:32  LIVE! Sunanda Pushkar murder: Who is 'Sunil saab?':

There's yet another twist to the Sunanda Pushkar murder mystery.

Media reports say that former union minister Shashi Tharoor's domestic help Narayan Singh told the Delhi police that a man named 'Sunil' had visited Sunanda Pushkar at the Hotel Leela Palace two days before she was found dead.

Narayan, who was again questioned yesterday, told cops last year that 'Sunil sahab' had assisted Tharoor's wife Sunanda in posting messages on Twitter and also in copying some of the tweets.

The domestic help has also revealed that Sunanda had told Tharoor over phone from the hotel that he was "finished" as she had revealed everything to the media and that the couple had been fighting frequently over the last one year.

Sunanda was found dead in a south Delhi hotel room on January 17, 2014 in mysterious circumstances.

Police registered a murder case earlier this week based on a final medical report by AIIMS which said she died due to poisoning.

12:58  Pushkar murder: Was former home minister pressured to scuttle case?:

Two senior former UPA ministers Ghulam Nabi Azad and Sushil Kumar Shinde are likely to be questioned by the Delhi Police in the Sunanda Pushkar murder case, according to senior officials.

The police want to know whether there was any pressure from Shinde, the then home minister, on the Delhi Police to go slow on the investigation of Pushkar's death. Or whether he was prodded by the party high command to scuttle the case.

The links, if any, will be exposed by early February. Shashi Tharoor, meanwhile, is expected to be back in Delhi by Sunday and is likely to be questioned in the case.

The final medical report by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in the mysterious death of Sunanda Pushkar says that she died of poisoning, administered either through oral route or injection and the injuries on her barring one were a result of a "scuffle", according to the police FIR lodged in this case.

12:42  PM Modi invites Lanka president-elect Sirisena to India :

PM Narendra Modi invites President-elect Sirisena to visit India and writes that he looks forward to receiving him in India. The PM wishes @MaithreepalaS success in building a peaceful and prosperous Sri Lanka on foundations of genuine and effective reconciliation.

12:37  Vedanta to invest $30 bn in India if climate remains positive:  Metals and mining conglomerate Vedanta Resources can make fresh investments of over USD 30 billion in India if the investment climate in the country remains positive, its chief Anil Agarwal said today.

"We have invested heavily in India - USD 30 billion in last ten years. Numbers will never be a constraint. It is going to be more than previous USD 30 billion now if things remain positive," Agarwal said.

He exuded confidence that things are looking positive with the change of guard at the Centre and India has caught the fancy of the world.

12:34  Charlie Hebdo suspects were on US terror database :  

A senior US administration official said it was believed that one of the two suspects, Said Kouachi, had trained with Al Qaeda in Yemen. The AFP reports that both brothers had been on a US terror watch list "for years'.

The brothers were both flagged in a US database as terror suspects, and also on the no-fly list, meaning they were barred from flying into the United States, the officials said.

A police source told AFP the younger of the pair, Cherif Kouachi, had not traveled overseas recently and neither brother was being monitored "as targets who could move into action."

12:16  UN chief 'concerned' over marines dispute between India, Italy: 

Days before his visit to India, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has expressed concern over the dispute between New Delhi and Rome over the marines issue and called on the two nations to reach a "mutually acceptable solution."

Ban will visit New Delhi and Gujarat from January 10 to 13 during which he will meet President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

Ban has maintained that the case of the two Italian marines being tried in India for killing two fishermen off Kerala in 2012 should be resolved bilaterally.

One of the two Italian marines, Massimiliano Latorre, has undergone a heart surgery in Milan to correct a cardiac anomaly, days before his scheduled return to India. He has been in Italy after the Supreme Court allowed him to visit his home country on September 12 for four months for medical treatment after a stroke he suffered on August 31. Latorre had then sought an extension of his stay.

12:05  Jaitley meets party chiefs to iron out wrinkles in GST Bill :

  After a marathon meeting with West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata, finance minister Arun Jaitley heads to Chennai where he is likely to meet AIADMK chief and former TN CM Jayalalitha.

The meeting is purely an administrative issue and the two will discuss the GST issue, not politics.

Jaitley also plans to meet Mayawati and Mulayam Singh Yadav and some Congress chief ministers to get smooth passage of the GST Bill in Parliament.

11:50  India rushes advisor to Colombo to guide new Lanka govt : 

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval has been told to rush to Colombo to interact with the new government in Sri Lanka. In a turn of events unthinkable just a few weeks ago, Sri Lankans seem to have voted out two-term President Mahinda Rajapaksa, opting instead for 63-year-old former Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena.

Whenever a new dispensation assumes office, India extends the courtesy of offering political guidance to the neighbouring country.

During former PM PV Narasimha Rao's tenure, it was then Principal Secretary Amar Nath Varma who along with two top diplomats rushed to Colombo during a change of government in Sri Lanka.

Similarly, former PM Dr Manmohan Singh had sent TKA Nair, Principal Secretary to meet Rajapakshe on the day the Sri Lanka poll results were announced heralding his win.

11:33  Lakhvi gets bail in kidnapping case:  Lakhvi gets bail in a kidnapping case, not the 26/11 terror case.

11:32  26/11 mastermind Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi gets bail :  Islamabad Lower Court grants bail to LeT terrorist and 26/11 key accused Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, ANI reports.

Just two days ago, the Pakistan supreme Court had ruled that Lashkar operations commander Lakhvi, and 2008 Mumbai terror attack mastermind, would continue to remain in jail.

The court overturned the high court order granting bail to Lakhvi.

The apex court sent the case back to the Islamabad high court directing it to hear the arguments again and decide on merit without rushing through.

11:27  IIT centre on bullet train technology to be ready this year:  In other news:

A research centre on developing bullet train technology will be ready at IIT-Kharagpur by the end of this year.

Funded by the Indian Railway Board, the new building of the Centre for Railway Research is being constructed at a cost of Rs 20 crore inside the IIT campus, centre in-charge Prof Subhransu Roy said.

He said that the Indian Railways has identified four thrust areas for research - high-speed trains, developing heavy haul capacity to carry more freight, intelligent maintenance and use of advanced materials like polymers, rubbers, etc.

11:25  The image trending on the CharlieHebdo hashtag:  This is the image that is trending on the #CharlieHebdo hashtag.

Thousands paid tribute to dead Muslim police officer Ahmed Merabet using the rallying cry 'JeSuisAhmed' after the heroic officer was gunned down in Paris.

Merabet was killed as he begged for his life by suspected Islamic fanatics, and the 'JeSuisCharlie' (I am Charlie) demonstrations that have swept the world in the wake of yesterday's shocking massacre paid tribute to him.

A huge manhunt for the two suspected gunmen in Wednesday's deadly attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine has entered its third day. French police are concentrating their search in a rural area of Picardy north-east of Paris where the two men reportedly robbed a petrol station.

The iconic Eiffel Power in Paris turned off its lights for five minutes on Thursday night to pay a sombre tribute to 12 people killed in the attack on the officers of French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo.

The French landmark plunged into darkness around 8 pm (local time) as thousands of protesters gathered in the Republique Square for the second night.

The metro stopped for a minute at midday and France paused briefly to remember those murdered; similar vigils were held worldwide.

11:07  Saudi blogger to be publicly flogged for 'insulting' Islam: 

No surprises here either. A Saudi blogger who was sentenced last May to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes will be publicly flogged for the first time after Friday prayers outside a mosque in the Red Sea coastal city of Jeddah, according to a person close to his case.

Raif Badawi was sentenced on charges related to accusations that he insulted Islam on a liberal online forum he had created. He was also ordered by the Jeddah criminal court to pay a fine of 1m Saudi riyals, or about $266,000. 

11:04  No surprises here -- DMK General Council meet unanimously elects M Karunanidhi as party chief for the 11th time.

10:58  Cops to quiz Tharoors Pakistani friend:  The Delhi police today said they would question Shashi Tharoor's friend and Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar about her online spat with Sunanda Pushkar in the days before the latter's death by poisoning.

An officer said the police would email a questionnaire to Tarar. If she did not cooperate, "We will seek the external affairs ministry's help to record her statement."

Sunanda was found dead in a hotel suite she was sharing with husband Tharoor, a Congress MP and then a minister, in January last year. In her final days, she had posted a series of tweets accusing Tarar of stalking Tharoor. Police sources claimed a distraught Sunanda had told her friends that she suspected an affair.

10:51  Top telecom executives Sunil Mittal, Ravi Ruia won't face trial in 2G case: SC:  The Supreme Court today set aside the lower court order summoning as accused Bharti Airtel CMD Sunil Bharti Mittal and Essar Group promoter Ravi Ruia in the 2G spectrum allocation case.

However, the trial judge is at liberty to summon them at any stage if material on record is found, the apex court said. The trial court wrongly applied the legal principle while summoning Mittal and Ruia as accused, it added.

10:44  'The Time Machine' star Rod Taylor dies:  Rod Taylor, the Australian-born actor who starred in The Birds, The Time Machine and most recently in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, has died. He was 84.

The actor's representative confirmed that he dies on Wednesday, reported People magazine. His daughter Felicia, a former CNN correspondent, said in a statement, "My dad loved his work. Being an actor was his passion -- calling it an honourable art and something he couldn't live without."

10:34  Bodo militants behind massacre of adivasis in Assam arrested:  Two dreaded NDFB-Songbijit militant leaders responsible for the massacres of Adivasis in Assam have been arrested along with four of their associates and a largequantity of arms seized from their possession, a senior police officer said today.   

"NDFB-S Kokrajhar platoon 'second-in-command' Mithinga and Khuren along with their four associates were arrested from Serfunguri in Kokrajhar district of Assam last night," IGP L R Bishnoi told PTI.  

They were accused of massacre of the adivasis at Pakriguriin Kokrajhar district on December 23.

10:31  Superstar Jackie Chan's son jailed for 6 months for drug abuse:   Hollywood Kung fu superstar Jackie Chan's son Jaycee Chan was today sentenced to six months in jail by a Chinese court for drug offences.

The sentence was pronounced by the Dongcheng district people's court in Beijing after a brief trial during which 32-year-old Jaycee, who like his father has worked as an actor and singer, admitted taking drugs at his house in Beijing.

Jaycee and Taiwan movie star Ko Chen-tung along with others were detained on August 14, last year from Jaycee's resident following complaints from public that they were using drugs.

Jackie and his family members were not present at the court today, when the verdict was pronounced, state-run CCTV reported. Jaycee and Ko tested positive for marijuana and both admitted to having taken the drug. Police seized more than 100 grams of marijuana from Jaycee's home.

10:01  PM Modi calls up Sri Lanka's Sirisena, congratulates him on poll victory :   Prime Minister Narendra Modi today called up Maithripala Sirisena to congratulate him on his victory in Sri Lankan polls. He reaffirmed India's continued solidarity and support towards its neighbour.

"I spoke to Shri Maithripala Sirisena and congratulated him. I congratulate the people of Sri Lanka on the peaceful and democratic poll process," he said.
"As a close friend and neighbour, reaffirmed India's continued solidarity and support for Sri Lanka's peace, development and prosperity," the PM said.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa today conceded defeat in Sri Lanka's tightest-ever presidential race, with cumulative results showing opposition candidate Sirisena ahead.

09:41  AirAsia search: Pings detected in search for black box:  Indonesia search and rescue teams hunting for the wreck of AirAsia Flight  QZ8501 have detected pings in their efforts to find the black box, Santoso Sayogo, an investigator at the national transportation safety committee, told Reuters today.

The AirAsia jet vanished from radar December 28 less than half way into a two-hour flight from Indonesia's Surabaya to Singapore. There were no survivors among the 162 people on board.

09:13  Charlie Hebdo attack: Suspect Said Kouachi trained by Al Qaeda: Report:  The New York Times reports: One of the two brothers who attacked the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris killing 12 people traveled to Yemen in 2011 and received terrorist training from Al Qaeda's affiliate before returning to France, says a senior American official.

The suspect, Said Kouachi, 34, spent "a few months' training in small arms combat, marksmanship and other skills that appeared to be on display in videos of the military-style attack on Wednesday. Both French and American officials were aware that Kouachi had trained in Yemen.

08:58  Madrid railway station evacuated over suspicious object :  Europe is on edge after the firing on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris on Wednesday and the attacks on mosques the day after.

The busy Madrid station was evacuated during the rush hour last evening after a suspicious package was found, the Spanish police said.
The package was located at one of the entrances to the Nuevos Ministerios station, which serves three lines of Madrid's metro system as well as six regional commuter railway lines, just before 6.00 pm (local time), AFP reports.

Spain upgraded its anti-terror security level after the Hebdo attack.

08:49  Sirisena, set to be next Sri Lanka prez, has 52 pc vote share:  Sri Lanka's Opposition candidate Maithripala Sirisena is expected to be declared winner by around 4,00,000 votes in the presidential elections.

With nearly a third of the ballots officially declared, Sirisena has 52.3 per cent of the vote and Rajapaksa 46.5 per cent, according to the Daily Mirror.

Rajapaksa left Temple Trees, after a discussion with the opposition leader this morning  assuring smooth transfer of power, the presidential media division said.

08:38  Charlie Hebdo attack: Helicopters hunt for suspects in north France's woods:  CNN reports: A massive manhunt for two brothers wanted in the Charlie Hebdo magazine firing  focused on northern France's Picardy region, where sources close to the investigation said a police helicopter might have spotted the suspects.

Authorities believe that Cherif Kouachi, 32, and Said Kouachi, 34, entered a wooded area on foot, the sources told CNN. Now investigators are using helicopters equipped with night vision tools to try to find them, the sources said.

Earlier Thursday, a police helicopter glimpsed what investigators believed to be the fugitives in the same area, near Crepy-en-Valois, France.
   
07:11  Opposition candidate Sirisena set to become new Lankan prez:  Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapakse has conceded election defeat, his press secretary announced on Friday morning.

Press secretary Vijayananda Hereath said, 'The president concedes defeat and will ensure a smooth transition of power bowing to the wishes of the people.'

Maithripala Sirisena, the opposition candidate had taken an early lead in the cumulative results so far announced today in the tightest-ever presidential race in Sri Lanka in which incumbent Rajapaksa, seeking a record third term, was involved in a grim battle for survival.   

In the cumulative results, officially declared at 2 am (local time), the 63-year-old Sirisena took a slight lead by polling 1,87,615 votes as opposed to 69-year-old Rajapaksa's 1,43,415.

03:43  Eiffel Tower goes dark in tribute to Paris attack victims:  
France's iconic Eiffel Tower was plunged into darkness tonight in a sombre tribute to the 12 people killed in the attack on the Paris satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo.

The lights normally illuminating the 324-metre (1,063-foot) tall monument at night were briefly turned off at 8:00 pm (local time) before gradually coming back on.

The symbolic gesture came as thousands of people gathered on the other side of the city in Republique square to hold a second night of vigils in memory of the victims of the worst attack on French soil in decades.

Other events will be held in the French capital in the coming days to mark the outrage over yesterday's attack on Charlie Hebdo, and to assert the right to freedom of expression -- a value France has long cherished and sought to protect.

"Our city has been a refuge for writers, philosophers, journalists who were threatened for their ideas," Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo told Liberation newspaper. "There is no place in Paris for extremist ideas of any sort."

01:56  French cops scour forest for Charlie Hebdo shooters:  
The massive manhunt for the men behind the deadly attacks in Paris on Wednesday has moved to the tiny village of Longpont, around 50 miles northeast of the capital.

Dozens of French police and gendarmes have swept into the village as they prepare to scour the huge forest nearby forest of Retz, where the two brothers, Cherif and Said Kouachi, are believed to be hiding.

A police helicopter flew overhead and several dozen police vehicles, among them vans from the elite unit RAID, poured into the 13,000-hectare wood and the surrounding farmland.

The police convoy descended on the village of 300 people after the suspects apparently abandoned the Renault Clio they had hijacked on Wednesday nearby before fleeing on foot, leaving the vehicle stocked with Molotov cocktails and jihadists flags.

The two fugitive suspects are French-born sons of Algerian-born parents, both in their early 30s, and already under police surveillance. One was jailed for 18 months for trying to travel to Iraq a decade ago to fight as part of an Islamist cell. Officials said they were armed and dangerous.

01:48  IS radio praises Charlie Hebdo attackers as 'heroes':  

The Islamic State group's radio praised as "heroes" today the perpetrators of a deadly attack on French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.

"Jihadist heroes have killed 12 journalists who worked for the French magazine Charlie Hebdo and wounded more than 10 others," said a statement read on Al-Bayan radio.

Eight journalists died in yesterday's assault on the satirical weekly's Paris headquarters. Of the four others killed, two were policemen.

In its statement Al-Bayan said "among those killed were cartoonists who have been mocking Islam and its great figures."

There has been no claim of responsibility for the killings, which have triggered global condemnation.

The masked, black-clad gunmen who stormed the headquarters of Charlie Hebdo in broad daylight are said to have shouted Islamist slogans.

01:47  #JeSuisCharlie figures in more than 3.5 million tweets:  
The hashtag #JeSuisCharlie (I am Charlie), in tribute to the 12 people killed in the attack on the Paris offices of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, has now been used in more than 3.5 million tweets, Twitter said today.

The trending slogan reached a peak at 0200 (IST) today, hours after the bloody assault by two gunmen. Then, some 6,500 tweets were using the tag.

On Instagram, nearly 650,000 photos were shared with #JeSuisCharlie on them at 2130 IST yesterday. By 0630 IST today, the trend had declined to 52,000 shares.

An Instagram spokesman told AFP that yesterday's peak coincided with a Paris demonstration in homage to the victims killed that gathered at least 35,000 people.

01:47  'I couldn't save them': Charlie Hebdo columnist:  
An emotional Charlie Hebdo columnist today described the horrific scene that greeted him after his colleagues were shot dead at the French satirical newspaper's office and said "I couldn't save them".

Patrick Pelloux would normally have been at the editorial meeting that was the main scene of the attack that left 12 dead.

However yesterday, in his other job as head of the emergency room doctors' association in France, he was attending a meeting elsewhere in Paris to improve links between the different emergency services.

"I was at this meeting when Jean Luc, the graphic artist (of Charlie Hebdo) called me to tell me: You have to come here quickly, they have shot at us with a Kalashnikov," Pelloux told AFP in a phone interview.

"I thought it was a joke, but it wasn't. When I arrived it was dreadful," he said, choking with emotion.

Pelloux arrived at the offices three minutes after the attack with a high-ranking fire department official, who Pelloux said acted "heroically" as he triggered the emergency response.

"And as we were taking care of the victims, they (the attackers), were still on the streets killing people," Pelloux said.