I AM NOT CHARLIE
Has satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo gone too far?
The French weekly recently published a cartoon featuring drowned Syrian toddler Aylan Kurdi lying face down on a beach with the caption, "So close to his goal."
A sign in the background, done up to look similar to fast-food chain McDonald's, says: "Two children's menus for the price of one."
The political cartoon was based on the recent harrowing images of three-year-old Syrian refugee Aylan, which had sparked off an outpouring of support from around the world and prompted European leaders to step up their response to the ongoing refugee crisis.
Charlie Hebdo is no stranger to controversy.
NOTABLE TRENDS
#SGHAZE The haze continues its assault with a vengeance, so it's no surprise that this hashtag is trending. Popular topics include the mixed response from Indonesia regarding help from Singapore, altered images of monsters dotting the city skyline and a video of a bomoh's ritual using an ice block and bamboo sticks. #SINGAPOREGP There were already more than 220,000 Tweets with this hashtag on Friday, even before the Formula One weekend started in earnest. With about 3 million followers, Briton Lewis Hamilton is the most-followed F1 driver on the social media platform. #ISTANDWITHAHMED Earlier this week, 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed was arrested after a teacher mistook the homemade clock he brought to school for a bomb. Netizens, who felt the incident was unjust and racially motivated, have used this hashtag to show their support. Also in his corner were US President Barack Obama, US presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
It has a history of producing crude cartoons of Islam's holiest figures in demeaning or pornographic poses in the name of free speech.
The outrage from the Muslim world led to a firebombing attack on its offices in 2011, and a deadly shooting in January this year which left 12 staff members dead.
The latest illustration has proved to be as divisive as its predecessors.
Some social media users argue that the cartoon does not mock the dead child, but instead ridicules Europe for not doing enough to prevent the tragedy.
But there were also many others, who had earlier supported the publication or banded together under the hashtag #JeSuisCharlie
(I am Charlie), who now think differently.
"The purpose of free speech is to pursue truth, not to mock other people's pain," said one Twitter user with the hashtag #JeNeSuisPasCharlie (I am not Charlie).
Is this hypocritical to cherry pick and support the right to free speech in one instance, but condemn it the next when it offends different sensibilities? Maybe.
But it also seems like the publication has taken the right to be offensive as a licence to push all sorts of boundaries.
And with the show of support it received the last time round, is anyone surprised?
SEEING DAD ONE LAST TIME
Singaporean Kenny Tan, 30, died last Monday of cancer. He left a wife and an infant son.
To help tide his family over, a crowdfunding effort was started by his friends earlier last week.
It raised more than $270,000 within days.
Mr Tan, an insurance agent, discovered he had lung and kidney cancer in 2013. He was active and a non-smoker.
He initially resisted treatment, as he wanted the insurance payout to go to his son, who was delivered prematurely with a congenital heart defect, instead.
But family and friends managed to convince him to undergo chemotherapy.
Things took a turn for the worse at the start of this year, when the cancer spread to his brain.
Mr Tan and his wife travelled to Rotterdam, Holland, in search of alternative treatment.
He died about a month later.
The donation drive was started to allow his infant son to see Mr Tan "for the last time".
The raised monies would go towards repatriation costs and to fund the toddler's education and medical bills.
The family has also received help from the Government and social welfare agencies.
ELTON JOHN PRANKED
Pop star Elton John was elated last week when he thought he had received a call from Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss gay rights.
The 68-year-old proudly posted a photo of Mr Putin on his Instagram account, which drew close to 6,000 likes.
Unfortunately, a Kremlin spokesman denied that such a call ever took place.
In fact, it was reportedly the work of two Russian TV personalities, who confessed to the deed a few days later.
Vladimir Krasnov and his sidekick Aleksey Stolyarov said John was easy to dupe as he was eager to talk about the persecution of gay people in Russia.
The Human Rights Watch said last year that the country is now seeing a growing number of homophobic attacks, on the back of a controversial Russian law passed in 2013 that forbids any public discussion of gay rights.
But the pop singer has taken it in his stride, saying that he was happy to be pranked if it helped to shed light on the situation.
"Pranks are funny. Homophobia, however, is never funny," he said.
News of police response to a boy's digital clock in Texas last week has inspired a global  in support of the youth. , a 14-year-old boy from , Texas, was arrested at his school by police after he brought a digital clock he had made to school. After news of the police response was reported, Mohamed received support online ranging from US President Barack Obama to Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg. Yesterday Mohamed received  attention at Google headquarters in California at the Google Science Fair — and tommorow he plans to meet international dignitaries at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

US President Barack Obama tweet to student 
Mohamed brought the digital clock he made to school on September 14, and a teacher mistakenly thought it resembled a bomb. Police arrested and questioned the student. Images of the boy wearing a  T-shirt and handcuffed by the police were quickly posted and reposted online.

The '''' observed that the hashtag on Twitter, #IStandWithAhmed, had become an international phenomenon. '''' noted what began as individual messages to Mohamed had grown into a "support movement". American academic and professor  commented, "Hoping that the #istandwithahmed movement translates into a substantive national conversation on race, punishment, and incarceration."

The Twitter attention led to outreach from Google and Mohamed was invited to their Google Science Fair. Mohamed was a VIP guest at the Google Science Fair this weekend, and was able to meet finalists at the event held at Google's headquarters located in , . Co-founder of Google, , personally met with Mohamed during his visit to Google.

On Wednesday, Mohamed and his father are to travel to the . His father  said he was taking his entire family to the U.N. headquarters in New York, because international dignitaries wanted to meet with his son and express their support.

Psychology major at  Amneh Jafari heard of the incident and wanted to issue her support to Mohamed. She chose the hastag #IStandWithAhmed and posted to Twitter. Jafari said she felt Mohamed had been subject to  and her hashtag created greater awareness about this issue. The hashtag took on a life of its own, and was used in messages on Twitter over one million times by Thursday night.

NASA tweeted support of Ahmed Mohamed via its account 
US President Barack Obama tweeted using his @POTUS account: "Cool clock, Ahmed. Want to bring it to the White House? We should inspire more kids like you to like science. It's what makes America great."

Twitter gave Mohamed the option to come to their company for an internship. Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg tweeted to Mohamed and said the boy was welcome to come and tour the company.

Executive director of the Dallas chapter of the  Alia Salem said Mohamed wishes to use his newfound fame and attention to spotlight social causes including the treatment of Muslims in the United States.

 Muslim Student Association president Sehar Memon said the large amount of positive feedback for Mohamed had helped make his situation much better. Memon also said she believed the social movement in reaction to Mohamed helped improve Muslim/non-Muslim.

Both the Irving Independent School District and the Irving Police Department have asserted that the boy's religion and name were not a factor in the manner in which they approached the situation.