KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Malaysia's government ordered a Tamil-language daily to immediately halt publication for a month Friday as punishment for printing an image of Jesus Christ holding a cigarette, an official with the newspaper said.

The newspaper had said it published the photo by mistake Tuesday and carried a front-page apology Thursday.

Malaysia's newspapers operate under government licenses that bar them from publishing potentially provocative material on religion, race and other topics.

On Thursday, Periasamy said a graphic artist — who has since been suspended — downloaded a picture of Jesus from the Internet for use along with a quote from the Bible on the paper's front page on Tuesday. But the artist overlooked the fact that the picture had been altered to insert a cigarette in one hand and another object — a can or a book — in the other, he said.