Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika fired the managing director of state energy giant Sonatrach Thursday, naming another senior official at the firm to the post. Sonatrach accounts for 98 percent of oil-rich Algeria’s foreign exchange earnings.
Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika vowed to make legislative and constitutional reforms to "reinforce representative democracy" in a speech on state TV Friday, saying the reforms would be adopted before May 2012 elections.
Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika (pictured) promised a raft of political reforms, state media said Saturday. The announcement comes as police blocked yet another anti-government protest in the capital.
Police and government supporters prevented protesters from marching in the capital Algiers to demand a change of regime, the sixth time demonstrations have been suppressed since January. Marches in other cities, including Oran, were also banned.
In Algeria, the authorities are managing to keep a lid on social unrest for now, despite uprisings in neighbouring countries. Yet strikes, sit-ins and attempted protest marches are organised regularly, with young people, who make up the majority of the population, taking centre stage. Among their demands: jobs, housing, higher salaries and political reform.
Algeria lifted its 19-year-old state of emergency Thursday in response to a key demand from anti-government protesters. Algeria has seen a number of pro-democracy rallies in recent weeks that have left five people dead and hundreds injured.
A month after the fall of Ben Ali, life is slowly starting to get back on track in Tunisia. But the consequences of twenty three years of repression don't disappear over night and many Tunisians are getting impatient.
In Algeria, the anti-Bouteflika movement is picking up speed, day by day.
Hundreds of protesters gathered in the historic Place de la République in Paris Saturday, calling for a "Free and democratic Algeria" in a proud show of solidarity with Algeria's budding anti-government movement.
In the Algerian capital of Algiers on Saturday, riot police scuffled with anti-government protesters who were defying a ban on demonstrations, inspired by recent historic events in Tunisia and Egypt.
Thousands of police flooded the Algerian capital of Algiers Saturday as opposition groups, defying an official ban on rallies, have vowed to press ahead with a pro-democracy march.
