ALGIERS, May 21, 2013 (AFP) An Algiers court on Tuesday ordered a French sales manager to pay 1,500 euros in damages and handed him a three month suspended jail sentence for calling an Algerian employee a "dirty Arab." The 52-year-old sales manager working in Algeria for French tobacco firm Seita had, according to the complaint filed against him, directed the abusive language at Mehdi Hiani in the middle of ...

PARIS, May 21, 2013 (AFP) Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has been transferred to a new facility in Paris to continue his recovery after treatment in a French military hospital, France's defence ministry said Tuesday. Bouteflika, 76, was flown to the Val de Grace hospital in Paris three weeks ago following a mini-stroke and speculation has been rife about the state of his health. In a statement, the ...

ALGIERS, May 21, 2013 (AFP) Official assurances about the improving health of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, hospitalised in France in April, are failing to convince many Algerians, as analysts warn that hiding such details is harder than it was. On Monday, Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal denounced the "false information" about Bouteflika's health, nearly four weeks after the head of state suffered a mini ...

ALGIERS, May 21, 2013 (AFP) Veteran Algerian dissident Hocine Ait Ahmed is too ill to attend a congress of his Socialist Forces Front (FFS) later this week, the first he has missed since he founded it 50 years ago, organisers said on Tuesday. Ait Ahmed's doctors have advised him against travelling to Algeria for the congress from his longtime base in Switzerland, organising committee co-chairman Mohamed Amo ...

ALGIERS, May 20, 2013 (AFP) Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal on Monday broke official silence on the health of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, saying he is convalescing in Paris after a mini-stroke and was "never in danger". "I would like to reassure our compatriots on the state of health of the president of the republic... he was never in danger and his health is improving day by day," Sellal said ...

by Beatrice Khadige ALGIERS, May 20, 2013 (AFP) Official silence about the health of Algeria's ailing leader Abdelaziz Bouteflika, hospitalised in France last month, is feeding the rumour mill over presidential elections due in less than a year. Calls have grown in the Algerian media for the constitution's rarely mentioned Article 88 to be applied, according to which, if the president is incapacitated, powe ...

ALGIERS, May 20, 2013 (AFP) An Algerian court sentenced 14 Malian members of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) to 20 years’ jail for arms smuggling and entering the country illegally, El Khabar daily reported Monday. The Malians, who were sentenced on Sunday by the criminal court in the southern town of Ouargla, were accused of entering Algeria illegally with a shipment of weapons fr ...

ALGIERS, May 19, 2013 (AFP) A 5.5-magnitude earthquake on Sunday struck Algeria's Bejaia region, 250 kilometers (155 miles) east of Algiers, injuring five people and damaging some houses, the APS news agency said, citing medics. "There are no serious cases -- the victims are mainly suffering from trauma," a medic said. The injured included two workers who fell from scaffolding when the quake hit, while anot ...

 by Beatrice Khadige ALGIERS, May 19, 2013 (AFP) Algeria censored two newspapers for reporting that President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has fallen into a coma three weeks after being hospitalised in Paris, raising speculation on Sunday about his well-being. The newspapers, reflecting growing concern in Algeria about Bouteflika's health, said the 76-year-old would return home in a comatose state after his health ...

By Larbi Arbaoui Morocco World News Taroudant, Morocco, May 19, 2013 The two Algerian dailies Monjournal and its Arabic version Djaridati, owned by Hicham Aboud, were banned from publication by the Algerian Ministry of Communications for publishing a story on the “deterioration” of the health condition of Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the Algerian president. According to lequotidienalgerie.org, the Sunday, May 19 i ...

ALGIERS, May 19, 2013 (AFP) Algeria censored two dailies over reports that President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, hospitalised in Paris since April 27, will return home in a coma after his health took a turn for the worse, their chief said on Sunday. The reports in the two newspapers referred to a "deterioration" in Bouteflika's health, said managing editor Hichem Aboud, citing French medical sources and relatives ...

By Tarik Elbarakah Morocco World News Rabat, May 18, 2013 The Algerian president’s health is in decline! Information given on Friday by the website of the French weekly Le Point.fr revealed that the health condition of Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika is alarming. Medical sources familiar with the situation affirmed to the French website that “some of the president’s vital functions are very affected ...