TRIPOLI, May 19, 2013 (AFP) Libyan security services defused several car bombs and other explosives that were found in the past two days, Prime Minister Ali Zeidan said on Sunday. Zeidan did not specify where the discoveries were made but said his government and security services were determined to "thwart any attempt to destabilise the country".  "The car bombs and explosives were discovered in the past tw ...

TUNIS, May 19, 2013 (AFP) A protester was hit by gunfire and killed on Sunday in the Tunisian capital during clashes between police and hardline Islamists, a hospital official said. Mounira Ben Ghazi, a senior supervisor at Mongi Slim hospital, named the dead man as Moez Dahmani, in comments made to Express-FM radio station. Dahmani, who was born in 1986, died of gunshot wounds, Ben Ghazi said. An interior ...

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 ...

TUNIS, May 19, 2013 (AFP) Clashes between police and Salafist protesters in a Tunis suburb on Sunday injured at least 14 people, including 11 policemen, the interior ministry said in a statement, AFP reported. "During the protests, 11 members of the security forces were wounded, one of them seriously, and three protesters were also wounded," it said, adding that one Islamist protester was also in serious co ...

DUBAI, May 19, 2013 (AFP) A top Al-Qaeda leader urged Tunisian Salafists to avoid falling to government provocations in order to retain public support, as clashes erupted between them and police, SITE Intelligence said Sunday. "Don't you ever be provoked by the regime and its barbarism to do rash acts that might spoil your blessed popular embrace," said Abu Yahya al-Shanqiti, a member of the Sharia Committe ...

TUNIS, May 19, 2013 (AFP) Clashes broke out between radical Islamists and police on Sunday after Salafist movement Ansar al-Sharia told its followers to gather "in large numbers" near Tunis for its annual congress, defying a government ban. Hundreds of Salafists erected barricades in the streets of Ettadhamen, a poor neighbourhood 15 kilometres (9 miles) west of Tunis, and hurled rocks at police, who respon ...

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 ...

  TUNIS, May 19, 2013 (AFP) Tunisian Salafist movement Ansar al-Sharia has told its supporters to stay away from Kairouan, where the hardline Islamist group had threatened to holds an annual congress on Sunday in defiance of a government ban. "To the attention of our brothers who are coming to Kairouan from other regions... the head of Ansar al-Sharia informs you of the need to cancel all these trips given ...

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 ...

ALGIERS, May 18, 2013 (AFP) Air Algerie planes were grounded for several hours on Saturday when the national carrier's pilots staged a wildcat strike over pay, aviation industry sources in the North African country said. News agency APS reported pilots at Algiers airport as saying their demands related to salaries, although no official of the aircrew union was available for comment. Morning talks between ma ...