Worldcrunch
Driving through Algeria and Tunisia 45 years ago wasn’t actually so rough: For our European postérieurs, the seats of our 404 Peugeot were undeniably more comfortable than the saddle of this camel.
Ghardaïa is “only” 1,700 kilometers (1050 miles) away from my house, as the crow flies. But 45 years ago, to get to the “the pearl of the oasis” in northern Sahara’s M’zab region, my wife and I first drove down to the port of Marseille in our Peugeot 404, took a ferry to Annaba, visited […]
In the fifth grade, a 10-year-old Noh Blaghen discovered graphic Japanese comics, otherwise known as mangas. It was in the early 2000s in Benin, Nigeria, and they were rare there. A friend’s parents, who had been traveling in France and in Belgium, returned home with stacks of them, which Noh devoured with his friends. In […]
Grave doubts about the health and capacity of longtime President Bouteflika are pulling Algeria apart at the seams. Who’s in charge? What happens next in this pivotal North African country?
The death of teenager Michael Brown at the hands of a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo., has been getting plenty of attention beyond U.S. borders, and Arabic-language media is no exception. It has made Ferguson front-page news, while Twitter users have transliterated “Ferguson” into an Arabic hashtag. A recent Al Jazeera article, filed under […]
Was this Tuareg going to the “fête du Mehri,” the spring celebration during which Algerians attend and participate in camel races? Or was he simply leading his mount to water in Ghardaïa, the city known as the “pearl of the oasis”?
Driving through southern Algeria in the early 1970s was quite an adventure — and I’m not sure the state of roads has gotten any better since. Which means that the “Cape Town” direction on that sign in Ouargla was mostly for fun.
The road to El Oued is paved with good intentions! We’ve seen our share of strange road signs over the years, but being told to beware of sand while you’re driving in the middle of the Algerian desert definitely takes the cake.
ALGIERS – Shaken by the strength of bloggers and Internet users opposed to a fourth term for outgoing Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the head of state’s campaign team didn’t wait long before equipping themselves with their own virtual communication tools. The unprecedented online confrontation has put the Bouteflika’s supporters on the defensive. His team opened […]
At Ouargla’s traditional market in southern Algeria, this merchant was selling wooden bowls carved from single blocks of wood. Even though palm trees are ubiquitous in the several oases surrounding Ouargla, Saharan craftsmen prefer to use Atlas Cedars, found in the nearby Algerian mountain range of the same name.
On the road from Batna to Laghouat, we overtook these Berbers with their camels slowly making their way through the Aurès — an eastern continuation of the Atlas Mountains — in northeastern Algeria. It was in this region that the Algerian War of Independence was started by Berber freedom fighters in 1954.
This is the greatest danger we faced when we drove from Ouargla to El Oued in southern Algeria: bumping into a wild camel…! By 1970, the anti-French sentiment left over from the Algerian War a decade earlier had largely faded away. But we were lucky to enjoy the calm then; as three years later, the […]
-Op-Ed- ALGIERS – The confusing communication strategy orchestrated by supporters of Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika around his recent hospitalization in Paris — and the mystery surrounding the actual state of his health — have led the Algerian press and the opposition parties to denounce the lack of transparency and secrets that are so characteristic of […]
ALGIERS – Since the first subway line opened in the end of 2011, it is much appreciated. “It is a lot easier to get to court,” explains Lydia, a young lawyer. She adds that the ticket fare (around 50 cents) is reasonable for the middle class, and the service beats collective taxis or having to […]
-Essay- RABAT – A year ago, Tuareg rebels from the Azawad National Liberation Movement (MNLA) decided to launch an attack to take back the territory of Azawad in northern Mali that they claim as their native land. They managed to chase Mali military troops from their land, but weren’t able to gain the upper hand […]
ALGIERS – The ultimate goal is Europe. But first the immigrants from countries in central Africa are trying to get refugee status in Algeria. “We were told that if we claimed we were fleeing the war, we would be taken care of and handed out IDs,” says Trésor, a Congolese migrant taken in by the […]
BBC, SKY NEWS (UK), SYDNEY MORNING HERALD (Australia), FRANCE 24, EURONEWS Worldcrunch ALGIERS – Foreign governments and news outlets were working Monday to verify the number of hostages killed during a bloody four-day Islamist terrorist seige of a gas treatment plant in southeastern Algeria. The Algerian government, which has been criticized by some for both […]
SLATE AFRIQUE Worldcrunch ALGIERS – Amidst conflicting reports of the fate of perhaps hundreds of hostages from a showdown between an Islamist terror group and Algerian security forces, the Algerian government has released the first video of some of those freed at the gas treatment facility in the remote southern part of the country. There […]
ALGIERS – On Wednesday, an estimated 41 Western contractors were taken hostage inside the jointly run BP natural-gas facility in Amenas, in eastern Algeria, near the Libyan border. The man believed to be responsible for this assault goes by the name Mokhtar Belmokhtar – also known as Khaled Aboul Abbas – one of the region’s […]
ANI (Mauritania), TSA, EL WATAN (Algeria), LE MONDE, L’EXPRESS (France), AP Worldcrunch ALGIERS – Confirmed information on the ground is still scant, but Algerian authorities do acknowledge that the assault against Islamist hostage takers was still ongoing Friday, more than 24 hours after it began at a gas treatment plant 1600 kilometers south of the […]
TSA, EL WATAN (Algeria), SUD OUEST, LE MONDE, NOUVEL OBS (France) ALGIERS – At least 25 Western hostages held at an Algerian gas facility have escaped Thursday. News reports say Americans and Japanese are among those freed. There are also unconfirmed reports that several of the hostages have been killed after Algerian security forces had […]
EL WATAN (Algeria), LE MONDE, AFP (France) Worldcrunch Two people were killed and as many as 41 Westerners were taken hostage in an attack Wednesday by an Islamist group at a gas treatment facility in Algeria. A British citizen and an Algerian are believed to be dead and six other people wounded in the assault […]
MOSCOW – President Vladimir Putin recently announced that this year was a record year for Russian weapons exports, with $15 billion in contracts for next year and $14 billion worth of weapons that have already been sold in 2012. This past year the main customers for Russian weapons were once again India, Algeria and Vietnam. […]
– Editorial – PARIS – A revolution is a riot that has succeeded. A riot is a revolution that has failed… For the second time since 1990, Algeria has missed another rendezvous with history, the Arab Spring. Like Saudi Arabia, it remained mostly extraneous to the unrest that overwhelmed the Arab world and led to […]
LE MONDE (France), EL ATWAN (Algeria), REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS (France) Worldcrunch Algeria marked the 50th anniversary of independence Thursday, an event with significance in both Algeria and France, its former colonial ruler. As part of its coverage of the anniversary, French daily Le Monde published a commentary by Raphaëlle Branche, a historian at Université de […]
LE QUOTIDIEN D’ORAN (Algeria) ALGIERS – Algerians are turned off and tuned out when it comes to today’s legislative elections, Le Quotidien d’Oran reveals. The Algerian newspaper expects just a fraction of the country’s estimated 21 million voters to cast their ballots in the election, which will decide the next People’s National Assembly. Here’s a […]
It is considered common wisdom among Western analysts that Muslim countries are plagued with large families and ever-swelling masses of young people are a threat to stability. Only problem is all the hard evidence to the contrary.
Two decades after its own civil war, Algeria was relatively calm as the revolutions of the past year rolled across most of its North Africa neighbors. But with legislative elections slated this spring, both pro-democracy and pro-Islamist parties are deman
For a while, tiny Algeria had a world-class soccer team. But years later, players are asking if performance-enhancing drugs administered by Soviet trainers played a role in the success. Why the suspicion? Seven of the players have since fathered handicapp
Officially dissolved in 1992, the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) continues to exert influence in Algeria, where it recently helped negotiate the release of 7,000 prisoners from the country’s bloody civil war. It may be the boost the Islamic group needs to
Jacques Vergès took on the cases of Klaus Barbie, Carlos the Jackal and Slobodan Milosovic. Now, he makes the case for himself.
In an interview with La Stampa, Rachid Ghannouchi insists that he favors a lasting democracy and women playing a political role in Tunisia’s future. (magharebia) TUNIS – Until last month, Rachid Ghannouchi, the founder and leader of the Islamist al-Nahda Party — the Tunisian equivalent of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood — was just one of thousands […]
Radical Muslims have not been driving the protests in Tunisia, Algeria, and Egypt. For many young people in the region, Islamism no longer offers a solution to their problems. What the “Arab Street” wants (Al Jazeera, via Flickr) TUNIS – The “al-Amanzar” restaurant, located on a small side street off Bourghiba Avenue, is divided in […]
Algeria’s Our Lady of Africa was long associated with French colonialism, until it became a symbol of interfaith tolerance