Thousands of young people have taken to the streets in Algeria as popular resistance grows to President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s decision to stand for a fifth term. In the biggest outpouring of dissent seen in Algeria for many decades, a new wave of young activists has emerged in a country in which more than two-thirds of the population are under 30
• Algerians begin general strike against Bouteflika's rule
Continue reading...Many citizens object to the ailing president’s attempt to serve a fifth term in office
Algerians have begun five days of general strike as protests against the rule of the ailing president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, entered a new phase.
Shops across the country were closed and groups of workers gathered in the streets brandishing flags and signs objecting to Bouteflika’s attempt to serve a fifth term in office. Social media posts implored citizens to enact civil disobedience and refuse to attend their jobs for the rest of the working week.
Continue reading...Biggest demonstrations since 2011 Arab spring call for a ‘free and democratic’ Algeria
Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets in Algeria as popular resistance grows to the president’s decision to stand for a fifth term.
Crowds gathered in Algiers throughout the morning despite train services being stopped by authorities, and huge numbers demonstrated in every other major city and most towns. Some chanted slogans calling for a “free and democratic Algeria” and shouted “peaceful, peaceful”.
Continue reading...If protesters allow ‘infiltration’ by unspecified forces it may provoke chaos, says Bouteflika
The Algerian president has warned of chaos on the eve of anticipated large demonstrations if protesters challenging his decision to stand for a fifth term allow the “infiltration” of their movement by unspecified forces.
People from a wide range of social and economic backgrounds have taken to the streets across Algeria in recent weeks in what have been the biggest demonstrations in the country since the 2011 Arab spring.
Continue reading...Thousands have taken to the streets to oppose Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s bid for a fifth term
Algeria’s ailing president has sacked his campaign manager as the nation’s elite moved to consolidate its power in the face of historic mass protests.
Tension continued to rise on Sunday, with students taking to the streets as the protests entered their second week. Observers waited to see if the president, AbdelazizBouteflika, would return from medical treatment in Geneva to submit his candidacy before Sunday’s midnight deadline.
Continue reading...Democracy movement Mouwatana opposes president Bouteflika’s bid for a fifth term
The coordinator of protests sweeping across Algeria for the past week has called for wholesale regime change as tens of thousands are expected to take to the streets on Friday.
“What Algerians want is to get rid of not just the president, but the entire regime,” said Soufiane Djilali, who spearheads the Mouwatana (Democracy and Citizenship) movement, which organised some of the historic protests against the current ruler, Abdelaziz Bouteflika. “The president must go, the government must resign, and the fake national assembly – all these need to be dismantled,” he said.
Continue reading...Plaintiff’s lawyers wanted to suspend case after argument about his identity came unstuck in Canberra high court
The high court has rejected an attempt to reopen a controversial ruling which effectively enabled indefinite immigration detention in Australia.
The full bench in Canberra took the highly unusual step of delivering an immediate judgement, after a tumultuous day which saw the plaintiff’s lawyers seek to stop them hearing the case and have it sent back to a single judge for reassessment.
Continue reading...After a tumultous week, the streets of the cities of the Democratic Republic of the Congo are likely to be quiet on Sunday as congregations file into churches to hear priests and preachers call for the Lord’s blessing on a troubled land.
Few doubt that the DRC is at a critical moment. The long-delayed elections that were finally held on 30 December could still be a turning point, leading the resource-rich nation to a better future. Or they could send the vast central African country, which has not known a peaceful transfer of power since it gained independence from Belgium in 1960, back into anarchy.
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