Algeria Shuts Down Internet and Facebook as Protest Mounts
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Internet providers were shut down and Facebook accounts deleted across Algeria on Saturday as thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators were arrested in violent street demonstrations.

Plastic bullets and tear gas were used to try and disperse large crowds in major cities and towns, with 30,000 riot police taking to the streets in Algiers alone.

There were also reports of journalists being targeted by state-sponsored thugs to stop reports of the disturbances being broadcast to the outside world.

But it was the government attack on the internet which was of particular significance to those calling for an end to President Abdelaziz Boutifleka's repressive regime.

Protesters mobilising through the internet were largely credited with bringing about revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia.

"The government doesn't want us forming crowds through the internet," said Rachid Salem, of Co-ordination for Democratic Change in Algeria. >>> Nabila Ramdani | Saturday, February 12, 2011

AFP: Protesters in Montreal call for change in Algeria: MONTREAL — Some 200 people demonstrated Saturday in the streets of Montreal, joining calls for the resignation of Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika on the heels of revolts in Tunisia and Egypt. >>> AFP | Saturday, February 12, 2011

SKY NEWS: Wildfire Of Hope Spreads Across Middle East: It began when a young street vendor set himself alight in an obscure Tunisian village in an act of despair which ironically is spreading hope in a wildfire crescent from Algeria to Syria. >>> Sam Kiley, security editor | Saturday, February 12, 2011

Related >>>

Gaddafi's Daughter Thrown Out of Algeria After She 'Set Fire to Presidential Residence'
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The late Muammar Gaddafi’s daughter was thrown out of her Algerian safe-house because she repeatedly set it on fire in fits of anger, officials have revealed.


Aisha Gaddafi, 37, has an arrest warrant against her name after fleeing Libya when her father was deposed and then killed two years ago after 42 years in power.

The western educated lawyer arrived in Algeria with other family members after her husband — an army general — was killed in the bombing raids which destroyed Gaddafi’s regime, leaving her as a single mother.

She was accorded a presidential residence in the south of the country.

Algeria’s ambassador to Libya confirmed last month that Col Gaddafi’s widow and three of his children including Aisha, had left Algeria “a long time ago” without giving further details.

It has now emerged that Algerian authorities lost patience with Miss Gaddafi, a onetime UN Goodwill Ambassador, after she kept vandalising furniture and attacking guards out of rage over her father’s fate.

“She ended up blaming Algeria for many of her problems, and also began starting fires in the house,” said a government source in Algiers.

“Shelves in the library went up in flames, as she regularly attacked army personnel looking after her safety.” The last straw was when the bleach blonde nicknamed the “Claudia Schiffer of North Africa” destroyed a portrait of Algerian president Abdul Aziz Bouteflika, local newspaper Ennahar reported.

For this sign of disrespect she was kicked out of the country, eventually finding asylum in Britain’s Gulf ally, Oman. » | Henry Samuel and Nabila Ramdani | Tuesday, April 02, 2013

Algeria: Cry the Benighted Country
THE SUNDAY TIMES: A third of Algerians are under 15 - inheritors of a brutal legacy of ancient and modern hatreds. Their country has suffered through civil war, terrorism and Islamic extremism. Is this uneasy peace what post-fundamentalism looks like?

"Is this your first time in Algeria?” everyone I meet asks me. It’s a polite inquiry, a courtesy veiling an admonishment, an accusation. “Where were you? Why did you take so long?” And with a weedy smile I reply, in geographic mitigation, that this isn’t my first time in the Maghreb. “Morocco,” they’d sigh. Yes, Morocco. “Ah, Morocco,” they’d repeat with a curl of the lip. “Disneyland.” And, compared to Algiers, it is.

Nobody’s been to Algeria for a decade unless they had a very pressing reason and some very secure connections. The last photographer I knew who tried to do a story here never got out of his hotel room. He went straight back to the airport, thoroughly scared. There were precious few news teams or foreign journalists — 11 years of civil war have been unforgivingly diligent and murderous and terrifying. Threats in Algeria are never empty. They come replete and fatty with promise, dripping with a brutal, dark efficiency.

“Zidane,” I say — Zinédine Zidane is the only contemporary Algerian anyone’s heard of. “Zidane,” they reply, “everyone was following him, looked to him for pride, for a sign.” Pity about the last match, though, that final head-butt in the 2006 World Cup. “What do you mean?” a man exploded at me, waving his hands. “We loved that! That moment! All his life Zidane was acquiescent, silent, a brown Frenchman, and then finally at the last he did something properly, authentically Algerian.”

Algiers curls like a sun-bleached spine around a great natural harbour. It is a city of lairs, of shadows. Up front is the icing, the promenade: unmistakably, vauntingly French. Tall white apartment blocks with beautiful Algiers-blue shutters and awnings hanging above shaded arcades of shops and deep, dark bars. There are broad, curving boulevards edged with ficus trees that have been pollarded and topiaried into a suspended, undulating green sunshade. It has that faded and dusty decrepitude that so suits colonial architecture, that lends a nostalgia to the bourgeois snobbery and imposed racism. The French city looks out across the Mediterranean towards Marseilles, its mirror. >>> AA Gill | Sunday, December 13, 2009

'Briton Killed' and '40 BP Workers Held Hostage' in Algeria Attack
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Al Qaeda-linked hostage takers claiming to hold 41 foreigners hostage at a gas field partly operated by British Petroleum in Algeria have reportedly threatened to blow themselves up after killing a Briton.

Algeria's official APS news agency cited provincial officials for news of the death, which came after an early morning attack by Islamists.

The militants say they are holding an [sic] seven Americans and an unspecified number of British, Japanese and French amongst other nationalities, a spokesman is cited as saying by two Mauritanian news agencies - Agence Nouakchott information et Sahara Medias. A security source quoted by Algeria's El Watan newspaper quoted the same figure.

"A second person, a British national, died in the terrorist attack carried out early on Wednesday morning in Tigantourine," the APS news agency said, citing local officials. Six other people have been wounded.

Prime Minister David Cameron will chair a meeting of the Government's crisis committee Cobra on the incident later on Wednesday.

The natural gas complex, the third largest in the country, is a joint venture of British Petroleum, Norway's Statoil and the Algerian Sonatrach company located some 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) south of the capital near the Libyan border.

The Algerian Interior Ministry said heavily armed gunman in three vehicles attacked the complex early on Wednesday morning. » | Barney Henderson, and Henry Samuel in Paris | Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Algeria: Christians Get Suspended Jail Terms
REUTERS: TISSEMSILT, Algeria - A court in Algeria handed suspended jail terms and fines to two Christians on Wednesday for trying to convert Muslims, a defence lawyer said, in the latest in a series of trials stirring accusations of religious repression.

Rachid Seghir and Djallal Dahmani each received suspended six month jail terms and 100,000 dinar fines in the hearing at Tissemsilt town 200 km (125 miles) southwest of Algiers for "distributing documents in order to disrupt the Muslim faith", defence lawyer Khelloudja Khalfoun said.

Contacted by telephone after the hearing, Seghir said in brief remarks that he would appeal, adding: "We are disappointed by the verdict but we are not ashamed of our religion." Algeria Christians Get Suspended Jail Terms >>> By Hamid Ould Ahmed | July 2, 2008

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Algeria: Christian Sentenced for Carrying Bible
COMPASS DIRECT NEWS: Police pressure convert to return to Islam during ‘illegal’ five-day detention.

ALGIERS, Algeria, May 9 – An Algerian Christian detained five days for carrying a Bible and personal Bible study books was handed a 300-euro (US$460) fine and a one-year suspended prison sentence last week, an Algerian church leader said.

Last Tuesday (April 29) a court in Djilfa, 150 miles south of Algiers, charged the 33-year-old Muslim convert to Christianity with “printing, storing and distributing” illegal religious material. A written copy of the verdict has yet to be issued.

The Protestant, who requested anonymity for security reasons, told fellow Christians in his home city of Tiaret that police pressured him to return to Islam while in custody.

The conviction is the latest in a wave of detentions and court cases against Algeria’s Protestants and Catholics. Since January police and provincial officials have ordered the closure of up to half of the country’s 50 estimated Protestant congregations.

Officials in several instances have cited a February 2006 law governing the worship of non-Muslims. Clarified by subsequent decrees in 2007, the law restricts most religious meetings to approved places of worship and forbids any attempt to “shake the faith of a Muslim.” Algeria: Christian Sentenced for Carrying Bible >>> | May 10, 2008

Hat tip: Dhimmi Watch

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)

Christians on Trial in Algeria for Spreading Faith
ASSOCIATED PRESS: ALGIERS, Algeria — Two men who converted from Islam to Christianity went on trial Wednesday on charges that they illegally promoted the Christian faith in Algeria.

Rachid Mohammed Seghir, 40, and Jammal Dahmani, 36, were already convicted in absentia for illegal practice of a non-Muslim religion in 2007 but asked for a new trial, as Algerian law allows, their lawyer said.

They are charged with praying in a building that had not been granted a religious permit by authorities and are also accused of trying to spread the Christian faith among Muslims, the court said. Christians on Trial in Algeria for Spreading Faith >>> By Aomar Quali | June 25, 2008

DER STANDARD:
Harte Zeiten für Christen: Schauprozesse und Haftstrafen gegen Konvertierte – Religionsführer werden ausgewiesen >>> | 24. Juni 2008

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Religious Freedom Worsens in Jordan, Algeria: US
AFP: WASHINGTON — Religious freedom took a turn for the worse in the last year in China, Egypt and Iran, but also in normally more tolerant countries like Jordan and Algeria, the State Department said Friday.

The State Department's annual report on religious freedoms around the world for the period between July 2007 and July 2008 also singled out North Korea again as among the worst violators of religious freedom.

But there were new concerns about Jordan and Algeria, "which traditionally have been more respectful of minority faiths," according to John Hanford III, the ambassador at large for religious freedom.

"The government's de factor and de jure policies have precipitated a decline in the status of religious freedom during this reporting period," the report said.

In February, the government began enforcing an ordinance which "makes proselytizing a criminal offense," it said.

It said that the ordinance mandates "that anyone who makes, stores or distributes printed documents, or audiovisual materials with the intent of 'shaking the faith' of a Muslim may also face a maximum of five years' imprisonment" and a fine equivalent to 7,100 dollars.

"In Jordan, a Sharia Court found a convert from Islam to Christianity guilty of apostasy, annulled his marriage, and declared him to be without any religious identity," said Hanford, who oversaw the report.

"The Jordanian government also harassed individuals and organizations based on religious affiliation," he said. Religious Freedom Worsens in Jordan, Algeria: US >>> | September 20, 2008

Hat tip: Dhimmi Watch

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Prince Andrew ‘Had Lockerbie Talks with Gaddafi’s Son’
MAIL ON SUNDAY: Claims that Prince Andrew held secret ‘detailed discussions’ over the release of the Lockerbie bomber with Colonel Gaddafi’s son were at the centre of a simmering diplomatic row last night.

Libyan officials yesterday claimed the Prince held off-the-record talks with Saif al-Islam Gaddafi days after Libya formally applied for convicted terrorist Abdelbaset Al Megrahi’s release.

But last night, despite the Libyan assertions, Buckingham Palace denied any meetings or discussions had taken place between the Prince and Mr Gaddafi on the issue.

The alleged Royal intervention in the controversial affair came while the Prince was on an official Foreign Office-sponsored trip to Algeria in May to open Britain’s new embassy in the country.

Libyan government officials say Colonel Gaddafi’s son – who would later give the terrorist a hero’s welcome on his return to Tripoli – made a special visit to Algiers to discuss the developments with the Prince, Britain’s special representative on trade and investment.

The pair are said to have become friends after Andrew made several official and unofficial trips to Libya. Mr Gaddafi has also been a guest at Windsor Castle.

The Prince’s formal role is to help secure trade and investment deals for Britain and he was in Algeria at the behest of the Foreign Office.

The involvement of the Prince would raise new questions about the deal done with Libya to free Megrahi, the man convicted of bombing Pan Am Flight 103.

But told of the Libyan claims the Prince had played a key role in the affair, Buckingham Palace last night issued a categoric denial.

A spokesman said: ‘We can categorically say that no meetings or discussions took place between the Duke of York and Mr Gaddafi in Algiers on any issue. The Duke has only met Mr Gaddafi on two occasions and was unaware they were in Algiers at the same time.’

He added: ‘It is categorically untrue that the Duke of York met Saif Gaddafi in Algeria.’ >>> Jason Lewis, Mail On Sunday Security Editor and Nabila Ramdani | Sunday, September 06, 2009

France - Algeria: A Painful Past that Resurfaces - Colonization Algeria - Documentary - MP

Oct 21, 2024 | In February 2017, shortly before his election, Emmanuel Macron alienated the pied-noir community for comparing the colonization of Algeria to a crime against humanity.

More than half a century after independence, the Algerian question remains a taboo subject in France and arouses passions as soon as it is addressed.

Whatever the words, whatever the decisions, there will always be a side that feels wronged.

But how did it get to this point? Why can't time erase resentment and aftereffects passed down from generation to generation? "Une affaire de famille" is a historical fresco, told through the prism of personal stories.

This documentary was made for educational purposes and may contain images that may offend some people. If you are a sensitive person, watching this documentary is not recommended.

A film directed by Dominique Fargue and Isabelle Quintard
On an original idea by Laurent Delahousse
A Magnéto production

Bombing Kills Dozens in Algeria
BBC: A bomb at a police college east of the Algerian capital, Algiers, has killed 43 people and injured a further 38, the interior ministry says.

The bombing targeted a paramilitary police training school at Issers, near Boumerdes, about 60km (40 miles) east of Algiers.

An attacker drove a car full of explosives into the school's entrance, witnesses told the AFP news agency.

Algeria has suffered regular attacks blamed on militants linked to al-Qaeda.

Tuesday's attack came as exam candidates were waiting outside the police school, witnesses said.

Civilians as well as security officials were among the victims, they added. Bombing Kills Dozens in Algeria >>> | August 19, 2008

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Algeria Doesn't Want French Gunman's Body, Muslim Leader Says
FOX NEWS: TOULOUSE, France – A young man who claimed responsibility for France's worst terror attacks in years will be buried Thursday in a Muslim cemetery near the southern city where he was killed in gunfight with police, religious leaders said.

Burying Mohamed Merah is a sensitive issue for both his native France and his father's native Algeria.

Merah told police he filmed himself killing three schoolchildren, a rabbi and three paratroopers in a spate of attacks earlier this month. Merah, who said he had links to Al Qaeda, was shot in the head after a standoff with police last week.

His father wanted him buried in a family plot in Algeria. Merah's body was brought to the airport in the city of Toulouse on Thursday, and his mother had been expecting to accompany it to Algiers on a flight later in the day.

But Abdallah Zekri of the French Muslim Council, or CFCM, told The Associated Press that Algerian authorities refused for "reasons of public order." Zekri had been liaising with Algerian authorities in Toulouse.

Instead, Merah will be buried at the Muslim cemetery in Cornebarrieu, near Toulouse, Zekri said. » | Associated Press | Thursday, March 29, 2012

LE MONDE: Pourquoi Alger a refusé l'enterrement de Merah en Algérie » | Par Amir Akef | Alger | jeudi 29 mars 2012

A Middle Class Revolution
Photograph: Foreign Policy
FOREIGN POLICY: In my numerous trips to Tunisia for Human Rights Watch since the mid-1990s, I grew weary of Tunisian dissidents telling me that at any moment the people would rise up in revolt against their autocratic president, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali.

Keep dreaming, I thought.

This country was not ripe for revolution. Anyone who traveled throughout the region could see that Tunisians enjoy a relatively high standard of living and quality of life. The country's per capita income is almost double that of Morocco and Egypt. It's higher than Algeria's, even though Algeria has oil and its smaller neighbor to the east has almost none. Tunisia scores high in poverty reduction, literacy, education, population control, and women's status. It built a middle-class society by hard work rather than by pumping oil from the ground; Tunisians export clothing, olive oil, and produce, and welcome hundreds of thousands of European tourists each year.

Although Ben Ali's Tunisia was a police state, his tacit bargain with the people -- "shut up and consume" -- seemed to hold, making the country appear to be a tranquil haven between strife-torn Algeria and Muammar al-Qaddafi's Libya. However, a tragic protest by a street vendor caused long-simmering -- though not immediately visible -- grievances to spill over and unmask Tunisia's reputation for stability as illusory.

For the rare activist who rejected Ben Ali's bargain during his reign, this was not authoritarianism-lite: The president jailed thousands of political prisoners during his 23-year rule, the vast majority alleged Islamists serving multiyear sentences even though they were not accused of planning or perpetrating acts of violence. There was also the occasional leftist, journalist, or human rights activist or lawyer jailed for defamation or disseminating "false information," or on trumped-up criminal charges. Plainclothes police routinely tortured suspects under interrogation and broke up even the most anemic street protest, roughing up critics and openly tailing foreign journalists and human rights workers. Read on and comment >>> Eric Goldstein | Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Libyan Rebels Demand Return of Gaddafi Family from Algeria
Libya's National Transitional Council says the dictator's wife Safiya, who crossed the border into Algeria with Gaddafi's daughter Aisha, sons Hannibal and Mohammed and their children on 29 August, should be extradited. The family crossed at the south-western Libyan town of Ghadamis into Algeria, according to witnesses

Algeria Wildfires Kill Dozens of People Including 10 Soldiers

THE GUARDIAN: About 7,500 firefighters trying to bring blazes under control and 1,500 people evacuated as heatwave spreads

Thirty-four people including 10 soldiers have been killed by wildfires in the mountainous Béjaïa and Bouïra regions of Algeria, as a heatwave spreads across north Africa and southern Europe.

About 8,000 firefighters were trying to bring the flames under control, authorities said, adding that about 1,500 people had been evacuated.

Algeria’s interior ministry said operations were under way to put out fires in six provinces and asked for people to “avoid areas affected by the fires” and to report new blazes on freephone numbers.

“Civil protection services remain mobilised until the fires are completely extinguished,” the ministry said.

The defence ministry said 10 soldiers were killed in the fires, but provided no further details. » | Agencies in Algiers | Monday, July 24, 2023

Sahara Hostage Holders Make New Threat

REUTERS.COM: (Reuters) - At least 18 foreign hostages were unaccounted for on Friday and their al-Qaeda-linked captors threatened to attack other energy installations after Algerian forces stormed a desert gas complex to free hundreds of captives, resulting in dozens of deaths.

With Western leaders clamoring for details of a raid they said Algeria had launched on Thursday without consulting them, a local source said the sprawling compound was still surrounded by Algerian special forces and some hostages remained inside.

Thirty hostages, including several Westerners, were killed during the assault, the source said, along with at least 18 of their captors, who said they had taken the site as retaliation for French intervention against Islamists in neighboring Mali.

The crisis represents a serious escalation of unrest in northwestern Africa, where French forces have been in Mali since last week fighting an Islamist takeover of Timbuktu and other towns in the north, and could devastate OPEC member Algeria's oil industry, just as it recovers from a civil war in the 1990s.

French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said the Algerian government had told him its operation was still going on at mid-morning on Friday. "The death of several hostages is appalling," he told journalists.

Two Japanese, two Britons and a French national were among at least seven foreigners killed, the Algerian source said.

Ten Japanese were among those still unaccounted for on Friday, their Japanese employer said, while Norwegian energy company Statoil, which runs the Tigantourine gas field with Britain's BP and Algeria's national oil company, said eight Norwegian employees were still missing.

Some British workers also appeared to be unaccounted for, though Prime Minister David Cameron said only that fewer than 30 Britons were still at risk as the operation continued.

Washington has said a number of Americans were among the hostages, without giving details, and the local source said a U.S. aircraft landed nearby on Friday to evacuate Americans. » | Lamine Chikhi, ALGIERS | Additional reporting by Ali Abdelatti in Cairo, Eamonn Mallie in Belfast, Gwladys Fouche in Oslo, Mohammed Abbas in London and Padraic Halpin and Conor Humprhies in Dublin; Writing by Philippa Fletcher; Editing by Alastair Macdonald | Friday, January 18, 2013

Gaddafi’s Daughter to Leave Hospital After Giving Birth
OMAN DAILY OBSERVER: ALGIERS — Aisha Gaddafi, who gave birth in Algeria this week after fleeing Libya as her father’s regime crumbled, was to leave hospital in the southern town of Djanet yesterday, a government source said.

The government said Tuesday that she had crossed into Algeria on Saturday with her brother Hannibal, their mother Safiya — Gaddafi’s second wife — and the fugitive leader’s eldest son Mohammed.

“Both (mother and daughter) are in very good health,” said the source who requested anonymity. The government said on Tuesday that Aisha Gaddafi gave birth to a baby girl in the small southern town of Djanet [français], 2,300 kilometres south of Algiers, early on Sunday.

The government official declined to comment on tensions between Algiers and Libya’s National Transitional Council, which has all but vanquished Gaddafi and has called for the handover of the Gaddafi family members.

Algeria’s foreign ministry on Tuesday said the Gaddafi family members were allowed in the country “for strictly humanitarian reasons”.

The daily Ennahar newspaper reported yesterday that up to 62 Gaddafi clan members had entered Tunisia. » | Agencies | Thursday, September 01, 2011

US to Drop Extra Security Against 'Terror-prone' Muslim Air Travellers
So what exactly is Barack HUSSEIN Obama playing at? Is he compromising the safety of non-Muslims so as not to offend his Muslim brothers? The dropping of extra security against ‘terror-prone’ Muslim air travellers is a measure as stupid as it is dangerous. How long will it take for disaster to happen, I wonder? And who’ll have blood on his hands then? If Muslims are insulted by the extra security needed, then they should stop trying to kill infidels, and if they did that, there would no longer be any need for any extra-ordinary security measures at all. – © Mark

TIMES ONLINE: The Obama Administration, facing protests from allies, announced today that it will stop requiring extra airport security screening for all travellers from "terror-prone" Muslim nations.

The United States will instead institute a "tailored" security system that relies on profiling individual travellers, based on intelligence such as their physical description or travel pattern.

Officials said that the new system would result in fewer passengers being pulled aside when travelling to America.

President Obama announced a crackdown on travellers from 14 "terror-prone" countries — 13 largely Muslim nations plus Cuba — after the failed "underwear bombing" of a Detroit-Amsterdam flight on Christmas Day.

Passport-holders and passengers from those countries were required to undergo full body pat-downs and manual baggage search as part of extra airport screening.

The emergency measures were intended to prevent would-be bombers like the Nigerian suspect from boarding US-bound planes.

Farouk Adbulmutallab has been charged with trying to blow up the Northwestern Airlines Flight 253 after he allegedly tried to detonate explosives hidden in his underwear, suffering severe burns but failing to bring down the plane.

Mr Abdulmutallab, 25, a former student at University College London, is understood to have told investigators that he was trained as a suicide bomber by an al-Qaeda affiliate in Yemen.

Mr Adbulmutallab's name was placed on a 550,000-name list of possible terror suspects, known as the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment database, or TIDE, after his father tipped off the US embassy in Nigeria about his concerns.

But Mr Adbulmutallab was never put on a 2,500-name "no-fly list" nor a 13,500-long "selectee" list requiring extra airport screening.

The blanket security measures imposed after the failed bombing affected all travellers from Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Yemen and Cuba.

The list offended allies like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Nigeria and Algeria who are partners of the United States in the fight against al-Qaeda. >>> James Bone, New York | Friday, April 02, 2010

Libyans Join OBL’s Jihad Against Enemies Of Islam
BBC: A Libyan Islamist group has joined al-Qaeda, according to an audio message on the internet attributed to the radical network's second-in-command.

Ayman al-Zawahri purportedly said the Fighting Islamic Group in Libya was becoming part of al-Qaeda.

Earlier this year Algeria's Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat also claimed to have joined the network.

The recorded message called on Islamists to topple North African as well as Palestinian leaders.

"O nation of jihad, support your sons so that we defeat our enemies and rid our homeland of their slaves," said the recorded voice attributed to al-Zawahri, referring to the leaders of Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco.


In the message, the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, is described as "an enemy of Islam" and criticised for giving up weapons of mass destruction in 2003, in exchange for an end to Libya's international isolation. Libyan Islamists 'join al-Qaeda' (more)

Mark Alexander

Col Gaddafi’s Children 'Flee Algeria’
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Col Muammar Gaddafi’s children have fled Algeria, fearing the oil-rich dictatorship’s improving relations with the new Libya authorities is undermining their safe haven.

Tight restrictions on the family and the prospect of a deal to allow Gaddafi’s widow back into Libya prompted the family to seek refuge elsewhere in Africa, regional officials said.

Reports in the Arabic press this week said that Aisha Gaddafi, the lawyer and most prominent member of the clan, had moved with her brother Hannibal and half-brother Mohammad to an African country.

Because of the UN flight ban on the Gaddafi inner circle, the siblings could most readily gain access to Niger, the impoverished Saharan state where a third brother, Saadi, lives on the presidential compound.

Niger is one of the few options open to the family as offers of asylum in Zimbabwe and Venezuela were impractical. Other countries are less reliable. Mauritania extradited Abdullah Senussi, Aisha’s uncle and Gaddafi’s intelligence chief back to Libya this summer.

A series of recent developments triggered the decision to leave the highly protected, secluded compound that the Gaddafis were granted inAlgerian government, a family associate said. “Definitely they wanted to get out,” he said.

Aisha Gaddafi is said to have grown increasingly frustrated with the restrictions on her communications imposed by the Algerian regime. » | Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent | Sunday, November 11, 2012