News from Algeria 2007

[Al-khiyal]

ALGIERS, Jan 1 (KUNA) -- Algerian army forces arrested two Tunisians linked to an international terrorist network, who came here to join an armed group in Algeria, a security source said here Monday.

An Algerian military patrol picked up two Tunisians in Meftah, Blida, around 50 km south of Algiers, on the evening of December 29, an Algerian security source told the Algerian Radio.

Security investigations showed that the Tunisian terrorists admitted that they belonged to an international terrorist network and came here to join the armed Salafi Group for Call and Combat in Algeria, the source added.

They also admitted that they came to Algeria via Libya with the help of persons who belonged to the Algerian armed organization.

The armed Salafi Group for Call and Combat in Algeria said a couple of months back it had joined Al-Qaeda organization.

Suspected Tunisian terrorists picked up in Algeria

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ALGIERS, Jan 1 (KUNA) -- Algeria has invited Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa, Arab ministers of culture, men of letters and members of the intelligencia to attend a cultural festival scheduled for January 12th.

Ahmad Hamdi, a member of the organizing committee, has delivered formal invitations to Moussa and Minister of Culture Farouq Hosni to attend the inaugural ceremony of the "Algiers is the Capital of Arab Culture for 2007" festival, the Algerian Ministry of Culture said in a release here.

Hamdi has also invited several Arab men of letters, intellectuals, and poets, including Gamal al-Ghitani, Mohamed Salmawi, Alaa al-Aswani and Samih al-Qassem, to attend the cultural event, it added.

An Egyptian cultural week is expected to be held on the sidelines of the cultural festival, in which a constellation of Egyptian intellectuals and artists will take part, it said, noting that 18 countries would attend the major cultural event.

The ministry added that it wanted this festival to be an opportunity to demonstrate diversity on the Algerian cultural scene.

It is noteworthy that for ten years now the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has been designating an Arab city to be a regional cultural capital every year. Kuwait and Riyadh have already had that distinction.

Algeria invites Arab culture ministers to cultural festival

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The father of a young Ulster girl who was taken to Algeria in April last night denied she was abducted.

In a statement published in the Belfast Telegraph's sister paper, Sunday Life, Mustapha Sadia denied kidnapping his seven- year-old daughter, Nassima.

The former Belfast taxi driver claimed his daughter was "doing well" and was being brought up in the Islamic faith.

We tried to contact his estranged wife, Dawn Sadia, yesterday, but she was not available for comment.

Although the PSNI and the Foreign Office are treating the case as an abduction, Mr Sadia claims it should be treated as a "custody" case.

Said Mr Sadia: "Nassima is my daughter - I did not abduct her. She is quite happy.

"The trip to Algeria was planned for a long time, but things didn't work out and I went ahead.

"This is a custody case - it is not an abduction case.

"Nassima is at school and she is being treated very well.

"No crime has been committed and Dawn will get to see her daughter again once she stops accusing me of abducting my daughter."

The Algerian man's comments came through Donya Al Nahri, through Mr Sadia's family in France.

London-based Ms Al Nahri helped to arrange a trip for Mrs Sadia to Algeria, last October.

She said: "I spoke to Mustapha's brother last month and they told me all about the situation in Algeria.

"They have been interviewed by the PSNI and they are adamant that no crime has been committed."

Said a PSNI spokesman: "We are continuing to investigate the abduction of a seven-year-old girl."

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London also said: "The family contacted us alleging this was an abduction and, on the basis of that, it is being treated as such."

Mrs Sadia has not seen her daughter since her husband took Nassima to Algeria for an annual holiday last April. The young girl had been a pupil at Elmgrove Primary School in east Belfast.

Mr Sadia had taken Nassima on holiday before, but this time he rang his wife to say he and his daughter weren't coming home.

I didn't abduct my Ulster-born daughter, says Algerian dad

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It is believed that no less than seventeen 22-year-old young men have recently joined armed groups in Blida (centre), some sources have said. Investigations by the concerned authorities have confirmed that a number of young men are missing for two months now and believe they would have joined armed groups.

Last week, security forces in Blida contacted the young men’s families to ask them about their sons. Some of them said they were abroad whereas others acknowledged that they had no information about them since they had left home. Security services interrogated the young men’s relatives in different areas of Blida but failed to get information confirming they had joined armed groups. In relation to whether or not they had links with terrorist acts the area has known in recent years, the same sources told us that the young men in question had never been implicated in terrorist acts, neither belonged to terrorist groups nor wanted by justice.

Considering the global security trend in Blida these last few years, marked by a decrease of terrorist acts, it is ruled out that remnant armed groups would recruit new elements to carry out terrorist attacks inside Algeria. Their focus would be now on training young men to fight outside of Algeria, as in Iraq; especially as the young men’s absence coincides with the announcement of the arrest of foreign elements related to armed groups in Algeria. They were working together to provide training for Algerians in order to send them fight in Iraq.

17 young men join armed groups in Blida for training to fight in Iraq

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An inquiry by the criminal investigation department into an attempt to smuggle kif, from Bejaia port towards French seaport of Marseille, ended by putting 12 people into provisional detention, including a frontier-police captain, eight custom officers, a main defendant and two of his assistants with whom police found another quantity of kif estimated at 56 kg.

Police said the main defendant; arrested on the week-end in Tarf (East); was planning to export toward France a huge quantity of kif, underlining that high-ranking police and custom officers were implicated in the affair. No drug baron had tried to pass such a quantity from Bejaia harbour where security measures are very strict, they add. Although all the smuggling-network’s members have been apprehended, investigations by judicial police are still open for further information on the affair.

In addition, a national gendarmerie brigade found 30 kg of kif in Borj Beach, 20 km west of Oran (West), at the week-end, when performing an ordinary patrol tasks. Gendarmerie has not found out yet the source of the discovered quantity, nor did it succeed to identify the dealers. It is however believed that some kif smugglers using Zodiacs would have cast hashish into the sea after they were intercepted by coastguards.

Superintendent and 8 custom officers in custody

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...On the first day of the New Year, Iraqi Police reported finding the 40 handcuffed, blindfolded and bullet-riddled bodies in Baghdad. A police official, who refused to be named out of security fears, said 15 of the bodies were discovered in the mainly industrial Sheik Omar district of northern Baghdad.

An Iraqi worker for the Algerian Embassy in Baghdad was shot to death, police said....

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ALGER, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has sent a congratulatory message to his Cuban counterpart Fidel Castro on the 48th anniversary of the Cuban revolution, the presidential office said on Monday.

"On behalf of the people and the government of Algeria, it is with great pleasure that I join in celebrating this important date in the history of Cuba," said the Algerian president in his message.

"On the memorial moment like this, my friendly thoughts and affection go towards you who have devoted your entire life to your country, to the well-being of your people, to the defense and the realization of social justice in Cuba and around the world," he said.

Bouteflika also declared himself as satisfied with "the significant accomplishments made through cooperation between Cuba and Algeria," which would be always "renewed with the goal of realizing an outstanding partnership."

Algerian president salutes Cuban counterpart on anniversary of Cuban revolution