Algeria Is NEXT: Protesters Defy Government Ban As 30,000 Riot Police Protect Capital Square

Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Algeria's capital and other main cities demanding the government's ouster, mirroring protests in fellow North African countries Egypt and Tunisia.  A day after pro-democracy protesters drove Egypt's longtime leader Hosni Mubarak from power, Algerians were in the streets demanding their own President Abdelaziz Bouteflika leave office.

Protesters chanting, "No to the police state!" and "Bouteflika out!"  News reports say crowds were in the thousands but far out numbered by riot police.

Protests also took place in other cities, including the Mediterranean hub of Oran, also against government orders.  In the capital city, demonstrators skirmished with the riot police. Journalists on the scene reported several arrests.  One protester told France-Info radio he was afraid, but he was on the street anyway so he and his children could live in liberty. The power may not fall right away, he said, but it will fall eventually.

Saturday's protests were organized by a new umbrella group, the National Coalition for Change and Democracy. But they have not been backed by Algeria's main trade unions or banned Islamist groups. Many of the same ingredients fueling the Tunisian and Egyptian protests are also present in Algeria - high unemployment, a growing gap between rich and poor and a large and restless youth population.

Read more here: http://www.voanews.com/english/news/A...

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Algiers, Algeria (CNN) -- Baton-wielding Algerian security forces clashed Saturday with protesters who defied a ban and took to the streets of the capital demanding political reform.  Eleven individuals and eight policemen were injured, two seriously, the official Algerie Presse Service reported. 

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More detail and photos at the U.K. Mail...

Comments

[S. Gompers]

Major players who have been aquiring arable lands in all these rioting nations for export only food production displacing local inhabitants are probably getting nervous about now. South Korea's attempt to buy a third of all Madagascar's arable land led to the fall of the country's president.

http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/273844/extent_of_agricultural_landgrab_revealed_on_new_website.html