An Algerian air force MiG-25 fighter jet crashed on a training exercise late Tuesday but the pilot ejected safely, the defense ministry said.

The plane came down in the Hassi Bahbah area, 200 kilometers (125 miles) south of Algiers without causing any damage on the ground, the ministry said.

French motor manufacturer Renault inaugurated a multi-million-euro plant in Algeria Monday, Paris's former colony owning 51 percent of the factory with an initial production capacity of 25,000 cars annually.

The factory is to produce the Symbol, a saloon based on Renault's Clio compact sold mainly in markets where hatchbacks are not traditionally favored.

A French-Algerian was killed and another man was wounded Wednesday in a shooting by Shiite rebels who have overrun the Yemeni capital, security and diplomatic sources said.

Both were Salafist students and residents of Sanaa, and "it wasn't French interests that were targeted" in the shooting, said the Western diplomat.

Sixty years on, the war of independence from France remains a defining moment for Algeria and its elite, like 79-year-old Zohra Drif, a senator who once set off a bomb that left three people dead.

On the night of November 1, 1954, known as "Toussaint Rouge" (Red All Saints Day) because it coincided with the Catholic festival, some 30 explosions rocked government targets in the colony which had been under French occupation for 132 years, leaving seven people dead.

Sixty years on, the war of independence from France remains a defining moment for Algeria and its elite, like 79-year-old Zohra Drif, a senator who once set off a bomb that left three people dead.

On the night of November 1, 1954, known as "Toussaint Rouge" (Red All Saints Day) because it coincided with the Catholic festival, some 30 explosions rocked government targets in the colony which had been under French occupation for 132 years, leaving seven people dead.

The families of seven French monks killed in Algeria 18 years ago accused the authorities in the north African country Thursday of "confiscating evidence" about their deaths.

The monks were killed in 1996 after being abducted from the Notre Dame de l'Atlas monastery in Tibhirine, 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Algiers, and only their severed heads were ever recovered.

Tensions flared Sunday between Algeria and Morocco after Rabat accused an Algerian soldier of firing on Moroccan civilians across their joint border and seriously wounding one of them.

Algeria charged on Sunday that Rabat was misrepresenting the facts a day after Morocco had summoned the Algerian ambassador to "vigorously protest" about the shooting.

At least seven people were killed Thursday in clashes between rival armed Tuareg groups and their allies in northern Mali, several sources told Agence France Presse.

"There were at least seven dead on both sides and several injured," said an African military source from the MINUSMA U.N. mission in Mali.  

The skulls of seven French Trappist monks killed in Algeria 18 years ago were exhumed Tuesday in the presence of two French magistrates, the APS news agency reported.

The monks were killed in 1996 after being abducted from the Notre Dame de l'Atlas monastery in Tibehirine, 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Algiers, and only their severed heads were ever recovered.

An Algerian air force plane crashed Monday in the south of the country during a training exercise, killing the two soldiers on board, the defense ministry said.

It said the Sukhoi Su-24, a bomber first developed in the former Soviet Union, went town near Hassi Bahbah in the Djelfa region, 270 kilometers (165 miles) south of Algiers.