Algeria
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U.S. to Return Two Guantanamo Inmates to Algeria

The United States said Friday it will return two Algerians detained at Guantanamo Bay to their homeland as part of efforts to eventually close the War on Terror military prison.

"The United States remains determined to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay," the White House said in a statement.

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Roadside Bomb Kills Two Algeria Forest Rangers

A roadside bomb killed two forest rangers in the Bouira region southeast of Algiers on Tuesday, Algeria's APS news agency reported.

In the 1990s, Algeria witnessed a devastating decade-long civil war pitting the army against Islamist militants after it cancelled elections Islamists had been poised to win.

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Reports: Qaida Officials Killed in Algeria Ambush

At least two of four Islamists killed by security forces in a raid southeast of Algeria's capital were members of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), press reports said Sunday.

The four were aboard a vehicle ambushed in the town of Sour El-Ghozlane some 100 kilometers (60 miles) southeast of Algiers, reported Le Soir d'Algerie, citing reliable security sources.

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Algerian Army Kills 4 Islamists in Raid

Algerian soldiers shot dead four Islamists during an overnight raid in the town of Sour El-Ghozlane southeast of the capital Algiers, security sources said on Saturday.

The army also seized weapons during the raid, the national news agency APS said quoting security sources.

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U.S. Charges Ex-Head of Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb

U.S. authorities on Friday charged the former leader of Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Mokhtar Belmokhtar, over the deadly January siege at an Algerian gas plant and other crimes.

The one-eyed Algerian Islamist -- who allegedly masterminded the seizure in which 38 hostages, including three Americans, died -- was charged on eight counts, including kidnapping and conspiring to take hostages.

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Algerian ex-Minister to Run for President in 2014

Former Algerian finance minister Ali Benouari said he wants to "run for president" in his country's 2014 elections, according to an interview with a Swiss daily on Friday.

Speaking from Geneva, his home for the past 27 years, Benouari told La Tribune de Geneve that he would stand but admitted he had not expected to "announce his candidacy from Switzerland".

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Report: Four Algerian Troops Killed in Bomb Attack

Four Algerian soldiers were killed when two bombs struck their passing patrol in the region of Tipaza, west of the capital Algiers, media reports said Wednesday, adding the attack wounded another three troops.

The Tuesday attack appeared to have been pre-planned but coincided with the return home of Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika from Paris after a stay of nearly three months in hospital.

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Algeria President Returns Home after Paris Hospital Stay

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika returned home on Tuesday from Paris after a stay of almost three months in hospital that caused huge concern in the North African country, officials said.

The plane that flew Bouteflika from Le Bourget airport near Paris landed at around 1340 GMT at the Boufarik military airport, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) east of Algiers, they said.

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W.Saharan Families Separated 40 Years to Be Reunited

Families separated for almost four decades by the conflict in Western Sahara will be reunited, often for the first time, by the expansion of a U.N. program for refugees living in camps near Tindouf, Algeria.

An agreement reached in Geneva between Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania and Western Sahara guerilla group the Polisario Front will initiate a new flight schedule to ferry refugees to their families and vice versa for 2014.

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Full Support Needed for U.N. Mission in Mali, Says Algeria

The international community must give its full support to the United Nations to stabilize Mali, a senior Algerian official said on Monday, at the start of a regional security conference in the city of Oran.

"Mali has asked for the help of its partner countries to deploy anti-terrorist forces," said Mohamed Kamel Rezag Barra, presidential adviser for security affairs.

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