President Michel Suleiman, who is on an African tour, has appealed for dialogue in countries witnessing turmoil, saying violence does not resolve problems.

“We don't back violence to achieve demands,” Suleiman told Arab ambassadors based in Senegal, hoping that the turmoil would be resolved through all-party talks.

An Algerian court on Tuesday sentenced to jail four unemployed people on charges of "illegal gathering" after they held a protest last month to demand jobs, while 13 others were acquitted, their lawyer said.

The four, who were also accused of using force against police, were sentenced each to one month in prison, lawyer Naima Saci told Agence France Presse after the verdict was announced at a court in Laghouat, southern Algeria.

Chad has said its troops in northern Mali killed the one-eyed Islamist leader who masterminded an assault on an Algerian gas plant that left 37 foreign hostages dead in January.

The Chadian army, whose troops have been at the forefront of the hunt for Al-Qaida-linked fighters hiding in northern Mali, said Mokhtar Belmokhtar was killed during an operation in the Ifogha mountains on Saturday.

Algerian officers have found a weapon that belongs to a top al-Qaida operative reportedly killed in Mali and examined a body but are still unable to confirm it is his, a daily said on Saturday.

El Khabar's report comes a day after Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno said that Abdelhamid Abu Zeid was killed in deadly fighting between Chadian troops and Islamist fighters on February 22 in northern Mali.

People angry over the allocation of subsidized housing have clashed with police in a town east of the Algerian capital, leaving 52 people injured, an Agence France Presse correspondent said on Wednesday.

Rioters sacked the mayor's office in Bodj Bou Arreridj, 230 kilometers (145 miles) from the capital, and partly blocked a motorway, causing tailbacks.

The criminal court in Algiers on Sunday postponed the trial of 13 people, including French-Algerians, suspected of trafficking an unknown number of Algerian children.

The case involves the alleged kidnapping of Algerian children, who were taken to Saint Etienne in France and given up for adoption in return for money.

The Algerian army has beefed up its positions on the border with war-torn Mali to prevent incursions by armed Islamists fleeing north, an official in the southern town of Tamanrasset said on Monday.

"The army has been deployed on the border for a while, but reinforcements have been sent since the beginning of the war (in Mali). It's about preventing the infiltration of terrorist groups," Mohamed Baba Ali, a member of parliament in the garrison town told Agence France Presse.

Algeria's ruling National Liberation Front said on Friday it would extend its hunt for a new leader, a day after voting to oust its chief in the party's biggest internal crisis in a decade.

The FLN said it would continue its consultations beyond Saturday, when it was due to have elected a new leader, amid wrangling between various factions within the party.

The central committee of Algeria's ruling party relieved its chief Abdelaziz Belkhadem of his duties on Thursday, in the FLN's biggest internal crisis for a decade, an AFP journalist reported.

Members of the National Liberation Front held a vote of confidence, with 160 voting in favor of and 156 against the resignation of the secretary general, with seven spoiled ballot papers.

British Prime Minister David Cameron flew into the Libyan capital on Thursday for a previously unannounced visit, an Agence France Presse photographer in Tripoli reported.

Cameron, whose visit comes only a few days after Britain warned of threats to its embassy in Tripoli, arrived at Tripoli airport at 11:00 am (10:00 GMT), amid tight security.