Algerian troops killed eight Islamists militants in the Kabylie region, where al-Qaida-linked groups remain active, the official APS agency reported Wednesday, updating an earlier toll of six.

The al-Qaida-inspired gunman who killed seven people in France was a gifted student who had a difficult childhood and showed signs of a violent streak, according to details of a police probe quoted Tuesday in Le Monde.

Mohamed Merah was shot dead by police on March 22 at the end of a 32-hour siege at his flat in the southern French city of Toulouse.

A court in Algiers on Monday sentenced an Algerian psychologist and expert in anti-terrorism to 20 years' jail in absentia on conviction of spying after a stay in Iraq.

Noureddine Benziane had already been sentenced to four years on the same charge on February 1, 2009, and spent two years in prison after already being held for two years in preventive detention.

Algeria's May 10 elections were neither credible nor transparent, a multi-party national monitoring commission said Saturday.

"The polls of May 10, 2012 were marred by numerous excesses and breaches from the beginning of the operation to the end, which have tarnished its probity and transparence," said the conclusion of the report read out by Mohamed Seddiki, president of the National Elections Monitoring Commission.

Islamist lawmakers disrupted the first session of Algeria's new parliament Saturday, waving placards condemning alleged fraud in this month's elections before walking out of the chamber.

The 49 members of the three-party Green Algeria Alliance (AVV), a moderate Islamist coalition, staged their protest immediately after the roll-call of newly-elected deputies.

A gas blast at a university canteen in Algeria killed seven students and left 28 others injured, the APS news agency reported.

The students were eating dinner in Tlemcen, 520 kilometers (320 miles) southwest of the capital Algiers when the explosion occurred.

Mourning Algerians paid tribute Saturday to Arab singing legend Warda, whose body was returned to her homeland after she died of a heart attack in Egypt two days earlier.

Known throughout the Arab world as Warda al-Jazairia (Warda the Algerian), or simply as the "Algerian Rose", the singer won a passionate following in the north African nation and across the Arab world after she started singing Algerian independence songs as a young girl.

An Algerian Islamist leader said Sunday that a Tunisian-style revolt was the only option after polls he charged were fraudulent and threatened a mass pullout of smaller parties from parliament.

"These results closed the door on change by the ballot box, and the Tunisian option is all that's left for those who believe in change," Abdallah Djaballah, who heads the Front for Justice and Development, told Agence France Presse.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has hailed Algeria's elections, despite widespread suspicion over results that saw the regime tighten its grip on power, bucking the Arab Spring trend of change.

Official results from Thursday's legislative election showed a higher-than-expected turnout of 42 percent, with the party that has ruled Algeria since independence 50 years ago winning comfortably and Islamists losing ground.

Algeria's polls were a step towards reform, European Union observers said Saturday, listing a number of shortcomings in the process but stopping short of challenging its overall credibility.

Official results for Thursday's legislative election yielded a higher than expected turnout of 42 percent and tightened the ruling party's grip on power, bucking the Arab Spring of regime change and Islamist breakthroughs.