First Independent Mena Newspaper
A military court in Blida, 45 km South-west of Algiers, has pressed death sentence against three members of the former powerful Security and Intelligence Directorate (DRS) for providing intelligence to foreign countries. Former President Abdelaziz Bouetflika had dismantled the DRS few years ago and put the institution’s powerful head, Mohamed Mediene, aka Toufik, on retirement. […]
After the Algerian Constitutional Council last week scrapped July 4 elections, Caretaker President Abdelkader Bensalah said he would lead the country until new Presidential elections are held. “This situation therefore forces me to continue playing the role of Head of the State till the election of a President of the Republic, and I am fully […]
The Algerian Constitutional Council Sunday cancelled the July 4 presidential election after canceling the two candidacies it received for the unpopular electoral process rejected by the majority of Algerians, angry at the remnant of the Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s regime. The council called on the interim President Abdelkader Bensalah to set a new date for the elections. […]
Algeria’s Minister of Energy Mohamed Arkab has announced that the final version of a new hydrocarbon law has been drafted and will be submitted to authorities for approval. OPEC member Algeria relies heavily on oil and gas, which account for 60 percent of the budget and 94 percent of its export revenue, despite promises to […]
What is the reason for the surprise resignation of the German Horst Köhler from his job as special envoy of the UN Secretary-General for the Sahara? For Algeria, which voiced its speculations through a Polisario media outlet, American pressures are behind Köhler’s abrupt exit. It is both normal and understandable that a 76 year-old, […]
After serving for just 25 months as Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for the Sahara, Horst Köhler quitted his UN job for “health reasons”. His resignation raises the possibility of three scenarios. After replacing US Christopher Ross in April 2017 as Personal Envoy of the UN SG for the Sahara, Horst Köhler, a former […]
Only two candidates have submitted their applications for the July 4 presidential elections that most likely would not take place as political forces shunned the process. The Constitutional Council Saturday announced that it received two candidacies for the July presidential elections to mark the end of the 90-day transition that followed the resignation of the […]
Two years after taking office, UN Special Envoy to the Sahara Horst Köhler submitted his resignation citing health reasons, a decision that analysts say could bring negotiations over the Sahara issue to square one. After years of stalemate, the former German president managed to bring the four parties Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania and the Polisario back […]
The Chief of the Algerian army has called on protesters and the opposition to accept the planned July 4 presidential elections, noting that the poll is the only way forward to avoid power vacuum after unpopular transition president’s 90 days come to an end. Algeria has been reeling from tumultuous political uncertainty since March after […]
The Algerian regime has tightened the screws on the movement of Sahrawis in Tindouf camps, by stripping them of Algerian passports which they use for traveling overseas. After they ordered the polisario to toughen the entry and exit measures for the Sahrawis living in the Tindouf camps, the Algerian authorities are now withdrawing Algerian passports, […]