Reporters Without Borders is outraged at the two-month prison sentences imposed on two "El Watan" journalists in a libel case on 27 May 2007 and said it was concerned about the verdict that is due to be issued by an Algiers criminal court on 30 May in the case of Arezki Aït-Larbi, the correspondent of several international news media.

Magharebia reports that Algeria has created a multinational company called the Oil Spill Response Company, with the mission of combating marine pollution caused by hydrocarbons. The Algerian-registered company plans to cover more than 20,000 km of coastline ranging from the Suez Canal in Egypt to Cabinda Bay, Angola.

The curtain has come down on a two-week election campaign in Algeria, during which candidates in the country’s upcoming legislative elections announced their programmes and attempted to win over voters.

Algeria has been ranked as the first supplier of gas to Italy in 2006, according to official figures. The company says 33 per cent of the European country’s gas needs were derived from Algeria. This shows an increase of 3.5 per cent over the 2005 figures. As a major market for Algerian natural gas export, Italy imports 27 billion cubic metres per year from the country.

Magharebia News reports that with less than a month remaining until legislative elections for Algeria's new lower chamber of parliament, excitement is growing within the nation's political parties. Under the seasoned leadership of Said Bouchair, the political election monitoring committee officially opened on 19 April, and the country's electoral machinery has now been set in motion.

Political activists gathered in Algiers to discuss women in the workplace, to identify the issues they face and develop responses and solutions to improve their status and overall integration into the nation's workforce.

Magharebia News reports that days after the suicide bombings which targeted symbols of authority – the Government Palace and a police station in an eastern Algiers suburb – concerned members of the public still wonder about the reasons behind the upsurge in violence which rings of the instability of the 1990s.

Algerian authorities have confirmed that the dead toll of the Wednesday’s bomb blasts has risen to 33. With al-Qaeda’s purported claims of being responsible for the catastrophe, most Algerians have since been running cold with fears, especially at a time the terrorist network is said to be quickly spreading its tentacles in the North Africa region.

Candidate lists for Algeria's May 17th parliamentary elections were due at midnight on April 1st. According to Magharebia news, many political parties included women in their lists but the country's conservative tendencies will likely preclude women from being elected.

On 21 March 2007, the prosecutor at the Algiers appeal court called for a one-year prison sentence and a 500,000 dinar (approx. 5,300 euros) fine against the two journalists along with a one-year ban on the newspaper. The libel suit against the two journalists was taken out in the name of the Libyan leader at the start of October 2006 by the Libyan representative in Algiers.

Al-Jazeera reports that an Algerian court has sentenced several former banking executives to jail after finding them guilty of corruption following the collapse of the country's largest private bank.

A new government bill barring imams from engaging in politics has triggered controversy in Algeria as the country prepares for parliamentary elections. In a statement Tuesday (March 13th) to Algerian daily El Khabar, Algerian Minister of Religious Affairs Bouabdallah Ghlamallah stated that "those who wish to be involved in politics have only to give up their calling as imams and leave the mosque, since the latter is built for prayers, not the practice of politics."

Algeria's irrigation system in the Saharan regions of Touat and Gourara has stood firm for centuries and bears witness to the numerous civilisations which have inhabited the region's oases. However, the effects of modernisation have compounded the problems of desertification in the "triangle of fire" and this regional heritage is now threatened with extinction.

Algeria has a law designed to defend women from being made homeless by divorce; a prospect heightened by a severe housing shortage. Advocates, however, say the law is not enforced and women are still winding up in the streets.

In May, Algeria will inaugurate a reserve around a small oasis in the south-west where plants and animals are to be protected in the service of a broader goal. Hopes are that the Taghit National Park will help stop the advance of the Sahara Desert, which already stretches across almost all of this North African country (IPS news).

Human Rights Watch is urging Algerian authorities should drop politically motivated charges against two human rights lawyers. Amine Sidhoum and Hassiba Boumerdassi have been on trial since August on charges of handing unauthorized documents to their clients in prison. They face up to five years in prison if convicted.

Thanks to an ambitious organising campaign by women throughout the country, women’s participation is on the increase in unions. This is the first report on a very promising campaign.

Two hundred kilometres. A long distance to some, perhaps, but in the context of desertification in Algeria, alarmingly short. Going in to 2007, the Sahara will have advanced to within 200 kilometres of the Mediterranean coastline of this North African state.

The over hundred thousand refugees from Western Sahara living in Algerian camps are to hold municipal and national elections, starting on Wednesday (22November 2006). Voters will be able to choose between different Polisario candidates to bodies of the exiled state of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, which is a member of the African Union.

The Executive Director of WFP, James Morris, has called on the international community not to forget the plight of the Sahrawi refugees in Algeria, tens of thousands of whom are still entirely dependent on external assistance to survive, some three decades after fleeing a territorial dispute.