ALGIERS/BEIRUT (Reuters) – Forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi eased their attacks on rebel-held Misrata on Saturday after Western coalition planes appeared in the skies and hit some of their positions, rebels said.

French warplanes destroyed five Libyan military planes and two helicopters at Misrata air base in the past 24 hours, France’s armed forces said. Spokesman Thierry Burkhard said all seven Libyan aircraft were destroyed as they were preparing to carry out attacks in the area.

ALGIERS/BEIRUT (Reuters) – Forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi eased their attacks on rebel-held Misrata on Saturday as planes belonging to the Western coalition appeared in the skies above the city, a rebel said.

“The shelling has stopped and now the war planes of allies are above the sky of Misrata. The shelling stopped when the planes appeared in the sky. It seems this is their strategy,” the rebel, Saadoun, told Reuters by phone.

ALGIERS/BEIRUT, March 26 (Reuters) – Forces loyal to Libyan
leader Muammar Gaddafi launched attacks on rebel-held Misrata
from the west and the east on Saturday, shelling the city’s port
with mortars and artillery, a rebel told Reuters.

Misrata is the only big rebel stronghold left in the west of
Libya and it is cut off from the main rebel force fighting
Gaddafi’s troops in the east of the country. It has been
encircled and under bombardment for weeks.

ALGIERS/BEIRUT, March 26 (Reuters) – Forces loyal to Libyan
leader Muammar Gaddafi eased their bombardment of the rebel-held
city of Misrata on Saturday after Western air strikes hit some
of their positions, a rebel spokesman said.

But a resident said pro-Gaddafi snipers were still shooting
at people from rooftops in the centre of the town and that the
death toll during the past week had reached 115 people,
including several children.

ALGIERS (Reuters) – When thousands of young Algerians rioted earlier this year over price rises and living conditions, the government asked state-employed Muslim clerics to preach sermons in the mosques appealing for calm.

Now, two months later, the clerics themselves are protesting.

“We are very angry, and our daily living conditions are bad,” said Hajaj El Hadj, an imam at a mosque near the capital for over 20 years. “We demand a significant pay rise.”

ALGIERS (Reuters) – Ahmed Gotari, a 28-year-old unemployed man from the Algerian capital, has grown accustomed over the years to being treated dismissively when he calls on local officials to ask for a job.

So when he went this week to the district mayor’s office, he was shocked at his reception: the mayor received him personally, welcomed him to his office and told him he would help.

ALGIERS (Reuters) – About 50 protesters attended a banned rally in the Algerian capital on Saturday, a drop in numbers indicating that opposition hopes of emulating popular uprisings elsewhere in the Arab world were fading.

The protest in Martyrs Square in the center of the city was the third in three weeks and on each occasion the numbers attending have fallen — while thousands of police in riot gear have lined the streets.

ALGIERS (Reuters) – Algeria’s cabinet on Tuesday adopted an order to lift a 19-year-old state of emergency in a concession designed to dodge the tide of uprisings sweeping the Arab world, but protesters said it was not enough.

The government also approved a package of measures aimed at reducing unemployment, which is one of the biggest grievances of ordinary people in Algeria.