ALGIERS (Reuters) – Al Qaeda took hostage an Algerian regional governor near the Libyan border, security sources said on Tuesday, an incident that will raise new concerns about militants exploiting Libya’s security vacuum.

The kidnapping, deep in the Sahara desert, was the most audacious attack on a senior Algerian official in years. One security expert said al Qaeda has been emboldened because its fighters could use Libya, in turmoil since Muammar Gaddafi’s overthrow, as a safe haven.

ALGIERS (Reuters) – Al Qaeda’s north African branch is holding the governor of an Algerian desert region kidnapped near the border with Libya, security sources said on Tuesday.

The abduction of the governor, the most senior Algerian official to be kidnapped in years, will reinforce worries that the overthrow of Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi has created a zone of instability now being exploited by al Qaeda.

ALGIERS, Jan 4 (Reuters) – Algeria’s main opposition
parties have demanded that President Abdelaziz Bouteflika remove
the prime minister and appoint an interim cabinet of technocrats
to ensure a parliamentary election later this year is not
rigged.

Algeria is the only country in North Africa largely
untouched by the “Arab Spring” uprisings, but the election,
scheduled for May, could be a catalyst for a surge in
anti-government protests which would destabilise the oil and gas
exporter.

ALGIERS (Reuters) – Algeria’s leaders are out of touch with their people who are growing increasingly angry about unemployment, red tape and poor housing, said a senior official carrying out a presidential review of the country’s economic and social woes.

“Demands for radical changes are huge. People want to see a new way of governance,” Mohamed Seghir Babes told Reuters in an interview.

ALGIERS (Reuters) – Boosted by the success of peers in the region, a leading Algerian Islamist party plans to leave the ruling coalition before April’s parliamentary election to press for constitutional reforms to limit the powers of the president.

“We are for a parliamentary system, not a presidential system as is the case now, and we will campaign to change the constitution,” Bouguera Soltani, leader of the Islamist Movement for Society of Peace, told Reuters in an interview.

ALGIERS, Nov 17 (Reuters) – Algeria’s state energy
firm Sonatrach named its fourth chief executive in two years on
Thursday, bringing new disruption to a company that supplies a
large share of Europe’s gas but is struggling to get new
exploration projects off the ground.

Nourredine Cherouati, appointed chief executive just 18
months ago in the wake of a corruption scandal, was replaced by
Abdelhamid Zerguine, a one-time vice-president in the firm who
until now ran a Sonatrach affiliate in Switzerland.

ALGIERS, Nov 17 (Reuters) – The chief executive of
Algeria’s Sonatrach state energy firm, Nourredine Cherouati, was
replaced on Thursday after 18 months in the job.

Abdelhamid Zerguine, a former Sonatrach vice-president for
pipelines, was named as the new chief executive.

ALGIERS, Nov 17 (Reuters) – The chief executive of
Algeria’s Sonatrach state energy firm, Nourredine Cherouati, was
replaced on Thursday after 18 months in the job.

Abdelhamid Zerguine, a former Sonatrach vice-president for
pipelines, was named as the new chief executive.

ALGIERS (Reuters) – Intelligence reports show there is coordination between the Nigerian Islamist sect Boko Haram and the Algerian-based north African branch of al Qaeda, the Algerian deputy foreign minister said Sunday.

Boko Haram has killed dozens of people in Nigeria, and Western security experts say any link-up with al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) could make it a more potent threat, especially to Nigeria’s energy sector.