Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika pardoned 7,000...

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika pardoned 7,000 prisoners, excluding inmates serving sentences linked to "terrorism", to mark the anniversary of the revolution, a state newspaper said.
El Moudjahid reported that 115 inmates condemned to death had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment. It said inmates serving sentences linked to terrorism, murder, rape, drugs trafficking, money smuggling and corruption were excluded from the presidential pardon.
The word "terrorism" is used by the official media to refer to a bloody insurgency which has been led by Islamic rebels since 1992 in a bid to topple the army-backed government and establish a purist Islamic state. More than 100,000 people have died in the conflict according to official figures, while independent sources put the death toll at 150,000.
The North African country will celebrate on November 2 the 47th anniversary of the revolution that led the country to independence from France in 1962.