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Flag of Algeria
Two equal vertical bands of green (hoist side) and white; a red,
five-pointed star within a red crescent centered over the two-color boundary;
the crescent, star, and color
green are traditional symbols of Islam (the state religion).
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After more than a century of rule by France,
Algerians fought through much of the 1950s to achieve independence in 1962.
Algeria's primary political party, the National Liberation Front (FLN),
has dominated politics ever since. Many Algerians in the subsequent generation
were not satisfied, however, and moved to counter the FLN's centrality in
Algerian politics. The surprising first round success of the Islamic
Salvation Front (FIS) in the December 1991 balloting spurred the Algerian army
to intervene and postpone the second round of elections to prevent what the
secular elite feared would be an extremist-led government from assuming power.
The army began a crack down on the FIS that spurred FIS supporters to
begin attacking government targets. The government later allowed elections
featuring pro-government and moderate religious-based parties, but did not appease
the activists who progressively widened their attacks. The fighting escalated
into an insurgency, which saw intense fighting between 1992-98 and which
resulted in over 100,000 deaths - many attributed to indiscriminate massacres
of villagers by extremists. The government gained the upper hand by
the late-1990s and FIS's armed wing, the Islamic Salvation Army, disbanded
in January 2000. However, small numbers of armed militants persist in
confronting government forces and conducting ambushes and occasional attacks
on villages. The army placed Abdelaziz BOUTEFLIKA in the presidency in 1999
in a fraudulent election but claimed neutrality in his 2004 landslide
reelection victory. Longstanding problems continue to face BOUTEFLIKA
in his second term, including the ethnic minority Berbers' ongoing autonomy
campaign, large-scale unemployment, a shortage of housing,
unreliable electrical and water supplies, government inefficiencies
and corruption, and the continuing - although significantly degraded -
activities of extremist militants. Algeria must also diversify its petroleum-based
economy, which has yielded a large cash reserve but which has not been
used to redress Algeria's many social and infrastructure problems.
- CIA World Factbook.
Algeria - Fotw
Flag, naval ensign, presidential flag.
www.fotw.us/flags/dz.html
Algeria - wikipedia.org
Northern Algeria is in the temperate zone and has a mild,
Mediterranean climate. It lies within approximately the same latitudes as southern
California and has somewhat similar climatic conditions.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algeria
Algeria - U.S. Department of State
Ninety-one percent of the Algerian population lives along the Mediterranean coast on 12% of the country's total land mass. Forty-five percent of the population is urban, and urbanization continues, despite government efforts to discourage migration to the cities. About 1.5 million nomads and semi-settled Bedouin still live in the Saharan area.
Nearly all Algerians are Muslim, of Arab, Berber, or mixed Arab-Berber stock. Official data on the number of non-Muslim residents is not available, however practitioners report it to be less than 5,000. Most of the non-Muslim community is comprised of Methodist, Roman Catholic and Evangelical faiths; the Jewish community is virtually non-existent. As of November 2005, there were about 1,100 American citizens in the country, the majority of whom live and work in the oil/gas fields in the south.
Algeria's educational system has grown dramatically since the country gained its independence. In the last 12 years, attendance has doubled to more than 5 million students. Education is free and compulsory to age 16. Despite government allocation of substantial educational resources, population pressures and a serious shortage of teachers have severely strained the system. Modest numbers of Algerian students study abroad, primarily in Europe and Canada. In 2000, the government launched a major review of the country's educational system and in 2004 efforts to reform the educational system began.
Housing and medicine continue to be pressing problems in Algeria. Failing infrastructure and the continued influx of people from rural to urban areas have overtaxed both systems. According to the United Nations Development Program, Algeria has one of the world's highest per housing unit occupancy rates, and government officials have publicly stated that the country has an immediate shortfall of 1.5 million housing units.
www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/8005.htm
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