- Italy targets climate activists in 'anti-Gandhi' demo clampdown
- South Korean cult-horror series 'Hellbound' returns at BIFF
- Nepalis fear more floods as climate change melts glaciers
- Honduras arrests environmentalist's alleged murderer
- Padres pitcher Musgrove needs elbow surgery
- Supreme Court lets stand rules to curb mercury, methane emissions
- Boston beat Denver in NBA exhibition season opener, but Jokic says omens are good
- Chagos diaspora angry at lack of input on islands' fate
- Biden says 'not confident' of peaceful US election
- US trade chief defends tariff hikes when paired with investment
- Lukaku stars as Napoli beat Como to hold Serie A top spot
- Ohtani set for MLB playoff debut as Dodgers face Padres
- Pogba's drug ban cut to 18 months from four years
- Devine leads New Zealand to big win over India in Women's T20 World Cup
- Bosnia floods kill 16 people
- EU court blocks French ban on vegetable 'steak' labelling
- Prosecutors seek dismissal of rape charges against French rugby players
- Meta AI turns pictures into videos with sound
- Bolivia's Morales says claims he raped a minor are a 'lie'
- MLB Reds hire two-time champion Francona as manager
- Daniel Maldini receives first Italy call-up for Nations League
- US dockworkers return to ports after three-day strike
- Ancelotti points finger at Madrid's 'lack of intensity'
- Haiti reeling after 70 killed in gang attack
- Five Czech kids in hospital over TikTok 'piercing challenge'
- What happens next in Iran-Israel conflict?
- Country star Garth Brooks denies rape accusations
- Stubbs hits maiden century as South Africa make 343-4 against Ireland
- DR Congo to begin mpox vaccination campaign Saturday in east
- Odegaard injury has forced Arsenal to be 'different', says Arteta
- Ratcliffe refuses to guarantee Ten Hag's Man Utd future
- Meta must limit data use for targeted ads: EU court
- Mauritius to hold legislative election on November 10
- Britain qualify for America's Cup final after 60-year wait
- IMF asks Sri Lanka to protect hard-won gains
- Morata returns to Spain Nations League squad after injury
- Irish regulator to probe Ryanair use of facial recognition
- Public allowed to see video evidence in France mass rape trial
- US hiring soars past expectations in sign of resilient market
- Under-fire Ten Hag 'together' with Man Utd hierarchy
- Guardiola talks of Man City love affair as financial hearing rumbles on
- De Bruyne out of Belgium Nations League squad
- Japanese trainer Yahagi hopes Shin Emperor achieves 50-year-old Arc dream
- UK's Starmer hails 'landmark' carbon capture funding
- As EU targets Chinese cars, European rivals sputter
- Bosnia floods kill 14 people
- Tennis world number one Swiatek splits with coach Wiktorowski
- Liverpool share responsibility for Nunez goal drought, says Slot
- Top EU court finds against FIFA in key transfer market ruling
- Top seed Sabalenka stunned by Muchova in Beijing last eight
Independent Algeria turns 60, but colonial-era wounds remain
Algeria marks 60 years of independence from France on Tuesday, but rival narratives over atrocities committed during more than a century of colonial rule still trigger bitter diplomatic tensions.
The North African country won its independence following a gruelling eight-year war which ended with the signing in March 1962 of the Evian Accords.
On July 5 of the same year, days after 99.72 percent voted for independence in a referendum, Algeria finally broke free from colonial rule -- but memories of the 132-year occupation continue to mar its ties with France.
The country's authorities are planning to mark the anniversary with pomp and ceremony, capped by a vast military parade in Algiers, the first of its kind in 33 years.
A show is also planned at the capital's opera house that "retraces the long history of Algeria", said the minister for independence fighters, Laid Rebiga.
The government has even commissioned a logo -- a circle of 60 stars containing military figures and equipment -- to mark "a glorious history and a new era".
Algeria's war of independence left hundreds of thousands of dead and, despite a string of gestures by French President Emmanuel Macron, a crisis late last year underlined how spiky the issue remains six decades on.
Macron reportedly questioned whether Algeria had existed as a nation before the French invasion and accused its "political-military system" of rewriting history and fomenting "hatred towards France".
Algeria withdrew its ambassador in response.
"Relations between the power system in Algeria and 'official France' have been punctuated by crises and pseudo-reconciliations since independence," said Athmane Mazouz, head of Algeria's secularist opposition party RCD.
"At this point, all bets are off on whether they can establish better ties."
- 'Take heat out of debate' -
France has ruled out any form of apology for the colonial period. But Macron has also made a number of gestures aimed at mending ties with the former colony.
Visiting Algiers during his first presidential campaign in February 2017, he described colonisation as a "crime against humanity".
He has since acknowledged the French army was behind the death of Algerian nationalist lawyer Ali Boumendjel and anti-colonialist French mathematician Maurice Audin.
France has returned the skulls of 19th century Algerian resistance fighters and opened state archives on the Algerian war.
And the two sides appear to have moved on from the latest crisis. Macron and his Algerian counterpart Abdelmadjid Tebboune confirmed in a June 18 phone call their desire to "deepen" relations.
Tebboune even congratulated Macron on his "brilliant" re-election and invited him to visit Algeria.
Historian Amar Mohand-Amer said it was time for "a quick return to a normal situation".
"Sixty years after independence, isn't it time we took the heat out of this debate?"
- 'Unstable geopolitics' -
Mohand-Amer pointed out that the anniversary celebrations come at a time of raised tensions in the wider region around Algeria.
The country cut ties with regional arch-rival Morocco last August, accusing it of "hostile acts".
In early June, Algiers suspended a two-decade-old cooperation pact with Madrid after Spain backed Morocco's stance in the long-running dispute over Western Sahara.
To the east, in war-scarred Libya, the emergence of two rival governments has raised fears of a return to armed conflict after a two-year truce.
And to the south, Mali is in crisis after army officers, disgruntled at the government's failure to roll back a jihadist uprising, ousted president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in 2020.
"The very unstable regional geopolitics demand strong positions in the mid to long term and the consolidation of political and economic relations" between Algeria and France, Mohand-Amer said.
But the historian fears that Macron's move towards reconciliation could face a major test due to gains by extreme right leader Marine Le Pen's party the Rassemblement National in June elections.
Le Pen said in March that colonialism had "contributed to Algeria's development" and accused Macron of "spending his life apologising without asking anything in return from an Algerian government that continues to insult France".
Mohand-Amer warned that "the French far right will transform this mandate into a big battlefield of memories, where revisionism and the falsification of history will be omnipresent."
J.Pereira--PC