Former president of Algeria dies
BY Wire Reports
Sunday, October 07, 2012
10/07/12 at 4:53 AM
ALGIERS, Algeria - Former Algerian President Chadli Bendjedid, who gave the country a multiparty political system before he was overthrown in a 1992 military coup, died Saturday at a military hospital, the state news agency said. He was 83.
Bendjedid, who became president in 1979, presided over a series of political reforms that allowed for competitive elections.
But when an Islamist party swept the first round of parliamentary elections, Algeria's powerful generals stepped in, ousted Benjedid and canceled the elections in 1992. This led to a decade-long civil war, which tore the country apart and killed at least 200,000.
Former foreign minister of Zimbabwe dies at 71
HARARE, Zimbabwe - State radio says Zimbabwe's former foreign minister Stan Mudenge has died. He was 71.
The radio Friday reported Mudenge collapsed before giving a speech at a meeting of academics in the southern town of Masvingo.
A loyalist of President Robert Mugabe's party, he was the foreign minister for a decade after serving as the country's chief diplomat at the United Nations for five years.
Original Print Headline: Former Algerian president dies
