Algerian demonstraters staged anti-government protest, calling for rigime change.

Echoing Tunisians and Egyptians, some 2000 Algerians demonstrators forced a police cordon Saturday as pro-democracy campaigners staged an anti-government rally calling for regime change.

Ahead of the march called by the National Coordination for Change and Democracy (CNCD) AFP news agency reported there were scuffles with security forces and several arrests, witnesses said.

The entire area was encircled by hundreds of security forces in uniform and armored vehicles barred the way to marchers.
Authorities on Saturday were taking tough measures against the protest with nearly 30,000 police deployed in the capital along the proposed route of the march.

An AFP journalist saw two arrests, one of them of a deputy from the opposition Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD), Othmane Maazouz.
Other journalists reported seeing several other arrests.

The president of the RCD, Said Sadi told AFP by telephone that he was outraged that 90-year-old veteran human rights campaigner Ali Yahia Abdelnour had been manhandled by police.

The CNCD, an umbrella group of opposition parties, civil society movements and unofficial unions announced the march when it was set up only three weeks ago, emboldened by the mass protests in Tunisia and Egypt which brought down their longstanding autocratic rulers.