ALGIERS, Algeria, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- The state of emergency in Algeria will be lifted soon, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika said in response to anti-government protesters.
Bouteflika's announcement Thursday did not include a timetable for repealing emergency laws, which he said were imposed in 1992 "for the only purposes of the fight against terrorism, and it is this reason only which has justified maintaining it on a legal basis," the BBC reported.