Punishment threat over Berber unrest

The Algerian President, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, has promised that anyone found to be behind the current unrest among ethnic Berbers will be severely punished.

He said an independent commission would publish a report on the unrest so that all legal measures could be taken against those who, as he put it, ignited the fire of sedition and kindled the ember of division.

There were more violent clashes on Saturday between ethnic Berbers demanding recognition of their cultural rights and paramilitary police in towns in the Kabylie region of north-eastern Algeria

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service