Algeria: Throats slit

The local media in Algeria say a group of suspected armed Islamic militants killed 15 people on Saturday night in a village in the west of the country.

The attackers are reported to have taken their victims -- including women and children -- from their homes and cut their throats.

Five other villagers were abducted.

No one has admitted responsibility for the attack.

The latest massacre brings the number of people killed in less than a week to at least ninety.

The violence which has engulfed Algeria since 1992 has claimed more than 65,000 lives after the authorities cancelled a general election which radical Islamists were poised to win.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service