A quote from the press agency AnsaMed, 21 May 2008

For the first time in Algeria a trial against an Algerian woman converted to Christianity was launched yesterday in Tiaret (400 km west of Algiers). The woman was accused of having “practised a non-Muslim prayer without authorisation”. In fact, the girl was not arrested while praying, but on a bus and because of some gospels that she had with her. […] According to the daily [El Watan], Habiba, under 30 and converted to Christianity for four years, would not renounce her religion just to avoid the court. […] “Did they make you drink from the water which will carry you straight to paradise?”, the judge in court asked yesterday.

Habiba was arrested on a bus heading to Oran. The police discovered in her backpack twelve religious books. The girl defended herself saying that these were personal texts and were not intended for other people. The Religious Affairs Ministry instituted a civil action and the prosecutor demanded yesterday a three-year prison sentence. The sentence will be pronounced on Tuesday. Together with the woman, another six members of Tiaret’s Christian community accused of proselytism will stand trial.

 
A quote from the press agency AnsaMed, 17 May 2008

Creation of a north-south co-presidency and a permanent secretariat as well as the definition of a “short-list” of priority projects of great interest for the entire region are among the main proposals of the European Commission to shape the “Union for the Mediterranean” project, to be launched at the Euro-Mediterranean summit in Paris on July 13.

 
A quote from the press agency AnsaMed, 20 May 2008

According to the proposal presented today by European External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the [Mediterranean] Union will be co-chaired between July and December by France (in its capacity of EU rotating president), together with a country of the southern coast to be picked during the Paris summit on July 13 which will officially launch the new institution. The race to seize the co-presidency has already started, with Algeria threatening not to attend the Paris summit if it does not play a leading role […]

[French President] Sarkozy wanted to lead a Union of the Mediterranean Countries (following the model of the EU) but the other member states granted him only the patent on the idea and the first, symbolic, presidency. Now the ball is in the court of South Mediterranean countries, […] Algeria is sceptical because it sees too much European interest in the need to create the Union. However, it is easy to foresee that all discontent will end with a division of the posts that would satisfy everyone.