Algeria to announce results of peace plan referendum

Algeria expected to announce referendum results today on a peace plan that provides amnesty for a broad spectrum of Islamic extremists, an effort to move past a brutal insurgency that President Abdelaziz Bouteflika says left 150,000 dead.

Critics of his Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation were legion, from opposition to human rights groups. But they predicted it would pass when the official results are announced – expected at a news conference by Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni.