Algerians vote on peace plan

Algerians voted yesterday on a peace plan the government says will help the country move on from a brutal Islamic insurgency that left an estimated 150,000 dead, but which critics charge will whitewash past crimes.

More than 18 million voters were called to polling stations in the oil- and gas-rich North African country, which stretches from the Mediterranean coast to the sandy wastes of the Sahara Desert and is a US ally in the war on terror.