Its regional rival Morocco has established itself as a centre for African culture, holding music festivals each year which attract tens of thousands of young people and often give top billing to African musicians Now Algeria wants to re-connect with its African heritage. Television journalist Ghania Bessai said it was worth the expense “Attending concerts where … (all these artists) were performing could happen once in your life It was a great festival,” she said. REGIONAL RIVAL Algeria has a political motive, too, in staging the festival: to use the power of cultural diplomacy to enhance its influence in Africa. The continent’s second-largest country by land area and one of its richest, Algeria often identifies itself more closely with Europe and the Middle East than with Africa.

The only previous time the Pan-African Festival has been staged was in Algiers 40 years ago. Many Algerians said the money spent on the festival this time would have been better used combating unemployment. “It is a waste of money,” said 25-year-old Mohamed Amraoui, one of the 70 percent of Algerians under 30 who are without work, according to unofficial estimates. Algiers has not suffered a serious attack since the bombing of U.N offices killed more than 40 people in December 2007. The festival organisers said they brought together about 8,000 artists from 48 countries, including acclaimed Senegalese musician Youssou N’Dour, reggae singer Alpha Blondy and Grammy-winning Cape Verdian singer Cesaria Evora. The fact that it has gone ahead at all shows the improvement in security in the capital, even if violence persists elsewhere.

Many of the rebels have laid down their arms but a hard core, now operating as al Qaeda’s North African wing, still mounts sporadic attacks on government targets. The insurgents carried out their deadliest attack in nearly a year last month, ambushing a police convoy and killing 18 paramilitary police officers and one civilian, officials said. About 22,000 additional police have been deployed to thwart attacks during the festival. IMPROVED SECURITY Throughout the 1990s, Algeria was the battleground for a conflict between Islamist rebels and government forces in which 200,000 people were killed, according to estimates from non-governmental organisations. “Conflicts and wars are behind us, let’s focus on the future.” However, for some people in conservative and Muslim Algeria the hedonism has gone too far.

One newspaper said a performance by scantily-clad female dancers from sub-Saharan African was “obscene” and asked why censors did not intervene. Most nights, the streets of Algiers are almost deserted except for armed police manning checkpoints. After nearly two decades of bombings and ambushes, the violence has subsided enough for Algerians to embrace an unfamiliar concept: having fun. For two weeks, this former colonial city has been hosting a festival of African dance, theatre, music and art designed to let the world know normal life is slowly returning to Algeria, and to allow people to let their hair down. “Algeria needs to have some fun after a decade of blood and tears,” Zouaoui Benamadi, communication chief for the Pan-African Cultural Festival, told Reuters. This is a scene seldom witnessed in a city scarred by years of conflict between the government and Islamist insurgents. * Two-week African festival showcases 8,000 artists * Event illustrates improvement in security * Some say cash would be better used fighting unemployment By Lamine Chikhi ALGIERS, July 21 (Reuters) – It’s Sunday night in downtown Algiers and thousands of young people swarm the streets, cheering and dancing to the beat coming from a makeshift stage.

But I don’t think there is a huge difference between the LDP and the Democratic Party,” said 48-year-old businessman Tamio Harakawa.The LDP has made clear that it will target Hatoyama’s funding affair while attacking the Democrats, an amalgam of former LDP members, ex-socialists and younger conservatives, as weak on security policy and irresponsible on finances.Yosano accused the opposition of being over-confident. “The Democrats seem to be already toasting with champagne and wine as if they were on the eve of a victory,” he told reporters.(Additional reporting by Elaine Lies, Isabel Reynolds, Yumi Otagaki, Hideyuki Sano; Writing by Linda Sieg; Editing by Jeremy Laurence) World Japan. IBM’s India Research Labs do a “fair share of patenting”,helping swell the parent’s record numbers every year, saiddirector Guruduth Banavar in Bangalore. Its new $100 million-mobile communications research, MobileWeb, is the first time a big project has been driven fromoutside the United States, he said. “For a research lab it’s the best environment to be in: youcan see the problems and the opportunities,” said Banavar, whowas previously at IBM’s lab in Boston and has, like several ofhis peers, returned to India to oversee operations here. Stocks China Russia.