Abdelaziz Djerad, 65, served in the administration of a previous president in the 1990s, but was sidelined by president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who was ousted in April after two decades as head of state.

The incident took place outside a Paris subway station during a rally against outgoing Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika on Sunday, media reports said.

Montrealers gathered at the Algerian consulate downtown to call attention to the imprisonment of Algerian journalist and fixer, Said Chitour.

On both sides of the Atlantic, migrants flooding across borders by the hundreds each day have met a hostile reception and governments unable to agree on how to cope with the arrivals.

Algeria has abandoned more than 13,000 migrants in the Sahara desert in the past 14 months, including pregnant women and children, forcing them to walk to the next country.

At least 257 people were killed when a military plane carrying soldiers crashed soon after takeoff in a farm field in northern Algeria on Wednesday, officials said.

The photographer said the rare weather event didn't last very long, melting after a few hours.

Bore pipes manufactured in Norway bound for a project in Algeria broke free due to an undertow and washed up on the English coast.

A lawyer says an Algerian journalist on a hunger strike to protest a two-year sentence for offending President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has died in hospital.

Oil prices rose more than 2 per cent in volatile trade on Wednesday.