Death for Algerian militants

ALGIERS - An Algerian court sentenced 37 Muslim militants to death for crimes including the murder of 21 people, Reuter reports.

Thirty of the accused were sentenced in absentia. The Algiers special court also sentenced 63 other defendants in the same trial to prison terms ranging from three years to life. The official news agency APS said the fundamentalists were members of an armed organisation in the desert town of Laghouat. At least 357 fundamentalists have been sentenced to death in Algeria since a state of emergency was imposed in February 1992, and 26 have been executed.