Algeria's Ex-President Dies Of Cancer

Algiers (Antara Bali) - Algeria's former president Chadli Bendjedid died of cancer on Saturday, the official APS news agency reported.

APS quoted Bendjedid's family as saying that the ex-president passed away Saturday in Algiers at the age of 83 years old, according to the report.

Suffering from cancer, the former president was reportedly hospitalized in a military hospital in Ain-Naadja in Algiers earlier this week.

Elected as president in 1979, Bendjedid was forced to step down in January 1992, when the Algerian military canceled a legislative election result which let Islamists come to power.

Bendjedid was the third president of Algeria since the country' s independence in 1962 from France.(*/T007)