Algeria (AP):

Algeria's highest legal body has confirmed President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's landslide re-election victory and rejected 47 appeals by challengers who alleged mass fraud.

The chief of the Constitutional Council, Boualem Bessaih, said Bouteflika won 90.23 percent of the vote, according to Algerian newspaper reports yesterday. This was 0.01 percent less than what the Interior Ministry initially announced as Bouteflika's re-election score in the election last Thursday.

The council said turnout reached 74.56 percent, half a point more than what the ministry initially announced. Bouteflika, 72, was first elected in 1999 and then in 2004. He had the constitution changed last year to eliminate term limits so he could run again.