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Renovate the Casbah: Efforts Speed Up to Restore Historic Algiers District

A UNESCO-listed rabbit warren of 16th century battlements and Ottoman palaces, the Casbah of the Algerian capital has been falling into disrepair RYAD KRAMDI AFP
A UNESCO-listed rabbit warren of 16th century battlements and Ottoman palaces, the Casbah of the Algerian capital has been falling into disrepair RYAD KRAMDI AFP
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Renovate the Casbah: Efforts Speed Up to Restore Historic Algiers District

A UNESCO-listed rabbit warren of 16th century battlements and Ottoman palaces, the Casbah of the Algerian capital has been falling into disrepair RYAD KRAMDI AFP
A UNESCO-listed rabbit warren of 16th century battlements and Ottoman palaces, the Casbah of the Algerian capital has been falling into disrepair RYAD KRAMDI AFP

A UNESCO-listed rabbit warren of 16th-century battlements and Ottoman palaces, the Casbah of the Algerian capital is falling into disrepair, but efforts to save it have been accelerating.

The densely populated district, about a kilometer (just under a mile) across, perches above the Bay of Algiers and has been the site of key moments in the North African country's history.

Some buildings weakened by earthquakes, floods or fires are still propped up with scaffolding, but a plan launched in 2012 is seeking to rehabilitate the area.

Work to restore the Casbah had first started right after Algeria's independence from France in 1962.

That was some six years after a battle between French colonial forces and the urban guerrillas of the National Liberation Front (FLN), later immortalized in Gillo Pontecorvo's 1966 film "The Battle of Algiers", shot on location in the Casbah.

Efforts to restore the buildings involved "several plans and several stakeholders", said Aissa Mesri of Archimed, a firm working on studies of the Casbah and monitoring the work.

"Restoration operations were started and then halted for financial, technical or legal reasons related to ownership," he added, lamenting the lack of a "clear vision" for a "Casbah project".

The 2012 plan was adopted with a budget of 170 million euros (now $170 million).

The project aims to restore the Casbah's "authentic face", protect it in the long term and keep at least some of its residents in their homes.

The state-run project has already restored a number of prominent buildings, including part of the citadel, which includes the Dey's palace, mosque and ammunition store, partially open to visitors since November 2020.

The mosque has been decorated with earthenware, marble and Arabic screen printing.

A cluster of four houses that once served as a refuge for key independence war figures, including militant Djamila Bouhired, a heroine of the Battle of Algiers, has been renovated.

The Ketchaoua mosque, closed since 2008 after being seriously damaged by a powerful earthquake five years earlier, has also been restored.

The Ottoman-era mosque was reopened in April 2018 after 37 months of works, funded entirely by the Turkish government.

Before the start of the restoration plan, Algerian authorities had launched emergency work to "consolidate buildings that were in danger of collapsing", said Mehdi Ali Pacha, head of an architectural firm specializing in heritage work.

"The shoring up of more than 300 buildings was carried out in 2008 and 2013," added the architect, whose agency has conducted studies on the restoration.

Restoration work on the many small traditional houses in the Casbah is sometimes hindered by residents who refuse to grant access to architects or work crews.

"The residents remain a problem. There are some small old houses that have been emptied and walled up by the town hall.

"There, there is no problem, we can work.

"When the houses are inhabited, the study is done as best as possible with difficulties of access," bemoaned Ali Pacha.

In late 2018, the rehabilitation of the Casbah was at the heart of a controversy, both in France and Algeria, after Algerian authorities decided to entrust a development plan to French architect Jean Nouvel.

Some 400 people, mainly architects, planners and academics, asked Nouvel to withdraw from the project.

The petitioners were concerned that a French architect could propose transformations of a major site of the Battle of Algiers.

The venture was eventually abandoned.

Currently, seven restoration projects of historical buildings are underway, according to Fatima Larbi, architect at the Algiers public works department, quoted by the official news agency APS.

"The aim is to revive the Casbah and enhance it," said Ali Pacha.

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Varieties

Nepal Halts Search after Guide Killed, Iranian Climber Missing

A tourist looks at a view of Mt. Everest from the hills of Syangboche in Nepal December 3, 2009. REUTERS/Gopal Chitrakar
A tourist looks at a view of Mt. Everest from the hills of Syangboche in Nepal December 3, 2009. REUTERS/Gopal Chitrakar
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Nepal Halts Search after Guide Killed, Iranian Climber Missing

A tourist looks at a view of Mt. Everest from the hills of Syangboche in Nepal December 3, 2009. REUTERS/Gopal Chitrakar
A tourist looks at a view of Mt. Everest from the hills of Syangboche in Nepal December 3, 2009. REUTERS/Gopal Chitrakar

Bad weather forced Nepali rescuers to suspend the search Monday for an Iranian climber missing for four days after an accident which killed a Nepali team member, expedition organizers said.

Extreme conditions, including fierce winds, made rescue efforts impossible on the 8,481-meter (27,825-feet) high Mount Makalu, the world's fifth highest mountain.

Iranian climber Abolfazl Gozali, 42, and Nepali guide Phurba Ongel Sherpa, 44, were part of a rare winter expedition on the peak.

The four-member team successfully summited on Thursday, but during the descent the guide fell to his death.

Team lead Sanu Sherpa, who has climbed all 14 highest peaks in the world at least twice, and Lakpa Rinji Sherpa went to his aid but found that he had fallen hundreds of meters and did not survive.

When they returned to where they had left Gozali, he was no longer there.

"A team of eight experienced climbers have been sent but the wind has been very strong and affected the search," Madan Lamsal of expedition organizer Makalu Adventure told AFP.

"We hope to resume soon."

Lamsal said the rescuers intend to find Gozali, as well as recover the guide's body.

Phurba Ongel Sherpa was a highly experienced mountaineering guide with multiple summits of Everest and other major peaks.

Gozali is also an accomplished climber, who has climbed two of world's highest peaks and completed the "snow-leopard peaks" -- the five mountains of over 7,000 meters between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.

This was his second attempt to summit Makalu in winter. Last year, freezing temperatures and high winds forced the team to turn back, just 800 meters short of the summit.

Nepal is home to eight of the world's 10 highest peaks, including Mount Everest, and welcomes hundreds of climbers every year during the spring and autumn climbing seasons.

Dangerous terrain and extreme weather can make winter expeditions particularly risky.

Varieties

Shark Mauls Surfer in Sydney, 3rd Attack in Two Days

People stand next to warning signs in place, and beaches are closed after a surfer suffered a shark attack at Dee Why Beach in Sydney, Australia, January 19, 2026. REUTERS/Jeremy Piper
People stand next to warning signs in place, and beaches are closed after a surfer suffered a shark attack at Dee Why Beach in Sydney, Australia, January 19, 2026. REUTERS/Jeremy Piper
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Shark Mauls Surfer in Sydney, 3rd Attack in Two Days

People stand next to warning signs in place, and beaches are closed after a surfer suffered a shark attack at Dee Why Beach in Sydney, Australia, January 19, 2026. REUTERS/Jeremy Piper
People stand next to warning signs in place, and beaches are closed after a surfer suffered a shark attack at Dee Why Beach in Sydney, Australia, January 19, 2026. REUTERS/Jeremy Piper

A shark mauled a surfer off an ocean beach in Sydney on Monday in the Australian city's third shark attack in two days, authorities said.

The surfer, believed to be in his 20s, was in a critical condition in hospital with serious leg injuries after the attack at a northern Sydney beach, police said.

"The man was pulled from the water by members of the public who commenced first aid before the arrival of emergency services," New South Wales state police said in a statement.

All of Sydney's northern beaches were closed until further notice.

The attack at North Steyne Beach in the suburb of Manly came hours after a shark bit a large chunk out of a young surfer's board about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) north along the coast at Dee Why Point.

That surfer, reportedly a boy aged about 11, was uninjured but the beach was closed immediately, AFP reported.

On Sunday, a large shark bit a 12-year-old boy in the legs as he played with friends at a beach in Sydney harbor, leaving him fighting for survival in hospital.

The boy and his friends were jumping from a six-meter (20-foot) rock into the water off Shark Beach in the eastern suburb of Vaucluse when the predator struck, police said.

"It was a horrendous scene at the time when police attended. We believe it was something like a bull shark that attacked the lower limbs of that boy," said Superintendent Joseph McNulty, New South Wales marine area police commander.

"That boy is fighting for his life now," he told reporters on Monday.

Recent heavy rain had drained into the harbor, and authorities believed the combination of the brackish seawater and the children's splashing created a "perfect storm" for a shark attack, McNulty said.

He warned people not to go swimming in the harbor or other river systems in New South Wales because of the risks.

He praised the boy's "brave" young friends for pulling him out of the water on Sunday.

Officers put the unconscious child in a police boat and gave him first aid, applying two tourniquets to stem the bleeding from his legs, McNulty said.

They tried to resuscitate the boy as they sped across the harbor to a wharf where ambulance paramedics were waiting.

The child, confirmed by police to be 12 years old, was in intensive care at Sydney Children's Hospital surrounded by family and friends, McNulty said.

Varieties

China’s Population Falls Again as Births Drop to Lowest Rate Since 1949 Communist Revolution

Women push baby strollers as they walk along a street in Beijing on January 4, 2026. (AFP)
Women push baby strollers as they walk along a street in Beijing on January 4, 2026. (AFP)
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China’s Population Falls Again as Births Drop to Lowest Rate Since 1949 Communist Revolution

Women push baby strollers as they walk along a street in Beijing on January 4, 2026. (AFP)
Women push baby strollers as they walk along a street in Beijing on January 4, 2026. (AFP)

How do you persuade a population to have more babies after generations of limiting families to just one?

A decade after ending China's longtime one-child policy, authorities are pushing a range of ideas and policies to try and encourage more births — tactics that range from cash subsidies to taxing condoms to eliminating a tax on matchmakers and day care centers.

The efforts haven't paid off yet. At least, that's what population figures released Monday show for what is now the world's second-most populous nation. China's population of 1.4 billion continued to shrink, marking the fourth straight year of decrease, new government statistics show. The total population in 2025 stood at 1.404 billion, which was 3 million less than the previous year.

Measured another way, the birth rate in 2025 is the lowest on record since 1949, the year that Mao Zedong’s Communists overthrew the Nationalists and began running China. Figures before that, under the previous Nationalist government, were not available. The rate of 5.63% is the number of births per 1,000 people.

China was long the world’s most populous nation until 2023, when it was surpassed by regional neighbor and sometime rival India. Monday's statistics illustrate the stark demographic pressures faced by the country as it tries to pivot from a problem it is working hard to overcome: status as a nation with a growing but transitional economy that, as is often said, is “getting old before it gets rich.”

Is a snake involved? The number of new babies born was just 7.92 million in 2025, a decline of 1.62 million, or 17%. The latest birth numbers show that the slight tick upwards in 2024 was not a lasting trend. Births declined for seven years in a row through 2023.

Most families cite the costs and pressure of raising a child in a highly competitive society as significant hurdles that now loom larger in the face of an economic downturn that has impacted households struggling to meet their living costs. Another potential factor in the numbers: last year in China was the year of the snake, considered one of the least favored years for having a child under the Chinese zodiac.

Like many other countries in Asia, China has faced a declining fertility rate, or the average number of babies a woman is expected to have in her lifetime. While the government does not regularly publish a fertility rate, last saying it was 1.3 in 2020, experts have estimated it is now around 1. Both figures are far below the 2.1 rate that would maintain the size of China's population.

For decades, the Chinese government barred people from having more than one baby and often sanctioned those who did — a policy that produced more than two generations of only children. In 2015, the government raised the permitted amount of offspring to two and then, facing demographic pressure, further revised the limit to three kids in 2021.

The push for more births is about the economy. China now has 323 million people over 60, or 23% of the entire population. That number has continued to rise, while the working-age population is shrinking, meaning there are fewer workers to support the older population.

This demographic shift is happening while China is in the process of trying to transition away from labor-intensive industries like farming and manufacturing into a consumer-driven economy built with high-tech manufacturing. The difficulty is in trying to get richer as a country, while this population shift likely means a slowing economy.

Officials have had limited success with policy changes to incentivize families to have more children. In July, the government announced cash subsidies of 3,600 yuan ($500) per child to families.