SIX people died in a massive protest against the government of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika on June 14, according to a new official toll. A previous official toll had put the number of casualties at four dead and 946 injured. The protest was the biggest seen in the north African country since it declared independence from France in 1962. Demonstrators hurled stones at police, ransacked and torched public buildings and smashed shop windows in several parts of the city in a protest drawing hundreds of thousands of people. The protesters shouted slogans accusing the government of abuse of power and using strong-arm tactics in northeastern Kabylie, where dozens of ethnic Berbers were killed in a police crackdown on riots in April and May, prompting repeated calls for the paramilitary police to leave the region. – AFP