French to mark March 19 as Remembrance Day

Paris: France has set March 19 as the annual date of remembrance for victims of the 1954-62 Algerian war, in a diplomatic gesture to Algeria before a visit by President Francois Hollande next month. The Senate upper house of parliament approved the date in a vote that ended years of disagreement over when to mark the conflict that ended more than a century of French colonial rule in Algeria and left deep scars on both sides. The Senate voted the move by 181 votes to 155 in favour of a bill on November 8 to remember hundreds of thousands of dead on both sides in Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco.