French president pays tribute to Algerian activist in Algiers On the second and final day of his landmark visit, France's President Francois Hollande said in Algiers on Thursday that he recognised his country's century of "brutal" colonial rule over the Algerian people. After his speech in front of the Algerian parliament, he paid tribute to Algerian anti-colonial activist Maurice Audin, arrested and tortured in 1957 by French paratroopers, on the eponymous square in the center of the capital. Images and soundbites