Algerian students scuffle with riot police officers near the Ministry of Higher Education in Algiers on Feb. 21. The students want the government to scrap a new law that dilutes the value of their diplomas by giving equal status to less-qualified degree holders in the job market. Monday's protest follows scattered strikes and protests in recent weeks in defiance of a ban on public gatherings in Algiers dating to a bloody Islamic insurgency in the 1990s.