Tunisia Unrest

Food shortages are worsening in Tunisia with empty shelves in supermarkets and bakeries, adding to popular discontent at high prices and risking unrest as the government tries to stave off a crisis in public finances.

The brutal war in Syria could grind on for a decade as Iran and Russia prop up President Bashar al-Assad's regime and jihadist groups flood the battlefield, experts warned Thursday.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan flew back today to a Turkey rocked by days of anti-government unrest and declared before a sea of flag-waving supporters at Istanbul airport: "These protests must end immediately."

The following opinion piece was authored by the recently ousted president of Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed. The Dregs of Dictatorship: Dictatorships don't always die when the dictator leaves office. The wave of revolutions that toppled autocrats in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen last year was certainly cause for hope. But the people of those countri...

Tunisia's interim president chose a former government minister as a new prime minister on Sunday, appealing for a return to calm following new violent protests that have been hobbling this North African country since the ouster of its long-time autocratic leader.Beji Caid-Essebsi will replace Mohammed Ghannouchi, who resigned earlier Sunday after b...

Tunisia's embattled Prime Minister said on Sunday that he will resign, bowing to a key demand of protesters after at least five people died in a groundswell of new unrest in this North African country.Mohamed Ghannouchi, 69, has been a major irritant to Tunisians behind the so-called "Jasmine Revolution" that toppled autocratic President Zine El Ab...

A group of Indians employed in Libya have fled across the border into Tunisia saying basic needs cannot be met in the Libyan town of Zawiyah, where there has been heavy fighting between forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, and his opponents who want to end his 41-year rule.There is an acute scarcity of food and water in Zawiyah as the sit...

Anti-government protests hit Tunisia for a second day running on Sunday, with around 4,000 demonstrators gathering in Central Tunis to demand the resignation of Mohamed Ghannouchi's transitional government.Many waved Tunisian flags and banners proclaiming: "Resignation of the prime minister, Constituent Assembly, Parliamentary System" or "Tunisia i...

"Write something beautiful about Mr. President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, and we'll take care of you," said Azzidine, who identified himself as an adviser to the Tunisian president as he discreetly showed me an envelope full of $100 bills.It was 2002 and I was reporting on the Arab League Summit in Beirut. We were not given access to Phoenicia Hotel,...

Tens of thousands of people are calling for Yemeni President's ouster in protests across the capital inspired by the popular revolt in Tunisia.The demonstrations led by Opposition members and youth activists are a significant expansion of the unrest sparked by the Tunisian uprising, which also inspired Egypt's largest protests in a generation. They...

Egyptian security officials said one protester and one policeman were killed on Wednesday in an anti-government protest in central Cairo, bringing to six the number of people killed in two days of demonstrations against President Hosni Mubarak's regime. (Read: US to Egypt: Listen to people's 'legitimate needs')The policeman and the protester were k...

Tunisia has said that it has issued an international arrest warrant for ousted president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who resigned this month amid protests against his regime and fled to Saudi Arabia.The justice ministry said Ben Ali, his wife Leila Trabelsi and other members of his once all-powerful family were accused of illegally acquiring assets an...

Protesters staged a mock funeral in the centre of Tunis on Sunday in honour of the man whose suicide triggered the popular uprising that overthrew Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.Mohamed Bouazizi, 26, died after he set himself on fire in the central city of Sidi Bouzid last month to protest against official harassment under Ben Ali's reg...

A fire at a prison today in Monastir in eastern Tunisia killed at least 42 inmates, a hospital doctor said."Thirty-one bodies were taken to the morgue and another 11 have followed," Dr Ali Chatli, head of the forensic medicine department at Fatouma Bourguiba hospital at Monastir, 160 kilometres (100 miles) south of Tunis, told AFP.Chatli said the f...

Food shortages are worsening in Tunisia with empty shelves in supermarkets and bakeries, adding to popular discontent at high prices and risking unrest as the government tries to stave off a crisis in public finances.

The brutal war in Syria could grind on for a decade as Iran and Russia prop up President Bashar al-Assad's regime and jihadist groups flood the battlefield, experts warned Thursday.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan flew back today to a Turkey rocked by days of anti-government unrest and declared before a sea of flag-waving supporters at Istanbul airport: "These protests must end immediately."

The following opinion piece was authored by the recently ousted president of Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed. The Dregs of Dictatorship: Dictatorships don't always die when the dictator leaves office. The wave of revolutions that toppled autocrats in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen last year was certainly cause for hope. But the people of those countri...

Tunisia's interim president chose a former government minister as a new prime minister on Sunday, appealing for a return to calm following new violent protests that have been hobbling this North African country since the ouster of its long-time autocratic leader.Beji Caid-Essebsi will replace Mohammed Ghannouchi, who resigned earlier Sunday after b...

Tunisia's embattled Prime Minister said on Sunday that he will resign, bowing to a key demand of protesters after at least five people died in a groundswell of new unrest in this North African country.Mohamed Ghannouchi, 69, has been a major irritant to Tunisians behind the so-called "Jasmine Revolution" that toppled autocratic President Zine El Ab...

A group of Indians employed in Libya have fled across the border into Tunisia saying basic needs cannot be met in the Libyan town of Zawiyah, where there has been heavy fighting between forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, and his opponents who want to end his 41-year rule.There is an acute scarcity of food and water in Zawiyah as the sit...

Anti-government protests hit Tunisia for a second day running on Sunday, with around 4,000 demonstrators gathering in Central Tunis to demand the resignation of Mohamed Ghannouchi's transitional government.Many waved Tunisian flags and banners proclaiming: "Resignation of the prime minister, Constituent Assembly, Parliamentary System" or "Tunisia i...

"Write something beautiful about Mr. President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, and we'll take care of you," said Azzidine, who identified himself as an adviser to the Tunisian president as he discreetly showed me an envelope full of $100 bills.It was 2002 and I was reporting on the Arab League Summit in Beirut. We were not given access to Phoenicia Hotel,...

Tens of thousands of people are calling for Yemeni President's ouster in protests across the capital inspired by the popular revolt in Tunisia.The demonstrations led by Opposition members and youth activists are a significant expansion of the unrest sparked by the Tunisian uprising, which also inspired Egypt's largest protests in a generation. They...

Egyptian security officials said one protester and one policeman were killed on Wednesday in an anti-government protest in central Cairo, bringing to six the number of people killed in two days of demonstrations against President Hosni Mubarak's regime. (Read: US to Egypt: Listen to people's 'legitimate needs')The policeman and the protester were k...

Tunisia has said that it has issued an international arrest warrant for ousted president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who resigned this month amid protests against his regime and fled to Saudi Arabia.The justice ministry said Ben Ali, his wife Leila Trabelsi and other members of his once all-powerful family were accused of illegally acquiring assets an...

Protesters staged a mock funeral in the centre of Tunis on Sunday in honour of the man whose suicide triggered the popular uprising that overthrew Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.Mohamed Bouazizi, 26, died after he set himself on fire in the central city of Sidi Bouzid last month to protest against official harassment under Ben Ali's reg...

A fire at a prison today in Monastir in eastern Tunisia killed at least 42 inmates, a hospital doctor said."Thirty-one bodies were taken to the morgue and another 11 have followed," Dr Ali Chatli, head of the forensic medicine department at Fatouma Bourguiba hospital at Monastir, 160 kilometres (100 miles) south of Tunis, told AFP.Chatli said the f...