Tunisia
Latest stories
Gays in Egypt, Tunisia Worry about Post-revolution Era

While many of their compatriots savor a new political era, gays in Egypt and Tunisia aren't sharing the joy, according to activists who wonder if the two revolutions could in fact make things worse for an already marginalized community.

In both countries, gays and their allies worry that conservative Islamists, whose credo includes firm condemnation of homosexuality, could increase their influence in elections later this year.

W140 Full Story
Obama on Mideast: 2 Leaders Stepped Aside, More May Follow, Repression Won't Work

U.S. President Barack Obama declared Thursday that the borders of Israel and a Palestinian state must be based on 1967 lines, likely setting up a new clash with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In a long-awaited survey of the "Arab spring" of revolts, Obama compared "shouts of human dignity" across the region to America's birth pangs and civil rights struggles, and said the uprisings showed repression would not work.

W140 Full Story
Tunisian Authorities Deny Gadhafi Family Members Fled

Authorities in Tunis on Thursday denied reports that members of embattled Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's family, including his wife and daughter, had fled and arrived in Tunisia.

"These reports are totally false," said a government source, stressing that "no member of the Gadhafi family has crossed the Tunisian border" with Libya, where Gadhafi loyalists are fighting to put down a rebellion.

W140 Full Story
3 Dead in Tunisia Gunfight with Suspected Libyan Qaida Members

Suspected Libyan al-Qaida militants exchanged fire with security forces in Tunisia Wednesday, leaving two alleged militants and a Tunisian colonel dead, security officials and the government said.

The suspected militants were wearing belts of explosives and were "terrorists, strongly suspected of belonging to the al-Qaida network," a Tunisian security official said.

W140 Full Story
Tunis Museum Flourishes After Ben Ali Fall

Sitting in his vast office, crammed full of relics and curiosities, museum curator Taher Ghalia has good reason to welcome the downfall of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

Just as a fresh breeze now blows through the country's politics and press, Tunisia's cultural institutions too have the chance to flourish.

W140 Full Story
Fresh Clashes between Protesters and Police in Tunis

Police used teargas to disperse protesters taking part in another anti-government demonstration in Tunis Sunday.

About 200 protesters gathered outside the municipal theater and along the Habib Bourguiba Avenue in central Tunis and sang the national anthem to galvanize support.

W140 Full Story
Ben Ali Faces 18 Charges in Tunisia

Tunisian prosecutors want to try toppled president Zine el Abidine Ben Ali on 18 different charges, including murder and drug-trafficking, according to the country's justice minister.

"The accusations include murder, conspiracy against the security of the state as well as trafficking and the use of drugs," Lazhar Karoui Chebbi said in an interview with national television late Wednesday.

W140 Full Story
Qassem: March 14 Wants Lebanon a ‘Farm’, Not a State

Hizbullah deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qassem on Thursday noted that his party has achieved “great, significant accomplishments” through the “army-people-Resistance equation.”

These accomplishments are “the humiliating Israeli pullout (from South Lebanon) in 2000, the grand victory in July 2006 in the face of the Israeli war on Lebanon … and the participation in a national unity cabinet that aims to prevent civil strife,” said Qassem.

W140 Full Story
Tweeting The Turmoil in The Middle East

For the nearly 40,000 followers of his Twitter feed, Andy Carvin is providing a unique window into the turmoil in the Middle East.

For a media industry facing its own ferment, Carvin, who works online for National Public Radio (NPR), is offering a glimpse into journalism's future, using the Web to report the historic events in a fresh and innovative way.

W140 Full Story
New Self-Immolation in Key Tunisia Town Ahead of Ban’s Visit

A man set himself alight Tuesday in Tunisia's Sidi Bouzid, where a self-immolation last year unleashed protests that toppled the president, as the U.N. chief was due to visit, a medical source said.

The 33-year-old suffered third degree burns and was admitted to hospital in a severe condition, the official said. The reasons for his protest were not yet clear.

W140 Full Story