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Africa North
Political crisis grips Tunisia in wake of assassination
2013-02-08
[FRANCE24] Tunisia's ruling Islamist Ennahda party on Thursday rejected the prime minister's pledge to form a government of technocrats and to call fresh elections, one day after the assassination of secular opposition leader Chokri Belaid .

Tunisia's ambassador to France criticised Ennahda's opposition to Prime Minister Hamdi Jebali's plans to form a new government.

"It's dangerous," Ambassador Adel Fekih told FRANCE 24. "For the last few months [the government has been at] an impasse. I know that since June there have been a number of parties within the coalition who have asked for a cabinet reshuffle because the people's needs weren't being met. The Ennahda party has been determined to maintain their predominance in government, a position that they continue to hold today."

Belaid's murder by masked men outside his Tunis home on Wednesday sparked a huge outpouring of anger across Tunisia, with nationwide protests that saw Ennahda offices trashed and torched and at least one death. The party has ruled Tunisia since elections there in October 2011.

Protests continued Thursday with police firing teargas at demonstrators in central Tunis as they marched near the interior ministry on Habib Bourguiba Avenue, the centre of the 2011 uprising that toppled the country's former dictator Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.

Meanwhile,
...back at the desert island, Bert was realizing to his horror that he'd had only one bottle for one message, and he'd forgotten to include a return address...
lawyers, judges and some teachers began a two-day strike, as the influential UGTT trade union called for a general strike on Friday. The French embassy in Tunis also announced that its schools in the city would be closed on Friday and Saturday.
Posted by:Fred

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