Vol 52 No 2 | TUNISIA The jasmine and khaki revolution 21st January 2011 Protests after a desperate unemployed graduate’s suicide ousted the Ben Ali regime and may change regional politics The arrest of 33 members of the former ruling family less than a week after the overthrow of President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali on 13 January consolidates the change of regime. It s...
Vol 50 No 22 | TUNISIA Party time for the first family 6th November 2009 Ben Ali wins a crushing victory and another five years in power President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali saved his allies from a little of the usual embarrassment at his 26 October re-election by polling only 89.62% of the vote, down from 94.4% in 200...
Vol 50 No 1 | TUNISIA Rumblings of dissent 9th January 2009 Ben Ali's fifth and final term approaches Like its western neighbour, Tunisia is a prime target for Islamist fighters. President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali (born September 1936) has used the AQIM threat to rationalise his ext...
Vol 46 No 15 | EGYPTTUNISIA Enlightenment 22nd July 2005 Recent threats to Egyptian and Tunisian writers reflect a growing confrontation between Islamists and other Muslims. Egyptian philosopher Sa'id Mahmoud el Gomeni has said he'll giv...
Vol 45 No 22 | TUNISIA Faustian deal 5th November 2004 Zine el Abidine Ben Ali's vote of 94.49 per cent in the 24 October presidential poll was no surprise; the established opposition said it couldn't compete with his Rassemblement Con...
Vol 42 No 16 | TUNISIA Ben Ali for a fourth 10th August 2001 Africa's 'change the constitution' movement has now crept north to Tunisia, where the ruling Rassemblement Constitutionnel Démocratique wants to persuade' President Zine el ...
Vol 41 No 8 | TUNISIA Bourguiba's ghost 14th April 2000 President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali was never entirely happy running the country in the shadow of its founding father, Habib Bourguiba. He died on 6 April and with the end of formal ...
Vol 41 No 6 | TUNISIA Post-poll rumblings 17th March 2000 The arrest of dozens of school and college students during demonstrations in the south-east - traditionally a barometer of popular tension - broke the veneer of total calm so energ...
Vol 40 No 1 | TUNISIA More couscous 8th January 1999 Many of the country's elite were among those sentenced on 23 December after Tunisia’s largest ever drugs trial. This was held amid deep secrecy and intense security and under a bla...
Vol 39 No 24 | TUNISIA False amnesties 4th December 1998 Overseas non-governmental organisations have been complaining that the government is trying to undermine them. Amnesty International and Médecins sans Frontières both...