TUNIS, May 21, 2013 (AFP) A man travelling from Saudi Arabia who was infected with the SARS-like coronavirus has died in Tunisia, the health authorities said on Tuesday. "It is the first case in Tunisia, and he died on May 10," Noureddine Achour, director of the National Observatory for New and Emerging Diseases, told AFP. "Two members of his family also contracted the virus but they are doing well after re ...

TUNIS, May 21, 2013 (AFP) Radical Salafist group Ansar al-Sharia, which Tunisian authorities have branded a terrorist organization, has called for a protest in the city of Kairouan on Friday against the arrest of its spokesman. "Call to all Muslims to a protest in support of Ansar al-Sharia's spokesman Seifeddine Rais, in front of the headquarters of ruling Islamist party Ennahda near Bab Jalladine" in Kair ...

May 21, 2013 After months of reportedly going into hiding, the outspoken Tunisian feminist who sparked a trend of “topless jihad” has been found and arrested by Tunisian authorities earlier this week and may be charged for conducting “provocative acts.” Amina Tyler, 19, was found in the midst of police scuffles with hardline Salafist group Ansar al-Shariah in the central Tunisian city of Kairouan on Sunday. ...

TUNIS, May 20, 2013 (AFP) A "terrorist cell" preparing to launch attacks against Tunisian police and army has been dismantled in the central region of Kairouan, the interior ministry said on Monday. "A terrorist cell was dismantled in Haffouz and a 23-year-old who planned to attack the police and army has been arrested," ministry spokesman Mohamed Ali Aroui told reporters. He said the arrest was made on May ...

 TUNIS, May 20, 2013 (AFP) A young Tunisian activist who sparked controversy in March by posting topless pictures of herself online has been arrested for allegedly making "immoral gestures," the interior ministry said on Monday. "The young girl was placed under arrest yesterday [Sunday] in Kairouan... because of immoral gestures," ministry spokesman Mohamed Ali Aroui told a news conference, without elaborat ...

TUNIS, May 20, 2013 (AFP) Tunisia's Prime Minister Ali Larayedh vowed firm action against Ansar Al-Sharia, in remarks published Monday, after bloody clashes between police and members of the radical group. But the group's fugitive leader Abu Iyadh insisted, in a message posted online, that his followers could not be defeated despite their "persecution." Tunisia has been rocked by waves of violence blamed on ...

TUNIS, May 20, 2013 (AFP) The fugitive leader of Ansar al-Sharia, the radical Islamist group in Tunisia, said his supporters cannot be defeated despite their "persecution," in a recording posted online late Sunday after bloody clashes with police. In the five-minute message, apparently taped before Sunday's violence in which one protester was killed and at least 15 police wounded, Abu Iyadh addresses the an ...

DUBAI, May 20, 2013 (AFP) Tunisian police arrested some 200 members of the hardline Islamist Ansar al-Sharia in weekend clashes that erupted after a ban on their congress, Prime Minister Ali Larayedh said in remarks published on Monday. "Those who have been arrested number 200," Larayedh said at the Doha Forum in the Gulf state of Qatar, quoted by the Arabic daily Al-Hayat. The Tunisian leader warned of fir ...

TUNIS, May 19, 2013 (AFP) A protester was hit by gunfire and killed on Sunday in the Tunisian capital during clashes between police and hardline Islamists, a hospital official said. Mounira Ben Ghazi, a senior supervisor at Mongi Slim hospital, named the dead man as Moez Dahmani, in comments made to Express-FM radio station. Dahmani, who was born in 1986, died of gunshot wounds, Ben Ghazi said. An interior ...

TUNIS, May 19, 2013 (AFP) Clashes between police and Salafist protesters in a Tunis suburb on Sunday injured at least 14 people, including 11 policemen, the interior ministry said in a statement, AFP reported. "During the protests, 11 members of the security forces were wounded, one of them seriously, and three protesters were also wounded," it said, adding that one Islamist protester was also in serious co ...

DUBAI, May 19, 2013 (AFP) A top Al-Qaeda leader urged Tunisian Salafists to avoid falling to government provocations in order to retain public support, as clashes erupted between them and police, SITE Intelligence said Sunday. "Don't you ever be provoked by the regime and its barbarism to do rash acts that might spoil your blessed popular embrace," said Abu Yahya al-Shanqiti, a member of the Sharia Committe ...

TUNIS, May 19, 2013 (AFP) Clashes broke out between radical Islamists and police on Sunday after Salafist movement Ansar al-Sharia told its followers to gather "in large numbers" near Tunis for its annual congress, defying a government ban. Hundreds of Salafists erected barricades in the streets of Ettadhamen, a poor neighbourhood 15 kilometres (9 miles) west of Tunis, and hurled rocks at police, who respon ...