Tag: Evening Edition

Evening Edition

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1 Tunisian leader vows ‘total break’ with old regime

by Dario Thuburn, AFP

1 hr 42 mins ago

TUNIS (AFP) – Tunisia’s interim president on Wednesday promised a “total break” with the past and hailed “a revolution of dignity and liberty,” as prosecutors opened a vast inquiry against the previous leader.

Investigators will look into the extensive domestic and foreign assets held by former president Zine El Abdine Ben Ali, who resigned abruptly on Friday and fled to Saudi Arabia after a wave of social protests against his regime.

“Together we can write a new page in the history of our country,” Foued Mebazaa said in an address to the nation in which he also vowed to ensure an amnesty for political prisoners, media freedoms and an independent judiciary.

Evening Edition

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1 Resignations rock Tunisia as thousands protest

by Dario Thuburn, AFP

59 mins ago

TUNIS (AFP) – Four ministers in Tunisia’s new unity government pulled out a day after being appointed Tuesday amid popular rage against the continued presence of the ousted president’s party on the political scene.

Thousands of people protested across Tunisia to call for ousted president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s once all-powerful Constitutional Democratic Rally (RCD) party to be excluded from the fledgling government and abolished.

In a bid for survival, the RCD officially expelled the ex-president, who fled to Saudi Arabia in disgrace Friday after a wave of protests against his 23 years of iron-fisted rule, the official TAP news agency reported.

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1 Whistleblower hands Assange offshore bank secrets

by Robin Millard, AFP

1 hr 45 mins ago

LONDON (AFP) – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange vowed to publish secret details of offshore accounts after a Swiss banking whistleblower handed over data Monday on 2,000 purportedly tax-dodging individuals and firms.

Former Swiss banker Rudolf Elmer, who worked for eight years in the Cayman Islands, a renowned offshore tax haven in the Caribbean, personally gave Assange two CDs of data at a London press conference.

Elmer said he wanted the world to know the truth about money concealed in offshore accounts and the systems in place to keep it secret.

Evening Edition

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1 Battles in Tunis as new government takes shape

by Dario Thuburn, AFP

52 mins ago

TUNIS (AFP) – Tunisian soldiers on Sunday attacked loyalists of ousted leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali holed up in the presidential palace, a security source said, as the struggling interim leadership prepared to announce a new government.

“The army has launched an assault on the palace in Carthage, where elements of the presidential guard have taken refuge,” the senior source told AFP on condition of anonymity, as an eyewitness reported heavy gunfire in the area.

Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi meanwhile vowed there would be “zero tolerance” against anyone threatening the security of the country and said a new government for the North African state “may be” announced on Monday.

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1 Tunisia’s new leader takes power amid chaos

by Dario Thuburn, AFP

15 mins ago

TUNIS (AFP) – Tunisia’s new acting president pledged an open political system on Saturday following the abrupt end of former strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s 23-year rule as the Arab state veered towards chaos.

Soldiers and tanks were deployed around the capital Tunis after extensive looting of shops and homes and vandals set fire to the main railway station.

The crackle of gunfire echoed in the largely deserted streets of the city centre, which was sealed off by security forces to prevent protests.

Evening Edition

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1 Tunisian president quits after violent protests

by Mohamed Hasni and Hamida Ben Salah, AFP

14 mins ago

TUNIS (AFP) – Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali quit on Friday after 23 years in power and fled the north African state as the authorities declared a state of emergency following deadly protests.

Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi announced on state television that he had taken over as interim president, after a day of violent clashes between rock-throwing protesters and riot police in the streets of central Tunis.

“I call on Tunisians of all political persuasions and from all regions to demonstrate patriotism and unity,” Ghannouchi said in a solemn live address.

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1 Tunisia leader says won’t stand again, orders halt to firing

by Mohamed Hasni, AFP

6 mins ago

TUNIS (AFP) – A contrite Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali said Thursday he would not seek another term in office and ordered police to stop firing on protesters as he sought to quell mounting unrest.

“I have understood you,” Ben Ali, who has ruled the North African country with an iron fist for the last 23 years, said during a state of the nation address.

The 74-year-old leader also admitted that he had mishandled a spreading wave of unrest and promised democratic reforms.

Evening Edition

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1 South Sudan rulers hail ‘valid’ independence vote

by Peter Martell, AFP

1 hr 47 mins ago

JUBA, Sudan (AFP) – South Sudan’s ruling party said Wednesday that the 60-percent turnout threshold required for a landmark independence vote to be declared valid has been reached after just three days of polling.

The former rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement cited its own estimates for the achievement which must still be officially confirmed by the South Sudan Referendum Commission that organised the week-long vote.

But there were long queues at polling stations again on Wednesday as voters responded to calls from the party for a “100 percent turnout.”

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1 Biden says US may stay in Afghanistan after 2014

by Katherine Haddon, AFP

2 hrs 9 mins ago

KABUL (AFP) – US Vice President Joe Biden stressed Tuesday that his country’s troops could stay in Afghanistan after 2014 if Afghans want them to, on day two of a surprise visit to the war-torn nation.

Speaking after talks with President Hamid Karzai in Kabul, Biden said: “We’re not leaving if you (Afghans) don’t want us to leave”.

But he also emphasised that the planned handover of responsibility for security from international troops to Afghan forces in four years, agreed at a NATO summit in November, was on track.

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1 Huge turnout again on 2nd day of south Sudan vote

by Steve Kirby, AFP

1 hr 48 mins ago

JUBA, Sudan (AFP) – Thousands of south Sudanese poured out to vote for a second straight day in a landmark independence referendum on Monday, bringing the region a step closer to becoming the world’s newest state.

Repeating the jubilant scenes witnessed on Sunday, huge queues formed outside polling stations in the regional capital Juba from long before dawn as voters seized the chance to have their say on whether to split Africa’s largest nation and put the seal on five decades of north-south conflict.

The scale of the turnout on the first of the seven days of polling has already put the south well on the way to reaching the 60-percent threshold set by a 2005 peace deal between north and south for the referendum to be valid.

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