Free Republic

The rich heritage of Tunisia, maybe the only place where the Arab Spring stands a chance Modern-day Tunisians, more Westernized than most Arabs, see themselves as descendants of the great Carthaginian general who invaded Italy. The Arab Spring began in Sidi Bouzid, a small Tunisian town, at the end of 2010. In a desperate protest against the corrupt and oppressive government that had made it impossible for him to earn a living, food-cart vendor Mohamed Bouazizi stood before City Hall, doused himself with gasoline, and lit a match. His suicide seeded a revolutionary storm that swept the countryside and eventually...

AFP - Tunisia's Islamist movement Ennahda, banned under the regime of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali who was toppled in January, has been legalised 30 years after it was formed, it announced Tuesday. "The Ennahda movement has just been legalised," spokesman Ali El-Aryadh told AFP. The interim government installed after Ben Ali's fall on January 14 after weeks of street protests granted unprecedented freedoms and allowed exiles to return despite the bans from the old regime. Ennahda (Awakening) leader Rached Ghannouchi returned on January 30 after nearly 20 years in exile, mostly in London, to be welcomed by thousands of...