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Tunisia

Ben Ali's former party suspended

Tunisia's interior minister has announced the suspension of ousted president's Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's Constitutional Democratic Assembly in a first step towards its dissolution. In a statement read out on national television, Fahrat Rajhi said all meetings and gatherings by its members would be banned and offices throughout the country would be shut down.

Reuters/Louafi Larbi
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The announcement comes amid fresh violence in the south of the country that has left one youth dead. He died after he was hit by a tear gas canister during overnight clashes with security forces in the southern town of Kebili.

Security forces tried to intervene after a gangs of youths attempted to set fire to a national guard post outside the town, according to state news agency TAP.

Sit-ins and demonstrations were staged over the weekend outside the governor's office in Kebili in protest at the appointment of a new governor.

The army was deployed on Monday in the northwestern town of Kef where four people were killed the previous day and protesters set fire to a police station.

Several hundred protesters had been calling for the Kef police chief Khaled Ghazouani to be sacked for abuse of power. A union source says Ghazouani was subsequently arrested.

In the west-central town of Gafsa, the new governor was forced to leave his office in an army vehicle as protesters called for him to step down.

The interim government replaced top police chiefs and governors of all Tunisia's 24 provinces last week in a bid to calm unrest. But protesters are calling for a more thorough shake-up, saying some of the newly-named governors are too close to the old regime.

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