Ahad, 10 April 2011

The Malaysian Insider :: World

The Malaysian Insider :: World


Ben Ali brother arrested in Tunisia, says report

Posted: 10 Apr 2011 07:05 PM PDT

TUNIS, April 11 — Tunisian security forces have arrested the brother of ousted leader Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, the state TAP news agency said yesterday.

Quoting the Tunisian interior ministry, TAP said Slah Ben Ali was arrested yesterday evening in the city of Sousse, which lies south of the capital Tunis.

"The interior ministry has informed that security forces in Sousse arrested Slah Ben Ali, the brother of the former president, at a house in Sousse around 18.30 today," TAP said.

TAP gave no further details.

Ben Ali was toppled by mass protests on January 14 after 23 years in power and fled to Saudi Arabia. Several members of his family and security detail as well as some of his closest allies were detained shortly after he was forced out.

Seeking to assert their authority and gain legitimacy in the eyes of protesters who forced Ben Ali to flee, the caretaker authorities are attacking the vestiges of his 23-year rule.

Tunisia's interim authorities appointed a new government on March 7 and disbanded the state security apparatus, notorious for human rights abuses under Ben Ali.

Last month, the interim government said it would freeze assets of 112 people close to the ousted president pending the completion of judicial investigations. — Reuters

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French ban on full veil goes into force

Posted: 10 Apr 2011 06:44 PM PDT

The full-face veil that France is banning , triggering a call for civil disobedience. — Reuters pic

PARIS, April 11 — France's ban on full-face veils, a first in Europe, went into force today, exposing anyone who wears the Muslim niqab or burqa in public to fines of €150 (RM653).

A Muslim property dealer, who is urging women to keep wearing the veil if they want to, has urged supporters to go to Notre Dame cathedral in central Paris for a silent prayer during the day, and is also offering to help people pay the fines.

The five million Muslim minority in France is the largest in Western Europe, but fewer than 2,000 women are believed actually to wear a full-face veil.

Many Muslim leaders have said they support neither the veil nor the law banning it.

The timing is all the more sensitive after France's ruling political party, President Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP, called a debate on the place of Islam in France, a move that some say risked stigmatising a portion of the population.

Police received a guide last week to help implement the ban. It tells them not to remove veils by force. It also notes that the ban does not apply inside private cars but reminds policemen such cases can be dealt with under road safety rules.

Rachid Nekkaz, the man who called for the Notre Dame prayer, said in a webcast that he was putting a property worth about €2 million up for sale to help fund his campaign.

"I am calling on all free women who so wish, to wear the veil in the street and engage in civil disobedience," he said.

French police arrested 59 people on Saturday who turned up for a banned protest over the veil ban, one of them on arrival in France from Britain, according to a police spokesman. — Reuters

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