Tunisia ministers resign from ruling party

TUNIS - Ministers in Tunisia's interim government have resigned from the ruling party as street protesters renewed demands for an end to its influence after the overthrow of President Zine al-Abedine Ben Ali.

The resignations announced on state television on Thursday could go some way to restoring credibility in the government after four opposition ministers quit the cabinet this week, saying ruling RCD party ministers must go.

The prime minister and caretaker president left the party this week, but street protesters in Tunis and elsewhere kept up pressure on Thursday for a government free of ties with the old guard.

Between 3,000 and 4,000 people gathered in the town of Gafsa, 350 km (220 miles) south of Tunis, to protest about the presence in the government of ministers who worked for Ben Ali, union activist Hedi Radaoui told Reuters.

State television said there was also an anti-government protest in the town of Kef, about 180 km south-west of Tunis.

It was the first time that major anti-government protests have been reported outside the capital since Ben Ali fled the country on Friday, faced with violent unrest over poverty and unemployment which unsettled autocrats across the Arab world.

Several hundred people also started protesting against the government on Avenue Bourguiba, the main thoroughfare in the centre of Tunis, a Reuters cameramen said.

In further moves to seize the assets of the former ruling family, a bank owned by Ben Ali's son-in-law was placed under the control of the central bank, state TV said.

A day earlier, 33 of Ben Ali's clan were arrested for crimes against the nation. State television showed what it said was seized gold and jewellery.

Switzerland froze Ben Ali's family assets.

Shooting and looting on the streets have declined in recent days, but a resident in the Mouroudj neighbourhood, 5 km (3 miles) from Tunis city centre, said police and military intervened on Wednesday night after gunmen began shooting.

Helicopters flew overhead and security forces used loud-hailers to tell people to stay indoors, the resident said.

In Sidi Bouzid, the hardscrabble central Tunisian town where the revolt against Ben Ali erupted after a vegetable seller set himself on fire after being insulted by police, residents said the changes at the top had not gone far enough.

"We want the dissolution of this party. This is the solution, and we want to hold its members responsible for their corruption," Lazhar Gharbi, a head teacher and trade unionist told Reuters.
Journalist says to run for president

Taoufik Ben Brik, a journalist who spent six months in jail over assault charges which his supporters, including international rights groups, said were trumped up to punish him for writing articles critical of Ben Ali, announced he would run for president.

"Ben Ali's departure was a moment of jubilation and joy for me. It was a big victory for freedom," Ben Brik said in an interview on Wednesday. "I opened the champagne to celebrate that moment."

The last of Ben Ali's political prisoners went free on Wednesday, including members of a banned Islamist group, said Najib Chebbi, an opposition figure named to the cabinet.

The United Nations said it would send human rights advisers to Tunisia next week.