Elections in Tunisia on Oct. 25 will likely see Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who abolished term limits, stay in power. Such a manipulation of the constitution is not unusual in Africa. FRANCE 24 has compiled a list of examples.
The former French president is caught up in a legal wrangle about whether he can practice at the bar and also take up a seat in France's Constitutional Court. That's the focus for this edition of Media Watch, Friday 11th March 2012.
The panel drafting Egypt's new constitution elected Saad al-Katatni of the moderate Islamist Muslim Brotherhood on Wednesday to head the assembly, a day after several liberal members resigned amid claims that Islamists dominate the body.
Liberal and leftist members of the assembly drafting a new Egyptian constitution resigned Tuesday, saying Islamists dominate the body and that minority Christians and women are under-represented. The liberals vowed to draft an alternate constitution.
Egyptian liberals were scrambling Sunday to block the formation of a panel charged with drafting a new constitution, to which the parliament has appointed a large majority of Islamists. Only six women have been named on the 100-member panel.
Two Egyptian liberal parties withdraw from a crucial vote to decide the make up of a panel that will draft the country's new constitution. Liberal MPs fear that the Islamist majority will have exclusive say over the panel's appointees.
British photojournalist Paul Conroy was safely smuggled into Lebanon from the besieged Syrian city of Homs on Tuesday. Conroy was wounded in an artillery attack by Syrian forces on February 22.
Syrian officials said Tuesday voters had approved a new constitution in a referendum Western leaders decried as a 'farce'. The announcement comes as government forces tighten their grip on rebels in the besieged city of Homs.
Aid teams from the Syrian Red Crescent entered the besieged Homs suburb of Baba Amr on Monday according to the Red Cross. Ambulances evacuated three wounded Syrians but foreign journalists trapped in the city were not among the rescued.
A Syrian interior minister said 89.4% of voters approved a new constitution in Sunday’s national referendum, putting turnout at 57.4 percent. Western countries have dismissed the constitution presented by President Bashar al-Assad as a sham.
