The State Department announced Tuesday that it will give $20 million to Tunisia to help build its new democracy, boosting to more than $170 million the total in assistance for Arab countries that recently overthrew authoritarian leaders.
The money will provide training and expertise on how to operate a free press, create political parties, set up fair and open elections and the like, officials said. Some also will go toward helping Tunisia’s battered economy.
The funds are from unspent money appropriated by Congress for other purposes, officials said.
EGYPT: Fingers pointed as government offices burn.
Fire swept the upper floors of Egypt’s Interior Ministry building Tuesday as policemen protested outside to demand higher pay.
A security official accused demonstrators of starting the blaze in downtown Cairo. One protester denied that protesters had lit the fire and accused those inside of setting if off by burning security files to get rid of evidence of police abuses.
SYRIA: Protests for political freedoms enter fifth day.
Protesters marched in the southern Syrian city of Dara on Tuesday, pressing their demands for political freedoms for a fifth day despite a security crackdown.
Some witnesses said the protesters numbered in the hundreds; others said thousands took part. But it was clear that the burgeoning protest was the largest of President Bashar Assad’s 11-year-rule.
Protesters are pushing for the release of political dissidents and an end to the secret police organization, which is headed in Dara by the president’s cousin.
BAHRAIN: Funeral for slain woman bares national divide.
Dozens of mourners gathered in Bahrain’s capital Tuesday to bury a Shiite woman who witnesses say died at the hands of the country’s military shortly after emergency rule was imposed last week.
The funeral was a reminder that emotions remain raw and tensions are still high between the Shiite majority, which make up the bulk of the opposition, and the kingdom’s Sunni rulers and their allies.
Bahia al-Aradi, 51, was driving on a main road in Manama looking for gasoline when she was shot in the head last Wednesday as she approached a military checkpoint, according to witnesses who came to her aid from nearby houses. They said they were also shot at by the military vehicles parked on a highway overpass.
YEMEN: President’s offer to leave at end of year is rejected.
Yemen’s U.S.-backed president, his support crumbling among political allies and the army, warned Tuesday that the country could slide into a “bloody” civil war as the opposition rejected his offer to step down by the end of the year.
Tens of thousands protested in the capital demanding his immediate ouster, emboldened by top military commanders who joined their cause.
Ali Abdullah Saleh’s apparent determination to cling to power raised fears that Yemen could be pushed into even greater instability. In a potentially explosive split, rival factions of the military have deployed tanks in the capital, Sana — with units commanded by Saleh’s son protecting the president’s palace, and units loyal to a top dissident commander protecting the protesters.
