Tag Archives: Tunisia

Reporters Without Borders released the annual World Press Freedom Index, which ranks 180 countries performance according to criteria including media independence, legislative framework and the level of censorship prevailing in the country, and the infrastructure environment in which the media operate. The index highlights the worldwide deterioration in freedom of information in 2014 because of wars, the growing non-state actors …

The new Tunisian parliament on Tuesday held its inaugural session, a landmark event in the nation’s transition to democracy after the 2011 revolution in the country that fuelled the region’s Arab Spring. After singing the national anthem, the National Constituent Assembly’s (NCA) speaker Mustapha Ben Jaafar opened the parliament of 217 members elected in October. “Tunisia has managed to secure …

Tunisia will hold its first multi-candidate presidential election this coming Sunday, with twenty-seven candidates in the running for President. Former premier 87-year-old Beji Caid Essebsi, whose Nidaa Tounes party won the October 26 parliamentary election, is the favorite to win the poll. His challengers include outgoing President Moncef Marzouki, left-wing politician Hamma Hammami, businessman Slim Riahi, magistrate Kalthoum Kannou, the …

Advocacy group Human Rights Watch on Tuesday said that Islamic State (IS) extremists had tortured teenagers from Syrian town of Kobane for six months in captivity. According to the rights group, 153 school-going children were kidnapped by the IS in May while they were returning to Kobane after sitting for exams in Aleppo; it released 25 of the hostages late …

TORONTO, ONTARIO–(Marketwired – July 22, 2014) – Despite the promise of the Arab Spring, most nations in the region have failed to reform their economies, largely leaving elite privilege in place, finds a new essay released today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank. The essay,Institutions and Economic, Political, and Civil Liberty in the Arab World, …

On Wednesday, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Western leaders should set their differences aside with Russia regarding Ukraine so that they can focus on the growing hazard of Islamic terrorism. In a speech, the Middle East envoy said that expansion of extremist ideology in the region along with in Afghanistan, North Africa and Pakistan “represents the biggest threat …

The World Economic Forum has released its latest report, The Global Competitiveness Index, an annual report which ranks countries according to how well they are able use resources available to them in an effective and productive way.. The Global Competitiveness Index also measures how the institutions, policies, and factors in a country affect economic prosperity in current and medium-term levels. …