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The people of Tunisia stood up.
Tunisia's long-standing president has left the country amid violent protests and the prime minister has taken over control of the government from him.
"Since the president is temporarily unable to exercise his duties, it has been decided that the prime minister will exercise temporarily the [presidential] duties," Mohamed Ghannouchi, the Tunisian prime minister, said on state television.
Ghannouchi is now the interim president.
He has vowed to respect the constitution and restore stability.
Friday's developments come following violent clashes in the capital, Tunis, over unemployment and rising food prices.
State media earlier reported that Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the president, had imposed a state of emergency in the country and promised fresh legislative elections within six months in an attempt to quell the wave of dissent sweeping across the country.
There were also reports that the airport in Tunis had been surrounded by troops and the country's airspace has been closed. Air France, the main international airline into and out of Tunisia announced that it had ceased flights to Tunisia following that announcement.
State TV also reported that gatherings of more than three people had been banned.
Tunisian state television said on Friday it was expecting the announcement of an "historic decision" which will satisfy the desires of the north African country's people.
Ben Ali had been in power for the last 27 years. On Thursday, he vowed not to seek re-election and reduced food prices in a bid to placate protesters.
But the pledges seemed to have little effect as fresh street protests erupted on Friday..
Our first WikiLeaks revolution....
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Reuters gets the prize for best headline:
Veteran Tunisian leader quits after protests.... Let's see if "veteran leader" replaces "dictator" in Webster's. .
love, 99
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rising food prices
ReplyDeleteWheat and soy bean prices are supposed to take a big jump next fall according to a news report this morning.
Last week we received a letter from our steel supplier, steel prices are expected to go up as much as 30% in the first quarter of this year.
This has a huge impact on our business - most products that we build and install are comprised of steel.
A whole bunch of people are saying that 2011 is the year when our house of cards will stop teetering and flatten all the way. We all are inclined to be somewhat HAPPY about this, given all the givens, wishing to get the pain OVER with. Except, the main reason we are SO happy about something so obviously catastrophic for Your Average Joe is the thought that it will FINALLY force us to abandon empire and quit killing people. Well, the big problem with that is that both of the last two administrations have been subbing out our bases and conflicts, our ENTIRE military is almost entirely in the hands of "the private sector" and so NONE of that is going down with us. It's just changing hands from the United States straight to the real controllers' control... no more idiot politicos as middlemen.
ReplyDeleteYou should advise yer boss to start going after military contracts or he is pau... and so you too.
The good part about that is it will FORCE you to retire... maybe lead to more interest in participating in my polar bear refrigeration project....
Might not hurt to reread the Hartung Lockheed Martin piece I posted yesterday... or show it to your boss.
ReplyDeleteYou should advise yer boss to start going after military contracts or he is pau... and so you too.
ReplyDeleteWe are under contract for a job for the Army Corps of Engineers.
The red-tape paper work is astonishing!
We landed the job 9 months ago and we are still going through the first round submittal process.
No telling when we will actually star working.
They won't cut you in unless you feed their reason for existing. They won't pat your back if you won't pat theirs. Thing is: If you pat their back, OMG, the rewards are legion. You could be in place to play football with million-dollar bundles of cash.... What's a little paperwork compared to that?
ReplyDelete