Despite its long tradition of religious moderation, Tunisia has long been a fertile recruiting ground for jihad, with a terror export industry stretching back to the mujahideen of Afghanistan, writes Simon Speakman Cordall

Seventy Afghan and Iraqi migrants were rescued from a packed boat off the southeastern coast of Italy and brought to shore yesterday.

Tunisia’s prime minister said yesterday a leading suspect in a deadly museum attack on foreign tourists has been killed in anti-terrorist operations, as tens of thousands of Tunisians marched through the capital to denounce extremist violence.

Tunisian authorities have arrested more than 20 suspected militants in a nationwide security crackdown since gunmen killed 23 people, mostly foreign tourists, in Wednesday’s attack in the capital.

Tunisia says it will deploy the army to major cities and arrested nine people after 20 foreign tourists were shot dead at a museum in the capital in an attack claimed by Islamic State.

Gunmen in military uniforms stormed Tunisia’s national museum yesterday, killing 18 foreign tourists and two Tunisians in one of the worst militant attacks in a country that has largely escaped the region’s Arab Spring turmoil.

Italy’s Coast Guard is taking nearly 1,000 migrants to southern ports from several different boat rescues, but 10 migrants died at sea.

Attempts to find a new head for Tunisia’s government which would prepare the country for new elections have been suspended.

Tunisian women have travelled to Syria to wage “sex jihad” by comforting Islamist fighters battling the regime there, interior minister Lotfi ben Jeddou has told MPs.

France has claimed that al-Qaida-linked extremists have been defeated in the key city of Gao in north-eastern Mali.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange accused US president Barack Obama of seeking to exploit the Arab uprisings for personal and political gain as he addressed a fringe meeting of the United Nations General Assembly via videolink from his embassy hideout.

Tunisia’s moderate Islamist party announced at the conclusion of its party congress that it will push for a parliamentary system in the country’s future constitution.

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Tunisia's moderate Islamist party Ennahda, banned for decades, emerged the official victor tonight, following the nation's first free elections.

THE moderate Islamist party that appears to have won Tunisia’s elections was in talks with rivals yesterday about forming an interim coalition government to lead the birthplace of the Arab Spring through its transition to democracy.

TUNISIAN authorities yesterday counted votes in the first free election in the nation’s history, with early signs that a once-banned Islamist party is leading in the country that unleashed the Arab Spring.

Early results from polling stations in Tunisia put the Islamist Ennahda Party in the lead in many constituencies today.

TUNISIANS began voting yesterday in their first truly free election, the culmination of a popular uprising that ended decades of authoritarian rule and set off similar rebellions across the Middle East.

Tunisians are voting today in elections that are a culmination of a popular uprising that ended decades of authoritarian rule and set off similar rebellions across the Middle East.

Libya’s de facto leader said today he is optimistic the former rebels will declare total victory over forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi in less than a week, opening the way for a transitional government to be formed within a month.

Tunisian police have arrested dozens of Islamist demonstrators set on attacking the offices of a television channel that had shown the award-winning film 'Persepolis', officials said.

IN THE offices of one of Tunisia’s many political parties, a poster captures the fear that keeps people returning to the streets.

A defiant Muammar Gaddafi today threatened to carry out attacks in Europe against “homes, offices, families” unless Nato halts its campaign of airstrikes against his regime in Libya.

CONOR NILAND is to devote his focus to Ireland’s Davis Cup clash with Tunisia in Dublin next month in following his Wimbledon heartbreak.

A TUNISIAN court yesterday sentenced former president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in absentia to 35 years in jail.

Tunisia’s former autocratic leader, whose downfall triggered uprisings in the Arab world, condemned his upcoming trial as a “shameful masquerade”, according to a statement.

SYRIAN opposition figures warned embattled President Bashar al-Assad his regime will collapse if he fails to usher in democracy, as troops kept their grip on the flashpoint town of Daraa.

Gunfire and sporadic explosions rattled Daraa today after the Syrian army sent in more tanks and reinforcements as part of a widening crackdown.

A Tunisian court dropped charges against a policewoman whose dispute with a fruit vendor who killed himself sparked a chain of events that unleashed uprisings around the Arab world.

A train carrying Tunisian immigrants from Italy was halted at the French border today in an escalation of an international dispute over the fate of North African migrants fleeing political unrest for refuge in Europe.

IRELAND is considering taking a handful of Libyan political refugees following a request from Malta for help with looking after about 2,000 who landed on the island following the uprising against the country’s leader Muammar Gaddafi.

THERE was a lot of commotion on a flight from Brussels to Budapest on Thursday when a 26-year-old Afghan refugee was being taken by Belgian police to Hungary.

Italian coastguards were trying to rescue migrants lost at sea today after their boat capsized off the coast of Lampedusa, a tiny Italian island close to North Africa, officials said, but many were feared dead.

ITALY has shipped more than 2,000 migrants to detention camps on the mainland, relieving pressure on a tiny island off Sicily overwhelmed by boats full of illegal arrivals from North Africa.

Italy has shipped more than 2,000 migrants to detention camps on the mainland, relieving pressure on a tiny island off Sicily overwhelmed by boats full of illegal arrivals from North Africa.

ITALY warned it was facing a refugee and humanitarian emergency, with some 15,000 Tunisians having arrived in recent weeks and fears that the start of US and European airstrikes on Libya could unleash even more migrants.

More than 1,000 migrants from North Africa have arrived in Italy overnight, some in rickety boats that had to be escorted ashore by the coast guard.

Four people have died in fresh clashes in the Tunisian capital between stone-throwing protesters and police on the sidelines of demonstrations against the interim government, officials said today.

EUROPE voiced fears last night about a new wave of illegal immigration after Libya threatened to break its cooperation on controlling the flow and more Tunisians landed in Italy.

The son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi went on state television to proclaim that his father remained in charge with the army’s backing and would “fight until the last man, the last woman, the last bullet”.

Muammar Gaddafi's regime in Libya has deployed security forces throughout the country and bluntly warned citizens against joining the unrest in which dozens of protesters have been killed.

Italian authorities have intercepted a boatload of 32 people believed to be from Egypt as the wave of would-be immigrants from North Africa toward Italy’s shores continues.