DHAKA: One man was shot dead in clashes in a Tunisian city near the Algerian border late on Friday after protesters tried to storm a customs office in one of several demonstrations across the country.

Scattered protests over economic hardships have broken out as Tunisia’s new prime minister takes office to lead a caretaker administration to end a crisis three years after its uprising ousted Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali.

Tunisia’s 2011 revolt and the region-wide Arab Spring uprisings were triggered by a street vendor in Sidi Bouzid setting himself alight in an act of protest.

After months of crisis, the Islamist party which came to power after the revolt resigned this week to make way for prime minister Mehdi Jomaa’s technocrat government until elections this year to complete Tunisia’s democratic transition, reports The Straits Times.

BDST: 2100 HRS, JAN 11, 2014
Edited by Robab Rosan, Current Affairs Editor