• Report: Suspect arrested in Tunisian politician's murder

    Fauque Nicolas / Abaca

    In a protest in Tunis on Saturday, hundreds of demonstrators demanded that the Islamist party in power find and arrest the killer of secular opposition politician Chokri Belaid.

    By Tarek Amara, Reuters

    TUNIS — A hardline Islamist has been arrested in connection with the killing of a Tunisian opposition politician whose death earlier this month touched off protests across the country, a security source said on Monday.

    Tunisia was plunged into political crisis when the secular opposition politician Chokri Belaid was gunned down outside his house on Feb. 6, igniting the biggest street protests since the overthrow of strongman Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali two years ago.

    "The police arrested a Salafist suspected of killing Belaid,'' the source told Reuters without giving more details.

    Last year, Salafist groups prevented several concerts and plays from taking place in Tunisian cities, saying they violated Islamic principles. Salafists also ransacked the U.S. Embassy in September during international protests over an Internet video.


    Tunisian radio station Express FM cited a senior security official as saying police had arrested three Salafists, including a police officer, in connection with Belaid's killing.

    Abd Majid Belaid, brother of the victim, said he could not confirm or deny the report. The Ministry of Interior and Justice was not available for comment.

    Interior Minister Ali Larayedh said last week that arrests had been made but gave no details.

    "The investigation has not led yet to identify the killer, those behind the murder and its motives,'' he said.

    Secular groups have accused the Islamist-led government of a lax response to attacks by ultra-orthodox Salafi Islamists on cinemas, theatres, bars and individuals in recent months.

    After Belaid's killing — Tunisia's first such political assassination in a decade - Hamadi Jebali resigned as prime minister after he failed to form a cabinet of technocrats to take Tunisia to elections in a bid to restore calm.

    Tunisia's President Moncef Marzouki has asked Interior Minister Ali Larayedh to form a new government.

    The so-called Jasmine Revolution that toppled Ben Ali in January 2011 was the first of the Arab Spring revolutions.

    Tunisia's political transition has been more peaceful than those in other Arab nations such as Egypt, Libya and Syria, but tensions are running high between Islamists elected to power and liberals who fear the loss of hard-won liberties.

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  • Ultra-orthodox and secular Jews battle over Israel's future

    By Martin Fletcher, NBC News correspondent

    Israel has historically faced hostility from it's Arab neighbors.  Now, it is facing hostility within it's own borders as the battle between ultra-Orthodox and secular Jews threatens to divide the country. NBC's Martin Fletcher reports.   

    TEL AVIV – Israel’s orthodox and secular Jews are in the midst of a pitched battle over the role of women in society.

    It's a question as old as the state: how Jewish will the country be? In recent weeks radical ultraorthodox Jews have hit the headlines after one told a woman to go to the back of a public bus. Others smashed the windows of shops with content they considered provocative, defaced posters of women and even threatened children.

    It's all about so-called modesty. Radical ultraorthodox want women out of sight, so that they won't be tempted – even by children.

    It's a decades old fight that sometimes hits the headlines. But under Israel's right-wing religious coalition government, the tension is growing.

    NBC News’ Martin Fletcher reports from Tel Aviv on the ongoing battle. Watch the video above.