TUNIS (Reuters) - One person was killed on Monday during clashes between security forces and protesters in a Tunisian town near the capital Tunis, state news agency TAP and residents said.

The protest happened in Tebourba, some 40 km (25 miles) from Tunis. Five people were wounded and brought to a hospital, TAP said.

Protests against rising prices and tax increased spread to around 10 towns across the North African country, residents told Reuters.</s>TUNIS (Reuters) - One person was killed on Monday during clashes between security forces and protesters in a Tunisian town near the capital Tunis, state news agency TAP and residents said.

The protest happened in Tebourba, some 40 km (25 miles) from Tunis. Five people were wounded and brought to a hospital, TAP said.

Protests against rising prices and tax increased spread to around 10 towns across the North African country, residents told Reuters.</s>TUNIS (Reuters) - One person was killed on Monday during clashes between security forces and protesters in a Tunisian town near the capital Tunis, state news agency TAP and residents said.

The protest happened in Tebourba, some 40 km (25 miles) from Tunis. Five people were wounded and brought to a hospital, TAP said.

Protests against rising prices and tax increased spread to around 10 towns across the North African country, residents told Reuters.</s>Protests against a set of austerity measures including price and tax hikes swept across Tunisia leaving one person dead.

Clashes between Police and hundreds of protesters took place in Tebourba, some 40 km (25 miles) from Tunis leaving one killed and Five people wounded, the Tunisian news agency said.

The deceased suffered from chronic breathing problems and died due to suffocation from inhaling tear gas, the news agency said, denying reports that he was run over by a vehicle belonging to security forces.

The protest had turned violent when security forces tried stopping some youths from burning down a government building, witnesses told the media.

Tunisia, widely seen in the West as the only democratic success among nations where “Arab Spring” revolts took place in 2011, is suffering increasing economic hardship.

Anger has been building up since the government said that, from Jan. 1, it would increase the price of gasoil, some goods, and taxes on cars, phone calls, the internet, hotel accommodation and other items, part of austerity measures agreed with foreign lenders.

The 2018 budget also raises customs taxes on some products imported from abroad, such as cosmetics, and some agricultural products.</s>One person was killed Monday during clashes between security forces and protesters in a Tunisian town, a security official and residents said, as demonstrations over rising prices and tax increases spread in the North African country.

A man was killed during a demonstration against government austerity measures in Tebourba, 40 km (25 miles) west of Tunis, the security official said, without giving details.

The protest had turned violent when security forces tried stopping some youths from burning down a government building, witnesses said. Five people were wounded and taken to a hospital, state news agency TAP said.

Tunisia, widely seen in the West as the only democratic success among nations where Arab Spring revolts took place in 2011, is suffering increasing economic hardship.

Anger has been building up since the government said that from Jan. 1, it would increase the price of gasoil, some goods and taxes on cars, phone calls, the internet, hotel accommodations and other items, part of austerity measures agreed with its foreign lenders.

The 2018 budget also raises customs taxes on some products imported from abroad, such as cosmetics, and some agricultural products.

The economy has been in crisis since a 2011 uprising unseated the government and two major militant attacks in 2015 damaged tourism, which comprises 8 percent of GDP. Tunisia is under pressure from the International Monetary Fund to speed up policy changes and help the economy recover from the attacks.

Violent protests spread in the evening to at least 10 towns with police and crowds clashing in Fernaneh, Bouhajla, Ouslatia, Moulouche, Sabitla, Gtar and Kef.

There was also a protest turning violent in Ettadamen district in the capital, residents said. Security forces had already dispersed small protests in Tunis late Sunday.

On Monday, about 300 people also took to the streets in the central Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid, cradle of the country's Arab Spring revolution, carrying banners aloft with slogans denouncing high prices.

A lack of tourists and new foreign investors pushed the trade deficit up by 23.5 percent year-on-year in the first 11 months of 2017 to a record high $5.8 billion, official data showed at the end of December.

Concerns about the rising deficit have hurt the dinar, sending it to 3.011 versus the euro Monday, breaking the psychologically important 3 dinar mark for the first time, traders said.

The currency is likely to weaken further, said Tunisian financial risk expert Mourad Hattab.

"The sharp decline of the dinar threatens to deepen the trade deficit and make debt service payments tighter, which will increase Tunisia's financial difficulties," he said.

Hattab said the dinar may fall to 3.3 versus the euro in the coming months because of high demand for foreign currency and little expectation of intervention from the authorities.

Last year, former Finance Minister Lamia Zribi said the central bank would reduce its interventions so that the dinar steadily declined in value, but it would prevent any dramatic slide.

The central bank has denied any plans to liberalize the currency, but Hattab said Monday's decline showed there was an "undeclared float" of the dinar.

A weaker currency could further drive up the cost of imported food after the annual inflation rate rose to 6.4 percent in December, its highest rate since July 2014, from 6.3 percent in November, data showed Monday.</s>Police vehicles stop in front of burning tires set up by protesters in Tunis

A man was killed during a demonstration against government austerity measures in Tebourba, 40 km (25 miles) west of Tunis, the security official said, without giving details.

The protest had turned violent when security forces tried stopping some youths from burning down a government building, witnesses said. Five people were wounded and taken to a hospital, state news agency TAP said.

Anger has been building up since the government said that from Jan. 1, it would increase the price of gasoil, some goods and taxes on cars, phone calls, the internet, hotel accommodations and other items, part of austerity measures agreed with its foreign lenders.

The 2018 budget also raises customs taxes on some products imported from abroad, such as cosmetics, and some agricultural products.

Violent protests spread in the evening to at least 10 towns with police and crowds clashing in Fernaneh, Bouhajla, Ouslatia, Moulouche, Sabitla, Gtar and Kef.

There was also a protest turning violent in Ettadamen district in the capital, residents said. Security forces had already dispersed small protests in Tunis late Sunday.

On Monday, about 300 people also took to the streets in the central Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid, carrying banners aloft with slogans denouncing high prices.</s>On Monday, a week after the new budget took effect, protests erupted in more than 10 towns across the country.

In Tebourba, an ancient town about 20 miles west of Tunis, the capital, a 45-year-old man, identified by residents as Khomsi el-Yerfeni, died on Monday night during protests at which the police fired tear gas. Witnesses told the news media they believed the man had been struck by a security vehicle, but the Interior Ministry said in a statement that he had had chronic shortness of breath and that his body showed no signs of violence or of having been run over.



The air in Tebourba was still thick with traces of tear gas on Tuesday. Trash bins were overturned. Police officers were out in large numbers.

Akrem, a 27-year-old protester who declined to give his surname because he fears the police, said unemployment and misery were rife in Tebourba. “With 500 dinars a month” — about $200 — “you can’t survive anymore, and our salaries don’t go beyond 400 dinars,” he said.

The minimum wage in Tunisia is about $160 a month, and even a small family would realistically need at least $240 a month to get by, economists say. Inflation is running at more than 6 percent, putting further pressure on household budgets.

In Kasserine, Raja Jassoumi, 33, a project manager with a nonprofit, said people had to be budget-conscious even when buying a loaf of bread, “so when you announce the increase of prices on fuel and other goods, it is the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

Khalifa Chibani, an Interior Ministry spokesman, said 44 people had been arrested overnight across the country. He blamed looters for the disorder.

“What happened had nothing to do with democracy and protests against price hikes,” he said in an interview on Tuesday. “Yesterday protesters burned down two police stations. They looted shops, banks and damaged property in many cities.”

Tear gas was also fired on protesters in the city of Kasserine. In Sidi Bouzid, the hometown of the Arab Spring, and in Meknassy, a neighboring city, young jobless people have been marching to protest the high cost of living and the lack of jobs. Several people have been arrested in Tunis and in the coastal cities of Sousse and Bizerte.

Protests are hardly new: In November, a mother of five killed herself by setting herself on fire in the town of Sejnane to protest her desperate economic plight. But public anger has festered anew because of the price increases.

On Tuesday in Tunis, young people gathered on Habib Bourguiba Avenue, a main boulevard and the site of large protests that in 2011 toppled the dictator Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, who had been in power for 23 years.

Many wore T-shirts with the slogan “Manich Msamah” (I Will Not Forgive), an anticorruption movement that began in 2015. Others bore the slogan “What Are We Waiting For?” and the image of a ticking clock.

“Wherever you go, in a shop or in a drugstore, every price is higher,” said Wael Naouar, a protester. “It is impossible for people to live with dignity today.”

Olfa Lamloum, the Tunisia country manager for International Alert, a nonprofit that seeks peaceful resolution to conflicts, said she worried “that we have the same narrative as before the revolution.”

“The protesters in marginalized areas are portrayed by the authorities and mainstream media as looters or criminals,” she said, but they are expressing “a real social despair.”

Safwan M. Masri, the executive vice president for global centers and global development at Columbia University, and author of the book “Tunisia: An Arab Anomaly,” said the new protests were the latest manifestation of an age-old problem: “huge economic disparity between the coastal and interior regions of the country.”

He cited as a precedent bread riots that took place in the country in 1983.

“I.M.F.-mandated structural adjustments ignored such inequalities back in the 1980s, and they do so again now,” he said. “Successive governments have consistently failed to address this issue and to invest in developing the central and southern regions.”

Leila Ghrairi, 51, a civil servant who came to support the protesters in Tunis, said she was not worried about another Arab Spring.

“I don’t think it can lead to a new revolution, because we have still some hope that this kind of protests can start a dialogue with the government,” she said. “But the violence of the police needs to stop.”</s>Srinagar, Jan 9 (PTI) A 20-year-old man was killed and another injured allegedly in security forces firing in Kulgam district of Jammu and Kashmir during clashes which erupted after an encounter between militants and security forces in a nearby area.

Khalid Dar and Yasir Qayoom were injured when security forces allegedly opened fire to disperse protesters at Khudwani in Kulgam district, officials said here.

The clashes erupted after the encounter between security forces and militants in nearby Kokernag area in Anantnag. Two militants were killed in the encounter.

The officials said the injured youth were rushed to a hospital in Anantnag where Khalid was declared 'brought dead'.

This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.</s>Tunisian police clashed with anti-government protesters in the capital Tunis and several other towns on Tuesday, residents said, as fresh demonstrations against austerity measures broke out a day after one person was killed in unrest.

Protests erupted in at least 12 towns across Tunisia on Monday, among them the tourist towns of Sousse and Hammamet, against price and tax rises imposed by the government to reduce its ballooning deficit and satisfy international lenders.

In Tunis on Tuesday police fired tear gas in two districts and also fired gas at a crowd storming a supermarket of France's Carrefour, a witness said. No casualties were reported.

Fresh clashes also broke out in Tebourba, a town 40 km (25 miles) west of Tunis where one protester was killed on Monday, witnesses said, and soldiers could be seen there and in Jelma, a central town where clashes were also reported.

The main opposition party had hours earlier called for protests to continue until the government scrapped what it called an unjust 2018 budget including price and tax hikes.

While Tunisia is widely seen as the only democratic success story among the nations where Arab Spring revolts took place in 2011, it has had nine governments since then and none of them have been able to tackle growing economic problems.

Europe is concerned about stability in Tunisia, partly because unemployment there has forced many young Tunisians to go abroad: The number of boats smuggling migrants to Italy has been rising and Tunisia has also produced the largest number of jihadists heading for battlefields in Iraq, Syria and Libya.

Public anger has been building since Jan. 1, when the government raised the prices of petrol and other items and hiked taxes on cars, phone calls, internet usage and hotel accommodation as part of those economic reforms.

A year ago, the government agreed to a four-year loan programme with the International Monetary Fund worth about $2.8 billion in return for economic reforms.

“Today we have a meeting with the opposition parties to coordinate our movements, but we will stay on the street and we will increase the pace of the protests until the unjust financial law is dropped,” opposition Popular Front leader Hamma Hammami told reporters.

Adding to pressure on the government, Nourredine Taboubi, head of the labor union UGTT, demanded the minimum wage and aid for the poor be raised within a week, state news agency TAP said.

Prime Minister Youssef Chahed called for calm, saying the economy would improve this year. Chahed, who heads a coalition of Islamist and secular parties, has been under constant pressure from labor unions over the faltering economy.

"People have to understand that the situation is extraordinary and their country is having difficulties, but we believe that 2018 will be the last difficult year for the Tunisians," Chahed said.

The 2011 uprising and two major militant attacks in Tunisia in 2015 damaged foreign investment and tourism, which accounts for eight percent of its economic activity.

The demonstrations have so far been much smaller than previous protests since the overthrow of autocrat ruler Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali in 2011.

But those confrontations between the government, labor unions, Islamists and secular forces also started on a small scale before escalating.

Analysts say Chahed could amend some of his reforms. Under pressure from unions, officials have already agreed to increase public sector salaries this year and to avoid compulsory lay-offs which could provoke protests.

The government says it wants to cut the public sector wage bill to 12.5 percent of gross domestic product in 2020 from about 15 percent now by offering voluntary redundancies.

But it is also trying to impose higher petrol prices and contributions to social security, which are tough for many people to swallow after years of hardship.

“At the time of Ben Ali, which we did not like, I filled my stand with vegetables, fruits and other items with 10 dinars, and now 50 dinars do not fill this gap. The situation has worsened dramatically,” said Fatma, a market woman in a Tunis.

“The government is sacrificing the poor and the middle class by raising prices and ignoring tax evaders and businessmen,” she said.

Separately, a judge ordered the arrest of a finance ministry official on suspicion of graft, another judge said, the first such move against a senior official since Chahed announced a crackdown last year.

The country’s anti-corruption committee says graft is widespread. It has presented cases against 50 state officials accused of corruption.</s>In the northwestern town of Sakiet Sidi Youssef near the border with Algeria, people gathered to protest and demand the solution to the issue of unemployment as well as to develop the country's areas on borders that are in a difficult economic situation.

In El Kef, unemployed people came out onto the streets demanding to provide jobs, while young people in the country's Kasserine Governorate and the capital city of Tunis held protests against increases in fuel prices and taxes.

The local Nessma TV channel reported on Monday, citing the Tunisian Health Ministry, that one person was killed during protests in the northern town of Tebourba. The broadcaster also noted, citing a source, that five security officers were injured.

​On January 5, during a meeting with political parties and trade unions, Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi called on the country's citizens to show patience and preserve stability as such fiscal measures were necessary to restore the financial balance of the state budget as well as to attract foreign investments.

In December, the Tunisian parliament approved the 2018 budget, which raised taxes on hotel accommodation, cars, alcohol, phone calls, the internet as well as custom taxes on some products imported from abroad.
Amid protests against rising prices and tax increases, a protestor is killed and five others are injured in clashes with security forces in the Tunisian town of Tebourba.