ROME, Oct 1, 2008 (AFP) - Italian authorities have picked up around 51 illegal immigrants, mostly Tunisians, travelling in a sailing boat off the Sicilian coast, local police said Wednesday.

The passengers called for help after their 16-metre (52.4 feet) vessel was damaged in the Sicilian Channel, the strait which separates the Italian coast from Africa.

TUNIS, Sept 29, 2008 (AFP) - Georges Adda, a leading Tunisian leftist politician, died Sunday from a heart attack at the age of 92, the Movement Ettajid party said in a statement.

Born in Tunis in 1916, Adda described himself as 'anti-Zionist Tunisian Jew.' He became a leader of the Tunisian communist party and fought for independence from France, the country's former colonial master.

TUNIS, September 9, 2008 (AFP) - South Africa's foreign minister on Tuesday held talks in Tunisia, where she sought to build on cooperation that has seen her country recruit some 250 Tunisian medics, a news agency reported.

ALGIERS, September 6, 2008 (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice talked terrorism in Algeria Saturday with President Abedelaziz Bouteflika, as her North Africa visit edged towards its conclusion.

ALGIERS, September 6, 2008 (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice touched down in Algeria Saturday for talks with President Abedelaziz Bouteflika, as her North Africa visit edged towards its conclusion.

TUNIS, September 6, 2008 (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice held talks with Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali on the fight against terror and reforms in his country Saturday on the latest stage of a North Africa tour.

The pair had a 'very good and extensive discussion,' Rice told journalists afterwards.

TUNIS, September 6, 2008 (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Tunis early Saturday to pursue a North Africa tour after a landmark meeting in Libya with its leader Moamer Kadhafi.

The United States has key military ties with Tunisia and is also seeking to conclude a free trade accord with the Maghreb nation.

TUNIS, September 6, 2008 (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Tunis early Saturday following a landmark meeting in Libya with its leader Moamer Kadhafi, an AFP reporter said.

Rice was the first US secretary of state to visit Tripoli for 55 years.

TRIPOLI, September 5, 2008 (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice left Libya early Saturday following her landmark meeting with the country's leader Moamer Kadhafi.

Rice was the first US secretary of state to visit Tripoli for 55 years.

DUBAI, September 3, 2008 (AFP) - A jihadist on an Islamist website urged the North African branch of Al-Qaeda to assassinate US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during her regional tour this week, the Site Intelligence Group said on Wednesday.

TUNIS, September 3, 2008 (AFP) - The UN's refugee chief said Wednesday at least 50,000 displaced people remained unable to return home following the brief war between Georgia and Russia last month.

WASHINGTON, September 3, 2008 (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will mark one of the rare diplomatic successes of President George W. Bush with her first visit to Libya this week, less than four months before the end of Bush's eight-year White House tenure.

WASHINGTON, September 2, 2008 (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will travel to North Africa from September 4 to 7, stopping in Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, a State Department spokesman said Tuesday.

TUNIS, August 29, 2008 (AFP) - Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali partially reshuffled his cabinet, tapping half-a-dozen new ministers for youth, economics, agriculture and cultural portfolios, his prime minister said Friday.

TUNIS, August 26, 2008 (AFP) - A young French girl drowned while on holiday in Tunisia after her leg became trapped in the filter drain at the bottom of her hotel swimming pool, several sources said Tuesday.

Tunisian opposition figure Zakia Dhifaoui has been sentenced to eight months in prison for joining ...

Four Tunisians and a Moroccan were arrested Saturday in Italy for allegedly training Islamic fighters and sending them to hotspots such as Iraq and Afghanistan, a police official told AFP

TUNIS, August 3, 2008 (AFP) - Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi arrived in Tunis Sunday for talks with President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, expected to focus on bilateral cooperation.

Kadhafi was greeted with full military honours as he flew in by private jet to Tunis-Carthage airport, although the exact timetable and programme of his visit are not known.

TUNIS, August 2, 2008 (AFP) - Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was formally nominated Saturday by his party to run for a fifth term in office.

'Just as I am proud to lead this glorious party ... I am proud of the decision by the congress to nominate me as its candidate,' he told members of his Democratic Constitutional Rally (RCD) at the party's congress.

COPENHAGEN, July 29, 2008 (AFP) - Two Tunisians suspected of plotting to kill a Danish cartoonist who satirised the Prophet Mohammed will appeal their near six-month detention without trial at Denmark's Supreme Court, their lawyers said Tuesday.

TUNIS, July 28, 2008 (AFP) - Two Tunisian migrants died and six others are missing off the Tunisian coast after an abortive attempt to reach Italy, a Tunisian newspaper reported Monday.

LONDON, July 28, 2008 (AFP) - Two judges at London's High Court on Monday rejected an appeal by three Tunisian men against their extradition to Italy on human rights grounds and fears of possible torture there.

COPENHAGEN, July 25, 2008 (AFP) - A Danish court ruled Friday it was legal to continue holding two Tunisians suspected of plotting to kill a Danish cartoonist who satirised the Prophet Mohammed without trial.

LONDON, July 22, 2008 (AFP) - Italy was accused in London's High Court Tuesday of breaking European human rights legislation in terrorism cases, as lawyers sought to prevent the extradition of three Tunisian men to face trial.

COPENHAGEN, July 21, 2008 (AFP) - A Danish appeals court on Monday deferred a ruling over whether two Tunisians suspected of plotting to kill a cartoonist who satirised the Prophet Mohammed had been detained legally.

The court will make its ruling on Friday after lawyers for the pair appealed an initial ruling saying they had been legally detained.

TUNIS, July 18, 2008 (AFP) - A Tunisian court has sentenced five men, including a police officer, to jail terms for belonging to a terrorist organisation and planning attacks aimed at destabilising the government, a lawyer said Friday.

COPENHAGEN, July 15, 2008 (AFP) - A Copenhagen judge on Tuesday ruled that a custody order issued for two Tunisians suspected of plotting to kill a Danish cartoonist who satirised the Prophet Mohammed was legal, judicial sources said.

FARNBOROUGH, July 15, 2008 (AFP) - Tunisair confirmed here on Tuesday a deal to buy 16 energy-efficient Airbus passenger jets worth a total of about 2.0 billion dollars (1.25 billion euros).

COPENHAGEN, July 2, 2008 (AFP) - Denmark's Supreme Court on Wednesday demanded a new judicial examination of the incarceration without trial of two Tunisians suspected of plotting to kill a cartoonist who satirised the Prophet Mohammed.

RABAT, June 8, 2008 (AFP) - Unemployment disproportionately affecting young people is to blame for violent protests over the weekend in Morocco and Tunisia that killed one person and injured dozens, observers said.

TUNIS, June 7, 2008 (AFP) - Tunisia's government regretted on Saturday the death of a man killed by security forces during protests but insisted the government had to prevent violent protests.

TUNIS, June 6, 2008 (AFP) - A demonstrator was shot and killed and several others wounded in Tunisia Friday amid clashes with police over unemployment and high inflation, union and government officials said.

TUNIS, June 6, 2008 (AFP) - A demonstrator was shot and killed and several others were wounded in Tunisia Friday amid clashes with police over unemployment and high inflation, union and government officials said.

CANNES, France, May 21, 2008 (AFP) - Italian media group Mediaset and Franco-Tunisian financier Tarak Ben Ammar said Wednesday they had jointly bought a 50-percent stake in Tunisian-based Nessma TV for 30 million dollars (19 million euros).

DJERBA, Tunisia, May 21, 2008 (AFP) - Jews from around the world arrived on the Tunisian island of Djerba on Wednesday for an annual pilgrimage to Africa's oldest synagogue, with organisers expecting a significant jump in participants.

MAPUTO, May 14, 2008 (AFP) - The African Development Bank will remain in its Tunis headquarters for at least another year but is not ruling out an eventual return to the Ivory Coast capital Abidjan, bank officials said on Wednesday.

RABAT, May 6, 2008 (AFP) - Police in Morocco Tuesday arrested 34 Africans as they boarded an inflatable dinghy to try to cross the Mediterranean secretly to Europe, local officials said.

COPENHAGEN, May 6, 2008 (AFP) - A Danish judge on Tuesday extended the detention of two Tunisians suspected of plotting to kill a Danish cartoonist who satirised Prophet Mohammed, one of the defence lawyers said.

The judge prolonged their detention for four weeks, lawyer Henrik Stagehorn told AFP.