LONDON (Reuters) – If anyone saw last week’s U.S.-Russian agreement to convene a peace conference on Syria as a potential breakthrough, Western leaders have been going out of their way to disabuse them.

International envoy Lakhdar Brahimi hailed the plan as the “first hopeful news” on Syria in a long time and deferred his own plans to resign after nine months of futile mediation.

LONDON (Reuters) – If anyone saw last week’s U.S.-Russian agreement to convene a peace conference on Syria as a potential breakthrough, Western leaders have been going out of their way to disabuse them.

International envoy Lakhdar Brahimi hailed the plan as the “first hopeful news” on Syria in a long time and deferred his own plans to resign after nine months of futile mediation.

TUNIS (Reuters) – Two years on, the euphoria has long gone.

The flame of revolt that first flared in Tunisia, previously one of the Arab world’s quietest corners, consumed autocrats there, in neighboring Egypt and, more violently, in Libya.

Contained in Bahrain, it flickered on in Yemen where in time a veteran leader was pushed aside. In Syria, it is still being fiercely fought over. All Arab countries have felt the heat.

TUNIS (Reuters) – The leader of Tunisia’s main Islamist Ennahda party, Rached Ghannouchi, said on Tuesday he expected Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali to form a coalition government this week that would include politicians as well as technocrats.

Tunisia was thrown into political turmoil last week by the assassination of secular opposition politician Chokri Belaid.

TUNIS, Feb 10 (Reuters) – Tunisian President Moncef
Marzouki’s secular party withdrew on Sunday from an Islamist-led
government already reeling from last week’s assassination of
secular opposition leader Chokri Belaid.

Belaid’s killing on Wednesday – Tunisia’s first such
political assassination in decades – has thrown the government
and the country into turmoil, widening rifts between the
dominant Islamist Ennahda party and its secular-minded foes.

TUNIS (Reuters) – Thousands of Islamists marched in Tunis on Saturday in a show of strength, a day after the funeral of an assassinated secular politician drew the biggest crowds seen on the streets since Tunisia’s uprising two years ago.

About 6,000 supporters of the ruling Ennahda movement rallied to back their leader Rachid al-Ghannouchi, who was the target of angry slogans raised by mourners at Friday’s mass funeral of Chokri Belaid, a rights lawyer and opposition leader.

TUNIS (Reuters) – Thousands of Islamists marched in Tunis on Saturday in a show of strength a day after the funeral of an assassinated secular politician drew the biggest crowds seen on the streets since Tunisia’s uprising two years ago.

About 6,000 partisans of the ruling Ennahda movement rallied in support of their leader, Rachid al-Ghannouchi, who was the target of angry slogans raised by mourners at Friday’s mass funeral of Chokri Belaid, a rights lawyer and opposition leader.

TUNIS, Feb 8 (Reuters) – Tens of thousands of mourners
chanted anti-Islamist slogans on Friday at the Tunis funeral of
secular opposition leader Chokri Belaid, whose assassination has
plunged Tunisia deeper into political crisis.

Crowds surged around an open army truck carrying Belaid’s
coffin, draped in a red and white Tunisian flag, from a cultural
centre in the slain leader’s home district of Jebel al-Jaloud.
Demonstrators with flags and banners packed surrounding streets.

TUNIS (Reuters) – A general strike gripped Tunis on Friday as mourners gathered for the funeral of opposition politician Chokri Belaid, whose assassination has plunged Tunisia into a deep political crisis.

In chilly, showery weather, about 3,000 mourners waited outside the city’s Cultural Centre, where Belaid’s body lay before the funeral. “Belaid, rest in peace, we will continue the struggle,” they chanted, holding portraits of the slain leader.

AMMAN (Reuters) – Jordan has every reason to worry about the conflict in Syria, its bigger neighbor to the north.

A flood of Syrian refugees and disrupted trade due to the 22-month-old revolt against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad burden a frail economy that has already had to turn to the IMF.