Tunisia

1. Team USA underestimated Tunisia. Apparently, Team USA thought it would coast to a 55-point win just because British oddsmakers believed that would happen. But its defensive effort and shooting accuracy went unchecked at baggage claim. So as the game opened, Team USA missed shots, didn't rotate on defense or take Tunisia's outside shooting seriously. The result: Tunisia took the lead four times en route to a 15-12 advantage in the first quarter, which included Makram Ben Romdhane going unguarded for a coast-to-coast dunk as part of his team-high 22 points.

Tunisian officials believe they now know who killed opposition leader Chokri Belaid, after four other suspects were arrested in connection with his slaying, news agencies reported Tuesday. The assassination of Belaid triggered massive protests in Tunisia this month, underscoring the divisions that still rack the country in the aftermath of its so-called Arab Spring revolution. The leftist politician had warned before he was slain that the leading Nahda party and its backers were planning a wave of political killings, an accusation the party of moderate Islamists denies.

TUNISIA Taste of history If you love visiting World Heritage sites, Tunisia should top your list. Overseas Adventure Travel provided us with firsthand experiences as we visited the ruins of Carthage and other great sites. Overseas Adventure Travel, 1 Mifflin Place, Suite 400, Cambridge, Mass.; (800) 955-1925, www.oattravel.com. -- Edna M. Tobias, Hermosa Beach

Tunisian political leaders tapped a new prime minister Friday, choosing the head of a crucial and controversial ministry to form a new government for the divided North African nation. Ali Larayedh steps into the role at a tense time for Tunisia. Protests raged this month after the slaying of opposition leader Chokri Belaid, which infuriated secular liberals and stirred up renewed opposition to the government, led by moderate Islamists. Some blamed the government for his killing. Hoping to quell the unrest, then-Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali proposed that Tunisia create an apolitical government of technocrats, rather than one populated by politicians.

LONDON -- How does the U.S. spell weak defensive effort? Apparently, it's T-U-N-I-S-I-A. The men's basketball team came out slowly, if not embarrassingly, and gained a surprisingly limp 46-33 halftime lead Tuesday against Tunisia in an Olympic preliminary-round game. Worth mentioning: Oddsmaker Bovada had the U.S. as a 54-point favorite. Also worth mentioning: Tunisia actually led, 15-12, on a run that included a coast-to-coast dunk by Makram Ben Romdhane at the Olympic Park basketball arena.

World leaders agreed Friday to provide financial support to the newly forming governments of Tunisia and Egypt, adopting President Obama's plan to help build lasting democracies in those countries. As they wrapped up their annual summit here, leaders of the Group of 8 industrialized nations directed the International Monetary Fund to provide loans and other financial support. Although they did not commit to specific pledges of financial assistance individually, the leaders suggested they would do so either in direct loans or debt forgiveness or through contributions to international banks and funds.

A man convicted of raping a 7-year-old girl was hanged at dawn Thursday in a Tunis prison, the Justice Ministry said. A communique published by the official TAP news agency named the man as Chedli Wartani. He was the third man to be executed for rape in Tunisia in just over two months.

Libya and Tunisia restored diplomatic relations today, ending a two-year dispute between the two North African neighbors, the government announced. Tunis severed relations with the government of Col. Moammar Kadafi in September, 1985, after the Tripoli government expelled 30,000 Tunisian workers. Consular relations were resumed in October, when Libya agreed to pay indemnification for the expelled workers.

This country will impose the death penalty on rapists who use weapons or whose victims are under 10 years old, Justice Minister Ridha ben Ali said Saturday. He said a draft law to go before Parliament will also impose the death penalty on people convicted of raping or sexually molesting members of their own family. At present, convicted rapists can be sentenced to hard labor for up to 20 years.

SIDI BOUZID, Tunisia - Bearded and sweaty, they pressed in, their faces shining in the shadow and light beneath billowing tunics hanging for sale outside a mosque. The sun edged higher. A veiled woman hurried past and a boy stepped closer to listen to men complain about no jobs in fields or factories, no water in thousands of homes. "I didn't trust the old government and I don't trust the new one. They lie. I trust in another revolution," said Khalid Ahmedi, his disgust sharpening as shopkeepers slipped past him to pray.

TUNIS, Tunisia - The slain Tunisian opposition leader's coffin was driven through rain-swept streets lined with soldiers and crammed with mourners who chanted against the Islamist-led government and marched with placards through the heart of this troubled capital. Chokri Belaid's funeral procession moved slowly through neighborhoods Friday while his compatriots clashed with police and demonstrated by the tens of thousands on the third day of unrest that has sharpened political divisions in the birthplace of the "Arab Spring.

TUNIS, Tunisia - Tunisia's Islamist-led government Thursday rejected a proposal by its prime minister to form a new Cabinet amid growing political tension after nationwide protests sparked by the assassination of a key opposition figure. The announcement by the dominant Nahda party highlighted differences among Islamists and spurred fresh uncertainty over how to keep the slaying of Chokri Belaid, a fierce government critic, from tipping the economically fragile country into deeper unrest.

TUNIS, Tunisia - The assassination of a leading opposition figure in Tunisia on Wednesday triggered protests across the nation and raised fresh concern about the legacy of the "Arab Spring," the pro-democracy movement now threatened in several countries by turmoil between Islamists and secular liberals. Chokri Belaid, head of the Democratic Patriots party, was shot on his way to work in Tunis, the capital, the day after he predicted a wave of political assassinations. No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but it came amid a democratic transition endangered by Islamist hard-liners with caches of smuggled weapons.

The Hawaii issue [Oct. 21] was excellent and apparently awoke some memories of an adventure almost 50 years ago. At the end of my third year of college in June 1963 and being close to collegiate burnout, I got a job through an old friend at the Ala Moana shopping center [in Honolulu] selling women's shoes. Those six months were probably the best times of my life. I managed to surf almost every day and was in the best shape ever. But most of all, I appreciated being in one of the most beautiful places on the planet.

CAIRO - As night fell Saturday and cars swerved around Tahrir Square tooting their horns, a stout woman in a black veil and robes screamed herself hoarse: "The president is an agent of the Americans!" But the protesters who had tried to charge the U.S. Embassy during four days of violent demonstrations had already gone, driven out by the police that morning. Pedestrians covered their mouths and winced when they passed the spots where the police had sprayed hundreds of canisters of tear gas. Even as Cairo settled back into its normal rhythms, and capitals around the Arab world did the same, the protests over an anti-Muslim video produced in California delivered the same jarring message of uncertainty to ordinary citizens from Tunis to Cairo: They were prisoners of a political transition whose happy ending was far from assured.

CAIRO - Anti-American violence erupted across the Muslim world for a third day, with enraged protesters scaling the walls of U.S. embassies in Sudan and Tunisia and hard-pressed police waging street battles with demonstrators in several Middle East capitals. Protesters tore down the flag at the U.S. Embassy in Tunis, the Tunisian capital, and set a nearby American school afire. In Khartoum, Sudan's capital, demonstrators breached an embassy wall and raised a black flag of militant Islam as police struggled to push them back.

SITE: Montpellier TIME: 8:30 a.m. TV: ESPN, Channel 34 RADIO: KWKW (1330, Spanish) * ABOUT COLOMBIA: Lost its opener to Romania, 1-0. It will be without Faustino Asprilla, whose pleas to be reinstated after being sent home because of comments he made to a Colombian journalist are being ignored by Coach Hernan Dario Gomez. * ABOUT TUNISIA: Lost its opener to England, 2-0. Must be more aggressive and take more offensive chances than in its opener.

President Habib Bourguiba's government last week announced plans to free 198 members of the opposition Socialist Progressive Rally who were imprisoned last April. The presidential pardon, which coincides with a festival ending the Islamic faith's holy month of Ramadan, followed the release of 150 non-political prisoners and the restoration of civil rights to 300 other citizens convicted of various crimes.

SIDI BOUZID, Tunisia - Bearded and sweaty, they pressed in, their faces shining in the shadow and light beneath billowing tunics hanging for sale outside a mosque. The sun edged higher. A veiled woman hurried past and a boy stepped closer to listen to men complain about no jobs in fields or factories, no water in thousands of homes. "I didn't trust the old government and I don't trust the new one. They lie. I trust in another revolution," said Khalid Ahmedi, his disgust sharpening as shopkeepers slipped past him to pray.

LONDON - When Alan Knipe succeeded Hugh McCutcheon as coach of the U.S. men's volleyball team, he inherited a gold-medal winning program and a boatload of pressure. The U.S. has endured an up-and-down quadrennial since winning at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but its straight-sets victory over winless Tunisia on Monday offered more proof it could be peaking at an opportune time. And Knipe continued to put his own stamp on the program, sitting regulars David Lee, Clayton Stanley and Reid Priddy for the 25-15, 25-19, 25-19 victory with a Wednesday quarterfinal match against Italy already secured.