Tunisian civil servants stage largest strike in years

TUNIS: Tunisian civil servants staged the largest general strike in five years on Thursday after their powerful trade union failed to secure wage hikes in tense negotiations with the government.

Thousands of people gathered outside parliament, responding to calls from the Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT) for demonstrations. "You have destroyed these people, you have starved them," the union’s secretary general Noureddine Taboubi said at the rally.