Tunisia announced on Friday that it had arrested 16 men suspected of belonging to a group with ties to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, in the western regions of Kasserine and Jendouba near the Algerian border.

"We have discovered a terrorist group linked to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb in a training camp run by three Algerians close to AQIM leader Abou Moussab Abdel Wadoud," in the Kasserine region, Interior Minister Ali Laarayedh told reporters.

Qatar has donated $20 million to Tunisia to compensate the families of those killed or wounded in the revolution, local media reported on Friday, as parliament moved closer to adopting a compensation law.

The donations, which will supplement an existing fund, was announced by Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali.

FBI agents on Friday questioned a Tunisian man suspected of involvement in a deadly September attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya, but in the absence of defense lawyers, his solicitor said.

"The judge prevented any lawyers from attending the questioning" of Ali Hamzi, Abdelbasset Ben Mbarek told AFP, adding that his client was interrogated as a suspect rather than as a witness.

Protesters on Monday hurled rocks at Tunisia's President Moncef Marzouki and parliamentary speaker Mustapha Ben Jaafar in Sidi Bouzid, cradle of the revolution that erupted exactly two years ago.

The incident began after a speech by Marzouki in the central Tunisian town, where celebrations are taking place to mark the anniversary of the revolution, and as Ben Jaafar was about to speak.

Tunisian security forces have broken up a network that recruited fighters for al-Qaida in North Africa, the interior ministry said on Saturday.

"A terrorist network which was responsible for recruiting radical Islamists and sending them to strongholds of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has been dismantled," a ministry spokesman said, quoted by the official TAP news agency.

The Seychelles on Saturday said the son-in-law of Tunisia's deposed dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali has left the country, and denied statements by Tunisian authorities that he had been arrested there.

"Sakhr El Materi was briefly questioned at Seychelles international airport upon his arrival.... El Materi was not arrested as was reported by some international media," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Tunisia's main labor union, the UGTT, said on Wednesday it had called off a nationwide general strike convened to protest what it said had been an attack on its offices by allies of the ruling Ennahda party.

The UGTT "administrative commission decided to cancel the general strike," which had been set for Thursday, a union statement said, explaining that the decision was taken after a deal with the government to head off the work stoppage.

Tunisia Policeman Killed in Clashes on Algeria Border

A Tunisian policeman was killed in clashes with gunmen in Kasserine on the border with Algeria on Monday, a security source said, adding that military reinforcements were sent to the region.

Tunisia's main labor union has won key support for a rare nationwide general strike to be held next week from the International Trade Union Confederation, a local ITUC official said on Sunday.

ITUC secretary general Sharan Burrow will arrive in Tunis on Tuesday at the head of a delegation "to express her support for the UGTT general strike that will be observed on December 13," ITUC spokesman in Tunisia Ghassen Ksibi said.

The party of Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki could pull out from the coalition government amid tensions with the ruling Islamist Ennahda party, the secretary general of the CPR warned on Sunday.

"The Congress for the Republic will quit the government if its proposals and those of President Moncef Marzouki are not taken into account," the party's secretary general Mohamed Abbou told reporters.