Tunisia's parliament on Friday began to examine a "transitional justice" bill designed to compensate victims of the former regimes of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and Habib Bourguiba.

The examination, coming almost three years after Ben Ali was overthrown in a popular uprising, has been repeatedly delayed because of sharp disagreement between the ruling Islamists and opposition parties which accuse each other of trying to exploit the issue for political gain.

With chaos in Libya, military takeover in Egypt and Syria's brutal conflict threatening to extinguish hopes fueled by the Arab Spring, only Tunisia stands out even as its stability hangs in the balance.

By the end of 2013, the political forces that emerged from the tumultuous changes in the region nearly three years ago have yet to build the new democratic order or bring about the social transformations demanded by the millions who took to the streets.

An overnight deal between Tunisia's main parties to end a protracted political crisis was thrown into doubt Thursday after the agreed choice of interim premier had second thoughts about taking the job.

Mustapha Filali, who is 92 and served as agriculture minister under Tunisia's founding President Habib Bourguiba, ruled himself out after earlier indicating he was ready to accept the job.

Lawyers for a Tunisian woman allegedly raped by two policemen asked Monday for the trial to be delayed so threats to her family and information about the accused can be considered.

Emna Zahrouni told Monday's court hearing that one of the policemen on trial, Walid Feriani, "has a disciplinary record with the interior minister in a similar context.

A Tunisian rapper who went on the run after receiving a 21-month jail sentence in absentia in August for songs deemed insulting to police was jailed for four months at a retrial Thursday.

Weld El 15, whose real name is Alaa Yacoubi, had surrendered to the authorities at the courthouse for the hearing.

A landmine killed a Tunisian army officer on Monday in the Mount Chaambi border region, where security forces have for months been hunting al-Qaida linked militants, the defense ministry said.

Captain Youssef Dridi, a military engineer, died in the blast, which occurred at the end of an "operational mission" and which lightly injured another soldier, the official TAP news agency quoted the ministry spokesman as saying.

Tunisia police on Saturday arrested 10 suspected jihadists of the banned Ansar al-Sharia movement in the northeast of the country triggering clashes with their supporters, the interior ministry said.

The arrests took place at dawn in the town of Kef and hours later clashes erupted when supporters of the suspects hurled stones at a police station and set tyres ablaze in the area.

"A gang" of around 60 people attacked the headquarters of a coalition of political parties opposed to Tunisia's ruling Islamists in Tunis overnight on Thursday-Friday, the opposition group announced.

"A paid gang tried to attack the headquarters of the Popular Front. There was no damage and our colleagues are fine... The cowards fled" when confronted by members of the leftist coalition, the group said on its official Facebook page.

Fifty Tunisian policeman were hurt in clashes with protesters in the marginalized town of Siliana where a general strike degenerated into violence, the interior ministry said on Thursday.

The violence broke out on Wednesday as the town observed a strike to mark the first anniversary of riots that left more than 300 people injured, and as strikes were held in two other regions amid rising social discontent and political deadlock.

Angry protesters clashed with police Wednesday and torched an office of Tunisia's ruling Islamist party, as rising discontent and political deadlock prompted people to go on strike in three parts of the country.

In Siliana, southwest of Tunis, hundreds of residents gathered outside the governor's office to remember more than 300 people injured one year ago, when demonstrations exploded into days of running clashes between police and protesters.