TUNIS: Two ministers in Tunisia's interim government resigned Monday, bowing to demands from protesters that everyone who served under the country's ousted president be purged from the cabinet. The Tunis stock exchange said it was suspending all its operations, underlining the instability plaguing Tunisia since veteran leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was forced out in a popular uprising last month. Monday's resignations followed the decision Sunday by caretaker Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi, who had held the same post under Ben Ali, to step down. After Ghannounchi's resignation, Industry and Technology Minister Mohamed Afif Chelbi and Planning and International Cooperation Minister Mohamed Nouri Jouini were the only cabinet survivors from Ben Ali's rule. The official TAP news agency announced first that Chelbi had quit, and then a few hours later that Jouini had followed him. It gave no explanation for their resignations or any indication of who would replace the ministers.
