Tunisia is to bury a murdered opposition leader amid huge tension surrounding his assassination.
Towns nationwide are braced for another day of tension and violence as Chokri Belaid is buried in the capital, Tunis.
The country's largest trade union has called for a general strike on Friday.
Protests on Thursday saw police fire tear gas at protesters
in Tunis and the central town of Gafsa, as a political crisis deepened
with the governing Islamist party refused to back its PM.
The demonstrators want the downfall of the government led by
the Islamist Ennahda party, which they blame for Wednesday's
assassination of Mr Belaid.
Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali has attempted to defuse tensions
by calling for a g non-partisan technocratic government but the
Islamist Ennahda party which leads the government has refused to accept
this.
Thus Wednesday's assassination has exposed many months of
tensions between liberal, secular Tunisians and the Islamist led
government, says the BBC's Wyre Davies in Tunis.
Ennahda denies opposition claims that it was behind the killing.
People who thought the violence and division had ended as the
Arab Spring swept through the country almost exactly two years ago, now
find themselves protesting on the same streets, fighting with riot
police and accusing the new Islamist-led government of stealing their
revolution.
The death of Mr Belaid, a leading critic of the governing
party has proved to Tunisians what they already feared, says our
correspondent, and Friday's funeral is certain to be an emotional and
highly charged event.
Government critics say that in recent months, Ennahda has
allowed ultra-conservative Muslim groups to impose their will and
opinions on what was always regarded as a bastion of Arab secularism.
Policeman killed
In Gafsa on Thursday, demonstrators observing a symbolic funeral outside the governor's office clashed with police.
Among the protesters were lawyers and judges who have launched a two-day strike in response to the killing.
Earlier, four opposition groups - including Mr Belaid's
Popular Front - announced that they were pulling out of the country's
constituent assembly in protest.
Tunisian state TV said universities had been ordered to
suspend lectures on Saturday and Sunday, while France said it would
close its schools in the Tunis.
The first political assassination in Tunisia since the Arab Spring
uprising in 2011, Mr Belaid was shot dead at close range on his way to
work. The attacker fled on the back of a motorcycle.
Thousands of people later rallied outside the interior
ministry, many chanting slogans urging the government to stand down and
calling for a new revolution.
In the centre of Tunis, a police officer was killed during
clashes between police and opposition supporters protesting against Mr
Belaid's death.
Mr Belaid was a respected human rights lawyer, and a
left-wing secular opponent of the government which took power after the
overthrow of long-serving ruler Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali.
Current President Moncef Marzouki said the assassination
should not affect Tunisia's revolution, cutting short a visit to France
and cancelling a trip to Egypt to return home to deal with the crisis.
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