10 years on, the Arab spring's explosive rage and dashed dreams

The extraordinary shock of people power gave way to a bitter backlash. So where to now?

A decade ago this week, a young fruit seller called Mohammed Bouazizi set himself alight outside the provincial headquarters of his home town in Tunisia, in protest against local police officials who had seized his cart and produce.

Accounts of the 26-year-old's shocking act rippled through his homeland, where hundreds of thousands of people who had also been humiliated by an atrophied state and its officials now found the courage to raise their voices.