Tunis - Tunisia received $28.8m in the first such retrieval of what it calls looted assets held abroad by ousted President Ben Ali and his family. The state news agency TAP said a cheque in that amount had been handed to President Moncef Marzouki by Ali bin Fetais al-Marri, appointed by the UN to head efforts to recover money from leaders overthrown in Arab uprisings. Marri, Qatar's attorney-general, was named UN Special Advocate for Stolen Asset Recovery in Sept. TAP said the money returned to Tunisia had been in a Lebanese bank account belonging to Laila Trabelsi, the wife of Ben Ali, who fled to Saudi Arabia with his family on Jan 14, 2011 after popular protests ended his 23-yr rule.