Evening Edition

“Interpol can confirm that its National Central Bureau (NCB) in Tunis has issued a global alert via Interpol’s international network to seek the location and arrest” of Ben Ali and six members of his family, it said in a statement.

The cross-border police agency said that Interpol member states, which include Saudi Arabia, were asked to “search, locate and provisionally arrest Mr Ali and his relatives,” pending a formal extradition request from Tunisia.

Ben Ali, his wife Leila Trabelsi and other members of his once all-powerful family are accused of illegally acquiring assets and transferring funds abroad during the leader’s 23-year rule, Justice Minister Lazhar Karoui Chebbi said.

“No one will be above the law,” Chebbi said. Ben Ali has fled to Saudi Arabia and 33 members of his extended family have been arrested in Tunisia.

“Even though we are certain Jude Celestin received the necessary number of votes and was therefore through to the second round, INITE (Unity) has agreed to withdraw his candidacy for the presidency,” a party statement said.

There was no immediate confirmation from Celestin himself, and one source said he was refusing to sign the necessary documentation and threatening to hold a press conference to deny the move.

In the second day of the biggest protests since Mubarak came to power 30 years ago, Egyptians continued to demand the president’s ouster, as shockwaves from the revolution in Tunisia increasingly worried Arab leaders.

A policeman and a protester died in Cairo in a shower of rock-throwing between the two sides, bringing the death toll to six in two days.

In a second day of the biggest protests since Mubarak came to power 30 years ago, Egyptians demanded the president’s ouster, as shockwaves from the revolution in Tunisia increasingly worried Arab leaders.

Protesters in Suez threw Molotov cocktails at a government building, setting parts of it on fire, witnesses said.

The pro-democracy youth group April 6 Movement, the driving force behind Tuesday’s protests — the largest and most significant in Egypt since bread riots in 1977 — urged people to head back to Cairo’s main square Wednesday.

“Everyone needs to head down to Tahrir Square to take over the square once again,” the group said on its Facebook page — which along with Twitter had helped to organise Tuesday’s protests.

Hours after declaring America needed to reinvent itself in a blizzard of economic innovation to match rising Asian powers, Obama trekked to Wisconsin, a rust belt state trying to transform its declining manufacturing base.

The state, won by Obama in his 2008 election, will play an important role in the electoral map the president is beginning to piece together as he seeks reelection in 2012.

Obama’s confident State of the Union address Tuesday mixed straight talk with a patriotic call to action, as he rode a tide of improbable political momentum less than three months after a Republican mid-term election rout.

The president spoke to a television audience of millions from the House of Representatives, seeking to unleash a torrent of innovation to transform the economy after the most brutal meltdown in generations.

Medvedev called on the world — represented in this snowy Alpine resort by 2,500 senior economic powerbrokers — to stand unified, saying that this was the only guarantee of successfully combatting extremist violence.

Delivering the opening address to the meeting of the world’s business and political elite, Medvedev said he had maintained his trip to show his and Russia’s defiance of the “terrorists” who killed 35 people.

Ditching the usual throbbing techno soundtrack, the ever-innovative French designer had the recorded voice of Catherine Deneuve soberly introduce each look by number and technical description.

It was the veteran film star herself — seated in the front row alongside Spanish director Pedro Almodovar — who came up with the idea, Gaultier explained.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev arrived as expected to address the forum, but was forced to cancel most of his Davos appointments after Monday’s deadly suicide bomb attack on a Moscow airport erupted into his programme.

Medvedev said in a newspaper interview he would participate in the forum because it was a very important global venue to present Russia’s position.

Senators at the Federation Council voted unanimously to approve the new START treaty, which US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev signed in Prague on April 8, 2010.

The new Strategic Arms Reductions Treaty (START) reduces old warhead ceilings by 30 percent and limits each side to 700 deployed long-range missiles and heavy bombers.

The tourists needed a win to claw their way back into the seven-match series and a fine century by man-of-the-match Trott helped them to 299-8, the first time they have lasted their full allotment of overs in the series.

Australia never looked comfortable in reply at the Adelaide Oval and their chances all but evaporated with the fall of opener Shane Watson for 64, caught behind of Ajmal Shahzad, to leave the hosts on 116-4.

The move will see the world’s largest automaker pull 1.28 million vehicles in Japan and 421,000 overseas, Toyota and the Japanese transport ministry said.

Analysts say the carmaker now faces further pressure in its battle to regain consumer trust overseas after a crisis involving millions of recalls, a wave of lawsuits and record fines. Its shares tumbled 1.87 percent in Tokyo Wednesday.