the President's nephews, from Leila's side, who were accused by the French State prosecutor of having stolen two mega-yachts from a French marina. Ben Ali's son-in-law Sakher El Mated was rumored as being primed to eventually take over the country. Independent human rights groups, such as Amnesty Interna

if Berlusconi will flee like a predecessor Bettino Craxi who in May 1994 fled to Tunisia to escape jail and remained a fugitive there, protected by Ben Ali's government until his death on 19 January 2000. Weekend Reading Last week my quote of the week was: "There is a new generation of business leaders

e want the end of the division!" While Egyptians and Tunisians had by then jettisoned Hosni Mubarak's National Democratic Party and Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali's Rally for Constitutional Democracy, the March 15 movement was in effect asking Palestinian equivalencies not to disband, but team up. The irony wa

e middle class, an apolitical military, a moderate Islamist movement and a long history of a unified national identity. But with the removal of Mr. Ben Ali's strong hand, the Tunisian elite has been bitterly divided by many of the questions soon to confront Libya, especially the role of Islam in their new