Tunisia LiveBlog: What Emerges Today?
Saturday, January 15, 2011 at 7:35
2045 GMT: Speaking on the BBC World Service, a young Tunisian said men between the ages of 18 and 40, armed with baseball bats, are gathering in neighbourhoods to protect their homes.
1830 GMT: Privately-owned Nesma TV is reporting that Imad Trabelsi --- the nephew of Leila Trabelsi, the wife of deposed President Ben Ali --- is dead.
There are no details, but earlier in the day rumours had circulated on Twitter that Trabelsi had died as the family's homes in the Tunis suburbs were being ransacked yesterday.
Trabelsi, the nephew was named in a 2008 US diplomatic cable as a "particularly important economic actor" in the corruption of the Trabelsi family. In 2006, he had caused a scandal by reportedly stealing the yacht of a well-connected French businessman, Bruno Roger, Chairman of Lazard Paris.