Here's a summary of the day's events.
• Tunisia's president, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, has fled the country after days of street riots forced him out. The prime minister, Mohamed Ghannouchi, has assumed power and promised to "respect the constitution and implement the political, economic and social reforms that have been announced".
• A state of emergency has been declared in the country. Twelve people were killed in overnight clashes between demonstrators and police. Tunis airport has been surrounded by the military and Tunisian airspace closed. Gunfire has been heard on the streets tonight.
• Our correspondent, Angelique Chrisafis, reports that French police are awaiting the arrival of Bin Ali's plane in Paris. The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, said France – the former occupying power – recognises the "constitutional transition" in Tunisia.
• The UK Foreign Office is advising against travel to the country. A number of tour operators have suspended flights and are making plans to evacuate holidaymakers.
Thanks very much for all your comments and good night.
This is what the Associated Press says in its latest dispatch from Tunis:
The shakeup was certain to have repercussions in the Arab world and beyond as a sign that even a leader as entrenched and powerful as Ben Ali could be brought down by massive public outrage.
Commenter @clunie mentions Egypt, where Hosni Mubarak leads an autocratic government that is unpopular among many sections of the population. Unrest has been put down brutally.
And in his Financial Times blog today, the paper's chief foreign affairs commentator Gideon Rachman draws a parallel with Egypt:
It is all strangely reminiscent of Egypt, where President Hosni Mubarak is now 82-years-old – and has not yet announced whether he will run for re-election later this year. Will his attitude be affected by developments in Tunisia?
He goes on:
The potential for unrest is not confined to North Africa. Saudi Arabia, the only Arab country that is a member of the G20, also fits the profile. King Abdullah is now in his eighties and is ailing. Despite its massive oil wealth, the country also suffers from high youth unemployment.
This is a crucial moment. There is a change of regime under way. Now it's the succession. It must lead to profound reforms, to reform the law and let the people choose.
Ghannouchi has had a high profile role during the unrest of the past few days, announcing the sacking of the interior minister earlier this week. Ghannouchi also gave interviews to the international media defending Tunisia's handling of the protests.
Two officials at the French Foreign ministry said they did not know whether he had arrived in the country and were still checking.
Individual protestors still being dragged off by plain clothes police on bourguiba ave #sidibouzid
I vow that I will respect the constitution and implement the political, economic and social reforms that have been announced ... in consultation with all political sides including political parties and civil society.
Air France has confirmed that the airspace around Tunis has been closed, and it has suspended flights. (This is Matt Wells taking over from Paul Owen.)
• Tunisia's president, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, has fired his government and called early elections for six months' time, following days of rioting. A national unity government involving a key opposition figure is possible, foreign minister Kamel Morjane has said.
• A state of emergency has been declared in the country.
• Twelve people were killed in overnight clashes between demonstrators and police. There are reports Tunis airport has been surrounded by the military and Tunisian airspace closed.
• The UK Foreign Office is advising against travel to the country. A number of tour operators have suspended flights and are making plans to evacuate holidaymakers.
My colleague Angelique Chrisafis will be filing from Tunisia soon; you will be able to find her story here along with the rest of the Guardian's coverage of this situation.
MILITARY SURROUNDING TUNIS AIRPORT - AIRPORT OFFICIAL
Afp reporting Tunis airport and airspace closed by army.
Jonathan Rugman
jrug
The magazine adds:
Mr Ben Ali has faced protests before, but never on this scale. For the first time since he came to power, the ubiquitous presidential portraits that adorn many buildings have been ripped down and burned, while protesters chant colourful insults aimed at Mr Ben Ali and his acquisitive wife, Leila Trabelsi.
I think that is feasible and I think it would be entirely normal.
Chebbi is one of Ben Ali's most outspoken internal opponents and the man western diplomats view as the most credible opposition figure in the opposition. He said the president had done the right thing yesterday:
But what remains [to be seen] is how will this be carried out and I ask that a coalition government be created.
Medical sources and a witness said 12 more people were killed in overnight clashes in the capital and the northeastern town of Ras Jebel.
Before the latest deaths emerged, the official death toll in almost a month of violence was 23, while the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights said it had a list of at least 66 people killed.
The report continues with an account of events in the capital today:
On Friday, state television flashed the announcement: "The president has decided to dismiss the government and to hold legislative elections within six months." It gave no details.
But protests continued in the capital and other cities on Friday. Around 8,000 people rallied outside the interior ministry in central Tunis, chanting "Ben Ali, leave!" and "Ben Ali, assassin!"
After police fired teargas and wielded their truncheons, crowds of youths retreated a little way from the building and started throwing stones at the police, who responded with more tear gas grenades. Reporters also heard gunfire nearby.
For the Tunis protesters, Ben Ali's promise to quit and cut essential food prices was not enough. "We don't want bread or anything else, we just want him to leave," they chanted. "After that we will eat whatever we have to."
The UGTT trade union confederation had called for a general strike, which analysts said would test of whether the president had managed to calm public anger with his speech.
A British holidaymaker who has returned from Tunisia has been telling BBC News about her experience of the protests: "It was not aimed at us. It was frightening but you felt safe in the hotels." She said a French journalist had been shot in the leg by the police.
The BBC is reporting a 5pm-7am curfew, with no gatherings of three people or more allowed. Unofficial reports are that five people have been killed today.
The BBC's correspondent in Tunisia says young people protesting will not be placated by promises of change in years to come: "they want change now."
• Police have been firing tear gas and beating up protesters outside the interior ministry in Tunis.
• 12 people have been reported dead after yesterday's demonstrations.
• President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali has dismissed his entire government and has said there will be early elections in six months.
• A unity government is possible, foreign minister Kamel Morjane has said.
And for the first time, we see the opportunity to rebel, to take revenge on the "royal" family who has taken everything, to overturn the established order that has accompanied our youth. An educated youth, which is tired and ready to sacrifice all the symbols of the former autocratic Tunisia with a new revolution: the Jasmin Revolution – the true one.
Tunisia's president has dismissed his entire government and is calling early legislative elections, his spokesman announced today, after days of bloody clashes between security forces and protesters.
The state news agency said president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali would call fresh legislative elections in six months.
The news came after riot police fired teargas at a peaceful demonstration and gunshots were heard in central Tunis, where thousands of people had gathered to demand Ben Ali's immediate resignation.
It is reminiscent of the video of Neda Agha-Soltan during the protests in Iran.
@Dima_Khatib my fear is the fate of the Animal Farm, get rid of 1 thief to replace him with 10 more"
Mohamed Abdel Samad
theeproducer
It looks like Ben Ali is trying desperately trying to keep himself from being overwhelmed by the rush of events.
Here is Amnesty's statement:
Hamma Hammami, spokesperson for the banned Tunisian Workers' Communist party (Parti Communiste des Ouvriers Tunisiens, PCOT) was arrested at his home in Tunis on 12 January. Around 20 members of the presidential security unit are reported to have detained him together with his colleague, Mohamed Mzem, a lawyer, and Mounia Obaid, a friend who was later released. Hamma Hammami's family believe he was arrested for speaking to journalists about the protests in the country.
Tunisian police fired rounds of tear gas at thousands of protesters in the capital Friday after some climbed atop the roof of the interior ministry, a symbol of the iron-fisted government they want to oust. The demonstrators were marching through Tunis to demand the resignation of the country's autocratic leader, President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. Many shouted "Ben Ali, out!" and "Ben Ali, assassin!" Another poster read "We won't forget," a reference to the rioters killed, many by police bullets.
Hundreds of police with shields and riot gear blocked the avenue Friday in front of the interior ministry, where over the years there have been reports of torture. The march was organised by Tunisia's only legal trade union, which also went ahead with a symbolic two-hour strike. Plainclothes policemen were seen kicking unarmed protesters and beating them with batons.
Reuters is reporting that 12 people were killed in overnight clashes in Tunis and the northeastern town of Ras Jebel, citing two medical sources and a witness. Ten of the victims were killed after clashes in the capital, two sources from Charles Nicolle hospital told Reuters.
Food price protests sweeping across North Africa and the Middle East reached Jordan on Friday, when hundreds of protesters chanted slogans against Prime Minister Samir al-Rifai in the southern city of Karak. The peaceful protest was held despite hastily announced government measures to curb commodity and fuel prices. Similar demonstrations were held in three other towns and cities across the country, witnesses said. "We are protesting the policies of the government - high prices and repeated taxation that made the Jordanian people revolt," Tawfiq al-Batoush, a former head of Karak municipality, told Reuters at the protest outside Karak's Al Omari mosque.
Gunshots are now ringing around us and in the other sidestreets around interior ministry.
An earlier tweet from her:
Running battles amid extreme violence from police. Protestors being chased onto rooftops. This is turning very, very bad.
This is very bad news for Ben Ali who must have been hoping that his concessions announced yesterday would calm things down. Instead the protesters seem to have been emboldened.
Thousands of demonstrators were chanting: "Bread, water, Ben Ali out."
So, what we are seeing, firstly, is the failure of a system constructed by the regime over many years to prevent people from organising, communicating and agitating. Secondly, we are seeing relatively large numbers of people casting off their fear of the regime. Despite the very real risk of arrest and torture, they are refusing to be intimidated. Finally, we are seeing the breakdown of a long-standing devil's compact where, in return for submitting to life under a dictatorship, people's economic and welfare needs are supposedly taken care of by the state.
France on Friday urged Tunisian president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali to deliver on promises that it called a step in the right direction and called on him to do his utmost to restore peace after deadly riots. "We urge an end to the violence and the Tunisian president's commitments on this front have been positively noted," foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said of Ben Ali's promises to bow out as leader in 2014, allow free media and order police to stop shooting protestors. "The steps the president announced go in the right direction and we hope they will be implemented."
Spencer, from the Chatham House
foreign affairs thinktank, made the point that the existence of a large educated and skilled population plus coherent demands from the unions showed that the opportunity for dialogue was there, should the government take it. The big question, though, is whether the regime can move fast enough to respond to demands for change. The evidence from today is that Ben Ali's concessions may be too little, too late. Tunisians want him out now, and not in three years' time.
As in the recent so-called "Twitter revolutions" in Moldova and Iran, there was clearly lots wrong with Tunisia before Julian Assange ever got hold of the diplomatic cables. Rather, WikiLeaks acted as a catalyst: both a trigger and a tool for political outcry. Which is probably the best compliment one could give the whistleblower site.
Ian Black, our Middle East specialist, wrote about the WikiLeaks cable in question in December, quoting the US ambassador, Robert Godec:
"The problem is clear," wrote ambassador Robert Godec in July 2009, in a secret dispatch released by Beirut's al-Akhbar newspaper. "Tunisia has been ruled by the same president for 22 years. He has no successor. And, while President Ben Ali deserves credit for continuing many of the progressive policies of President Bourguiba, he and his regime have lost touch with the Tunisian people. They tolerate no advice or criticism, whether domestic or international. Increasingly, they rely on the police for control and focus on preserving power."
The protests were sparked off last month after an unemployed graduate set himself on fire when police tried to stop him selling vegetables without a permit. He later died.
What started out as demonstrations against high unemployment have turned into the biggest challenge for President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who has been in power for 23 years.
Thousands angered by corruption and a regime intolerent of dissent turned out in Tunis today to demand his immediate resignation, despite his pledges last night not to seek re-election in 2014. The rest of the Arab world is watching developments nervously amid fears of "contagion".
• Here is our latest story, from Angelique Chrisafis, who is in Tunis.
• Thomas Cook is flying back some 1,800 holiday makers from the country afte the Foreign Office advised against all but esseential travel there.
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