Europe's foreign ministers on Monday froze the assets of ousted Tunisian leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and his wife in response to a request from the Tunisian authorities.

The sanctions against Ben Ali and Leila Trabelsi were decided at a meeting of the European Union's 27 ministers, diplomatic sources said.

he Israeli army on Monday rearrested Hamas lawmaker Mohammed Jamal al-Natsh, just months after he was released from prison, Palestinian security officials said.

Natsh, 53, was arrested in the southern West Bank town of Hebron, five months after being released from prison. He spent eight years in detention, Palestinian officials said, during which time he ran successfully for office.

Israel has told its diplomats in the United States, Europe and elsewhere to encourage their host nations to support the regime of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, daily Haaretz reported Monday.

The newspaper said Israel's foreign ministry told its diplomats to stress that it is in "the interest of the West" and of "the entire Middle East to maintain the stability of the regime in Egypt."

Egyptian protesters on Monday called for an indefinite general strike and said they planned a "million man march" on Tuesday to mark one week since the start of deadly anti-government protests.

"It was decided overnight that there will be a million man march on Tuesday," Eid Mohammed, one of the protesters and organizers, told Agence France Presse.

Southern Sudan's referendum commission said Sunday that more than 99 percent of voters in the south opted to secede from the country's north in a vote held earlier this month.

The unemployed 24-year-old was arguing with a police officer when the man struck him across the face — a blow that seemed to sting for months.

"He stole my dignity with that slap," said Hassanein, who does odd jobs to make money. "We could never stand up to those officers before because we were afraid. But we're no longer willing to be silenced by our fear."

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood and other opposition groups have authorized leading dissident Mohammed ElBaradei to negotiate with embattled President Hosni Mubarak's regime, an Islamist leader said Sunday.

The National Coalition for Change, which groups several opposition movements including the banned Brotherhood around ElBaradei, has authorized the Nobel peace laureate with "negotiating with the authorities," Saad al-Katatni told AFP.

The United States started organizing Sunday the evacuation of its nationals from Egypt as an angry anti-government revolt raged into a sixth day amid increasing lawlessness and mass jail breaks.

"The U.S. embassy in Cairo informs U.S. citizens in Egypt who wish to depart that the department of state is making arrangements to provide transportation to safehaven locations in Europe," an embassy statement said, as other countries issued travel warnings and tourists scrambled for flights out.

Saudi King Abdullah has told U.S. President Barack Obama that there should be no bargaining on Egypt's stability and the security of its people, the Saudi press agency said Sunday.

SPA said that Obama phoned the king in Morocco, where he is recuperating from surgery, and that both leaders were not happy with the chaotic situation and looting.

Thousands of inmates escaped prisons across Egypt on Sunday, including at least one jail that housed Muslim militants northwest of Cairo, adding to the chaos engulfing the country as anti-government protests continue to demand the ouster of longtime authoritarian President Hosni Mubarak.

Security officials said the prisoners escaped overnight from four jails after starting fires and clashing with guards. The inmates were helped by gangs of armed men who attacked the prisons, firing at guards in gunbattles that lasted hours.