Cairo, February 3
With just hours left for Friday’s showdown between protesters and the government in Egypt, the army today rolled out tanks and positioned soldiers to separate warring pro-and anti-Hosni Mubarak demonstrators, who clashed leaving seven persons dead and 700 injured in fresh violence.

Shortly after automatic gunfire hit the anti-government protesters at the historic Tahrir Square killing seven persons, including three on the spot, tanks and armoured cars ferried rifle-wielding soldiers to line up between the clashing groups.

The pre-dawn firing apparently by Mubarak’s supporters appeared to be orchestrated to evict thousands of opposition supporters from the Square ahead of a massive rally tomorrow, also the day when the opposition deadline to the embattled President, who has been in power since 1981, to quit expires.

As opposing groups battled exchanging gunfire and pelted rocks and stones which also left scores of international mediapersons injured triggering strong condemnation from the US and Western nations, new Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq apologised for the events saying there will be an investigation into the violence.

Shafiq as well as new Vice-President Omar Suleiman also made an offer to hold talks with the opposition parties.

Though some groups accepted the offer, Nobel Peace laureate and former IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, the leading opposition figure, rejected it until the demand for Mubarak to step down was met.

State television said negotiations were being held between Suleiman and some national political forces.

The fast-paced developments came as the US and five EU nations-Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain-released a joint statement calling for an immediate political transition to end the violent unrest.

The protesters have vowed to intensify their struggle to force Mubarak out by Friday, and repeated onslaughts on them by supporters of the besieged President appeared to have made their resolve stronger.

The protesters deviated from their regular chants calling for Mubarak to step down and instead began to call for him to face capital punishment. The protesters called for the need for military intervention to protect them and demanded withdrawal of “thugs and gunmen” from the streets. — PTI 

President Hosni Mubarak's counter-revolution smashed into his opponents on Wednesday in a barrage of stones, cudgels, iron bars and clubs, an all-day battle in the very centre of the capital he claims to rule between tens of thousands of young men, both - and here lies the most dangerous of all weapons — brandishing in each other's faces the banner of Egypt. It was vicious and ruthless and bloody and well planned, a final vindication of all Mubarak's critics and a shameful indictment of the Obamas and Clintons who failed to denounce this faithful ally of America and Israel.

Injured AP news agency photographer Khalil Hanna is seen during clashes between anti-government demonstrators and their pro-government opponents in Cairo's Tahrir square on Thursday. — AFP

The fighting around me in the square called Tahrir was so terrible that we could smell the blood. The men and women who are demanding the end of Mubarak's 30-year dictatorship - and I saw young women in scarves and long skirts on their knees, breaking up the paving stones as rocks fell around them - fought back with an immense courage which later turned into a kind of terrible cruelty.

Some dragged Mubarak's security men across the square, beating them until blood broke from their heads and splashed down their clothes. The Egyptian Third Army, famous in legend and song for crossing the Suez Canal in 1973, couldn't - or wouldn't - even cross Tahrir Square to help the wounded.

As thousands of Egyptians shrieking abuse - and this was as close to civil war as Egypt has ever come - swarmed towards each other like Roman fighters, they simply overwhelmed the parachute units "guarding" the square, climbing over their tanks and armoured vehicles and then using them for cover.

One Abrams tank commander - and I was only 20 feet away - simply ducked the stones that were bouncing off his tank, jumped into the turret and battened down the hatch. Mubarak's protesters then climbed on top to throw more rocks at their young and crazed antagonists.

I guess it's the same in all battles, even though guns have not (yet) appeared; abuse by both sides provoked a shower of rocks from Mubarak's men - yes, they did start it - and then the protesters who seized the square to demand the old man's overthrow began breaking stones to hurl them back.

By the time I reached the "front" line - the quotation marks are essential, since the lines of men moved back and forth over half a mile - both sides were screaming and lunging at each other, blood streaming down their faces. At one point, before the shock of the attack wore off, Mubarak's supporters almost crossed the entire square in front of the monstrous Mugamma building - relic of Nasserite endeavour - before being driven out.

Indeed, now that Egyptians are fighting Egyptians, what are we supposed to call these dangerously furious people? The Mubarakites? The "protesters" or, more ominously, the "resistance"? For that is what the men and women struggling to unseat Mubarak are now calling themselves.

"This is Mubarak's work," one wounded stone-thrower said to me. "He has managed to turn Egyptian against Egyptian for just nine more months of power. He is mad. Are you in the West mad, too?" I can't remember how I replied to this question. But how could I forget watching - just a few hours earlier - as the Middle East "expert" Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachusetts, was asked if Mubarak was a dictator. No, he said, he was "a monarch-type figure".

The face of this monarch was carried on giant posters, a printed provocation, to the barricades. Newly distributed by officers of the National Democratic Party - they must have taken a while to produce after the party's headquarters was reduced to a smouldering shell after Friday's battles — many were held in the air by men carrying cudgels and police batons. There is no doubt about this because I had driven into Cairo from the desert as they formed up outside the foreign ministry and the state radio building on the east bank of the Nile. There were loudspeaker songs and calls for Mubarak's eternal life (a very long presidency indeed) and many were sitting on brand-new motorcycles, as if they had been inspired by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's thugs after the 2009 Iranian elections. Come to think of it, Mubarak and Ahmadinejad do actually have the same respect for elections.

Only when I had passed the radio building did I see the thousands of other young men pouring in from the suburbs of Cairo. There were women, too, mostly in traditional black dress and white-and-black scarves, a few children among them, walking along the flyover behind the Egyptian Museum. They told me that they had as much right to Tahrir Square as the protesters - true, by the way - and that they intended to express their love of their President in the very place where he had been so desecrated. — The Independent

Melbourne, February 3
The most powerful cyclone to hit Australia in generations has affected over 170,000 people in flood-ravaged northern Queensland province, uprooting trees, tearing off roofs and cutting electricity.

Cyclone Yasi was the worst cyclone that hit the country since 1918. Over 170,000 residents in the affected region were without power and for many it would take a month to get back electricity, according to latest media reports.

Ergon Energy spokesman John Stock said that early reports indicated damage was worse than experienced during Cyclone Larry in 2006.

There have been hundreds of reports of fallen power poles and damaged power lines. Witnesses reported roofs being ripped off, buildings shaking and trees flattened under the power of the winds. No deaths or serious injuries have been reported.

The damage was severe across Tully, Mission Beach and Cardwell. The Cyclone Yasi brought 340 mm of rain in some areas with the stretch between Ingham and Mission Beach getting 200-230 mm.