Egyptian Capital the Scene of Violence for the Third Straigh Day
MANISHA TANK, CNN INTERNATIONAL: A warm welcome to the NEWS STREAM, where news and technology meet. I'm Manisha Tank in, Hong Kong. And we will begin in Egypt, where at least 20 people died in three days of clashes on the streets of Cairo. Also ahead, the victims of a phone-hacking scandal speak out in London. And a Hollywood ending for Beckham's American adventure. Egypt's capital is gripped by the worst violence since the revolution. For a third straight day now, security forces are facing off with protestors in Cairo. Fighting erupted on Saturday when police tried to clear demonstrators from Tahrir Square. Doctors say they've seen people suffering from gunshot wounds, tear gas inhalation, and beatings to the head. At least 20 people have been killed, according to the Health Ministry there. And there are reports that the Culture minister has resigned, to protest the government's handling of the demonstrators. Well, let's check the scene in Tahrir Square right now. Senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman joins us live from Cairo. Ben?</s>BEN WEDEMAN, CNN REPORTER: Yes, downtown Cairo right now is a real scene of chaos. There are battles ongoing around Tahrir Square (inaudible). And, as you said, the death toll is at least 20. But it seems to be increasing as the day goes on. It -- there's a standoff outside the Interior Ministry, where there are hundreds of people. They've set up barricades with burned-out cars and they're throwing rocks back and forth between the demonstrators and the security forces. One thing a moment ago was evidence that there has been live ammunition use. We saw some bullet holes and were shown a pool of blood where we were told by witnesses that one young man had been shot from an adjacent building. And it just -- it's just a scene of utter chaos in this area where the demonstrators are still holding on to Tahrir Square. It seems more and more people are coming to join them as the day goes on. The military council has insisted that they will allow these demonstrations to take place. But they must be peaceful. But there's nothing peaceful around Tahrir Square at the moment.</s>TANK: Yes, very worrying development. Keep an eye on things for us. Stay safe. We'll be checking in again with you. Ben Wedeman there, live for us, from Tahrir Square. Well, let's show you where all of this is actually taking place. As they did in January, many of the clashes in the last 48 hours have centered, as we were saying, on Tahrir Square. But violence has also broken out along streets east of there and around the Ministry of the Interior. And Ben was just alluding to that. Social media, again, has been giving -- has been -- really been a key in giving the outside world a blow-by-blow account of how events have unfolded over the last few days. In fact, journalists in Cairo took to Twitter. They've been sending out details, minute by minute. So we start with Sunday, and CNN's Ian Lee, we'll see what he had to say. The protesters and the police are fighting again. A plainclothes man behind police lines threw a rock to spark it. Then hours later, reporter Jon Jensen witnessed police unsuccessfully trying to negotiate an end to the violence. Let's see what he had to tweet about that. "Molotov cocktail just landed right on riot troop's helmet, burning his face and forcing a massive police retreat." And new details are coming through every minute. Just over an hour, Jensen also tweeted that a street near Tahrir Square was blanketed in thick, white tear gas. Well, Egypt's military rulers have also turned to social media. They're posting an apology on the council's official Facebook page and promising an investigation. But one protester says, "People feel as though Egypt has gone from an autocracy under Hosni Mubarak to a dictatorship under the military. Tahrir Square is once again the focal point for voicing these frustrations." Here's Ben Wedeman again.</s>WEDEMAN: Much has changed in Egypt in the last 10 months. But Sunday in Cairo was a day of deja vu. Running street battles raged around Tahrir Square between protesters and security forces, in a growing revolt against the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which took over from Hosni Mubarak last February. Tear gas and rocks flew fast and furious. Security forces fired upon protesters with hard rubber pellets like these.</s>ZAHARA (ph): (Speaking foreign language).</s>WEDEMAN: This is what the police of Egypt are using against us, says Zahara (ph). They're killing the youth of Egypt, shooting them in the eyes. I tell her, we were here on January 25th. It was the same scene. What has changed?</s>ZAHARA (ph): (Speaking foreign language).</s>WEDEMAN: Nothing has changed, she responds. We've gone backwards. The military council is garbage. Mubarak is still alive and well, and the people are dying.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mubarak (Speaking foreign language).</s>WEDEMAN: Shouts this man, "Mubarak is running the military council and the whole country from prison, Mubarak and all the corrupt business men around him." Motorbikes rush the wounded to a makeshift field hospital, the same one that treated those injured during the uprising against Mubarak. To the protesters, the new military rulers look an awful lot like the old one. On January 25th, we were on this very street and we were also teargassed. Now, months and months later, it's November, and the same thing is happening all over again. (Inaudible). So, now, of course, here you see, you know, some of the services provided by the revolutionaries. They are putting saline solution in our eyes, giving us Kleenex to wipe it off. What has changed is the once cowed and silenced people of Egypt have found their voice.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).</s>WEDEMAN: Whoever ends up running this country will have to contend with a politicized, vocal and demanding population that has learned to fight back. In a statement, the government said, "People have the right to protest peacefully as long as they don't commit acts that threaten Egypt's stability," a stability that most Egyptians are desperately seeking. Shopkeeper Ahmed (ph) hasn't seen a tourist in days.</s>AHMED (PH): (Speaking foreign language).</s>WEDEMAN: For now, the economy is collapsed, and the country can't take it, he says. "We're on the verge of bankruptcy. There's no tourism. There's nothing."</s>MOHAMMED (PH): (Speaking foreign language).</s>WEDEMAN: "People say Mubarak was wrong. Maybe he was," adds his partner, Mohammed (ph). "But I had work during Mubarak's days." Publisher and human rights activist Hisham Kassem warns that the country can ill afford open-ended revolt. Publisher and human rights activist Hisham Kassem: The poverty belt is now the ticking time bomb in Egypt. It threatens that what we went through could be defeated. And if our economy can barely go through it this time, I don't think we'll survive a second uprising in those final 10 years (ph).</s>WEDEMAN: On November 28th, Egypt will begin voting for a new parliament. It may herald a new dawn. But with Tahrir Square once more a battleground, the country seems to be stuck in unending revolution -- Ben Wedeman, CNN, Cairo.</s>TANK: We take you now to Libya. And two of the country's most wanted fugitives are now in custody. Revolutionary forces captured Moammar Gadhafi's former intelligence chief on Sunday, and on Saturday, they captured this, Gadhafi's second oldest son, Saif al-Islam. He was taken into custody after a gunfight in the Libyan desert. CNN has obtained video of Saif al-Islam in custody in the Libyan city of Zintan. He says he's being treated well.</s>SAIF AL-ISLAM GADHAFI: (Speaking foreign language).</s>TANK: Well, as we know, for decades, Moammar Gadhafi kept a tight grip on power and public information. Now books banned by his regime are on display in Tripoli. Jomana Karadsheh shows us what people can now read openly, and many for the first time.</s>JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN REPORTER (voice-over): This was part of their revolution: burning the dictator's ideology -- his green book. Taking its place, books they'd never had a chance to see. With the end of Moammar Gadhafi's regime, Libyans can now enjoy things that were once banned, like books previously blacklisted, now on display at this exhibition in Tripoli. Abdel Minem Abu-Saleb (ph) is one of the organizers. He says Libyans are emerging from a dark era. "It is time for people to see and learn different opinions and develop critical thinking to broaden their horizons," he says. "The upcoming period is an important one and we need educated people." Some of the banned books include subject like homosexuality, or like this one, on human rights in the Arab world, but the regime's ban was mostly on books of a religious nature, like these on Wahhabism and others on the Salafi movement.</s>KARADSHEH: Even publications like this Tripoli guide containing detailed maps of the capital were banned. According to organizers the ban stemmed from the dictator1s paranoia</s>KARADSHEH (voice-over): Once unthinkable political satire ridiculing the dictator is now available. After 42 years of a cult personality dictatorship, people here say Libyans are thirsty for a Gadhafi-free education and culture. Seventeen-year-old Ziad Eldebri is interested in history books, especially his own country's.</s>ZIAD ELDEBRI, LIBYAN STUDENT: He didn1t even let us know anything about the Libyan history because he didn1t want us to know the Libyan -- the personalities that he was present is (ph) because he wants always to be like a god or something. He wants -- he wants us to worship him.</s>KARADSHEH (voice-over): Organizers hope their small exhibition will be the start of a new era, turning the page on decades of indoctrination -- Jomana Karadsheh, CNN, Tripoli.</s>TANK: Pretty incredible developments there. Well, the Arab Spring may have brought regime change to Libya and to Egypt. But it could be a long winter for anti-government (inaudible) in Syria. President Bashar al- Assad remains defiant despite growing international pressure. We'll have details just ahead. First, heartbreaking testimony at a hearing into phone hacking at a British tabloid, how hacking gave one family false hope that their missing daughter was still alive. And socialists are swept aside in the Spanish elections as the conservative Popular Party wins big.