[Kristie Lu Stout, Anchor:] Welcome to NEWS STREAM, where news and technology meet. I'm Kristie Lu Stout, in Hong Kong. Digging in. More violence erupts in the center of Cairo as protesters barricade themselves in Tahrir Square. And a cyclone slams into Australia, bringing more misery to the flood- ravaged state of Queensland. Now, pro-and-anti-government protesters are standing their ground on the streets of Cairo, but Egyptian troops have finally moved between opposing camps in the capital. Violence has died down in recent hours, though the situation in Tahrir Square remains tense. Some demonstrators set up metal barricades overnight. They say they will not give up until President Hosni Mubarak leaves office. Other Egyptians say that they are tired of the unrest. They want life to go back to normal. Now, state media report that Egypt's vice president and prime minister are sitting down with the opposition. Several opposition groups say they won't meet with the new government. Now, meanwhile, Egypt's prime minister has apologized for Wednesday's attacks on protesters. Now, Ahmed Shafiq, he told state TV, "There will be an investigation." Peaceful anti-government protests started on January the 25th. They are taking place across Egypt. In Cairo, demonstrations have centered around Tahrir Square. It is in the heart of the capital near the Nile River. Now, fighting started Wednesday, when President Mubarak supporters entered the area, and clashes stretched north to the Egypt Museum. That's less than one kilometer away. And we are still getting new looks at Wednesday's violence. Now take a look at this disturbing video that was posted to Facebook. Now, this is said to show a police van in Cairo. You see people in the street rushing to get out of the way. The vehicle, it appears to hit a couple pedestrians, and it never stops. And in Tahrir Square, our teams witnessed scenes of chaos like this one. Now, the army was on the sidelines Wednesday as opposing demonstrators threw rocks and sticks at each other. Protesters even dug up stones from the street to use as weapons. Heavy gunfire was heard in Tahrir Square before dawn on Thursday. Now, let's find out what it's like in Tahrir Square right now. Journalist Ian Lee joins us on the line. And Ian, will this be another day of chaos in the square?
[Ian Lee, Journalist:] Kristie, it's really right now anyone's guess. If the army can keep the two sides separated, then that will be the true test, but it's definitely very, very tense right now in Tahrir Square and around. I have been getting reports, phone calls from a human rights lawyer that I know that Hisham Mubarak Law Center was attacked by military police. And this law center is a human rights center. Also, other human rights centers are reported to be raided. Sorry, let me rephrase that. They're being raided by police and people are being arrested. And when I say police, I mean military police. But it's definitely very tense right now in downtown Cairo.
[Stout:] Ian, the official toll from these clashes in the square now stands as our official numbers, five dead, over 800 wounded. But in reality, could the toll be much higher than that?
[Lee:] It definitely could be. I was talking to doctors in Tahrir Square today, and two of them had been working throughout the night. And they told me that they witnessed five people killed. But also, they told me that there was four other people who sustained gunshot wounds that they didn't think would make it much longer Kristie.
[Stout:] Also reports of journalists being targeted in the square. What have you heard?
[Lee:] Well, what I've heard is that I haven't heard actually in the square itself. I've heard of journalists being intimidated in the square, but not in a broad extent. It's really coming from around Cairo itself. I had a friend who was in Maadi today, which is just south of downtown, and they were attacked. He was attacked with another journalist by a mob. Another group of colleagues were in Dowi, which is to the east of downtown, and they were attacked by the mob. In both instances, they were able to get away safely, but, you know, just talking to different journalists around Cairo, there is a sense of fear that journalists are being targeted by mobs and that if you go out onto the streets, you run a risk of being attacked.
[Stout:] OK. Ian Lee, joining us live from Cairo. Now, Egypt's health minister says five people have been killed, more than 800 injured, in Tahrir Square. Again, official numbers. Ben Wedeman shows us how the wounded are getting treatment.
[Ben Wedeman, Cnn Sr. International Correspondent:] Right off Tahrir Square, at what is a mosque that a few days ago was turned into a makeshift field hospital for people wounded in clashes and protests and whatnot.
[Unidentified Male:] This is Hosni Mubarak! That's what he do. We will die for our freedom!
[Wedeman:] What we've been told is some of our other crews who were in Tahrir Square were roughed up by crowds of pro-Mubarak people. And certainly, as you know, our experience was that, yes, they're not very friendly to the media. So we've been told to get off the square, to stay away. And then we were told to come back to the office. But given that to go back to the office, we would actually have to cross through sort of hostile territory. Our determination is that it is better to stay here, where people are more media-friendly, than to go out there, where we're watching that every few minutes, somebody comes in with a great big gash on his head from a rock. So we want to stay here.
[Unidentified Male:] Stay here and see what happens.
[Unidentified Female:] You're a journalist, right?
[Unidentified Male:] Yes.
[Unidentified Female:] Who do you work with?
[Unidentified Male:] A newspaper in Spain.
[Unidentified Female:] "El Pais"?
[Unidentified Male:] No.
[Unidentified Female:] I just want to say that these are the same thugs that are used by the National Democratic Party, the ruling party, that are usually used in rigging all the elections. So they are known. They take 50 pounds in order to come down and beat up people. So they are used to this kind of thing. Now, they've been mobilizing from all the governors. They've been bringing them in by the busload in order to beat up beat the demonstrators. The demonstrators were beating these people by saying, "We are peaceful. We are a peaceful resistance." And yet, they came down with the sticks and the rocks, and they're beating them up, and there are so many injured.
[Unidentified Male:] No! No!
[Stout:] The scene there in Cairo. Now, in Yemen, like Egypt, a president who has held power for three decades has promised not to seek reelection. In Yemen, like Egypt, thousands of people have taken to the streets, arguing that this promise isn't good enough. And in Yemen, like Egypt, there's more than one side of the story. Now, pro-government demonstrations have also taken to the streets of Sana'a, defying opposition calls for a "Day of Rage" march. Now, Mohammed Jamjoom joins me live from the Yemeni capital. Mohammed, what is the state of play?
[Mohammed Jamjoom, Cnn International Correspondent:] Well, Kristie, as of now, calm has returned to the streets of Sana'a. Earlier in the day there were two dueling protests in two different parts of the heart of Sana'a. The pro-government rally was at Tahrir Square. The anti-government rally was about two kilometers down the road, next to Sana'a University. I can tell you that even though those rallies were largely peaceful, and we did not witness any kind of clashes with security forces, or clashes between any of the various groups of protesters, nonetheless, when we went to these protests, the demos, there was a lot of emotion, a lot of heated rhetoric about what these different groups supported. On the anti- government side, we saw a lot of younger people here in Yemen, a lot of youth of Yemen that were saying they really were frustrated at the fact that they weren't getting the economic opportunity that they needed. They had no real hope for jobs. The ones that had families said that they couldn't feed their families. They weren't being paid enough. And they said that this was the fact that President Ali Abdullah Saleh had yesterday said that he would no longer seek election in 2013. That just wasn't good enough. Despite the fact that the president had conceded to many of the demands of the opposition, they said this was their moment that they wanted to be out on the streets supporting the opposition, trying to get President Saleh out of office so that there could be real reform here. On the pro-government side, we went to that rally afterward. We saw a lot of supporters of President Saleh. Now, whenever there's been a large anti-government demo in the past week, the government here has really made a concerted effort to make sure they get groups of people that support the president also out in the streets as well. And to that end, there were thousands of his supporters, too. We don't know how many, but there were thousands there. It was a largely festive mood on that end of that. The people were very emotional, saying that they loved the president, they really supported him, and they were sad to see him leaving office after 2013. They understood if he wanted to, they supported the decision, but they were actually blaming the opposition, saying the opposition, with their demands, were bringing some sort of destabilization to the country, and they really were hoping that there would just be dialogue between he opposing parties here Kristie.
[Stout:] Now, Yemen has been in focus this week because of the protests. Yemen has also been in focus for over a year now because of the war on terror. Al Qaeda has an arm there in Yemen. So how does this political instability affect the war on terror?
[Jamjoom:] Well, this is something that's really concerning the allies of Yemen, particularly the U.S., and also the Saudi Arabian government. Saudi Arabia is just directly north of Yemen. Obviously, it's the largest oil exporter in the world. There have already been attacks launched towards the Saudis from al Qaeda in Yemen, and there have also been attacks launched towards the U.S. and other Western targets from al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which is based in Yemen. Now, already, even before this protest movement started gaining momentum in the last couple of weeks, governments that are allied with Yemen have been very concerned about the state of security
[Stout:] OK. Our audio and also our visual with Mohammed there is cutting in and out. Unfortunately, we're going to have to leave it there. Mohammed Jamjoom, joining us live via webcam from Sana'a there in Yemen. Now, you are watching NEWS STREAM, coming to you live from Hong Kong. Still ahead on the program, we will stay on top of the fast-moving developments in Egypt. Now, after the violence we showed you this time on Wednesday, Cairo's Tahrir Square remains very, very tense. We'll take you back there live and check the scene in other cities as well. And we will also bring you the latest on a monster storm that has struck Australia. Queensland residents are trying to catch their breath after Cyclone Yasi blows through.