Violent battles in cities across Egypt

Yesterday I watch the television with horror to see Violent battles in cities across Egypt and a young child who is innocent running from the scene of violence to safely.

His only crime is that he is hungry and his only hope of the future is to see or dream of freedom of expression in Egypt one day. Thousands of children in Egypt life depends on whether there will be a Islamic state or a coalition, or a democratic elections where the citizens of Egypt can choose who they want to run the country. Lets not forget that the children are the future of tomorrow therefore free and democratic elections must prevail.

Egypt's pro-democracy revolution descended into violence and bloodshed overnight as President Hosni Mubarak's regime launched a co-ordinated bid to wrest back control of city streets, crush the popular uprising, and reassert its authority.

Bursts of heavy gunfire rained into Tahir square just before dawn today and there were reports that three more people had been killed. Protest organiser Mustafa el-Naggar said he saw the bodies of three dead protesters being carried toward an ambulance, while another witness spoke of 15 people being wounded.

Clashes had continued into the early hours even though the pro-Mubarak supporters had been pushed back to the edge of the square and explosions – possibly from gas canisters – echoed around the area.

There were extraordinary scenes in the centre of Cairo as anti-government demonstrators fought running battles with organised cohorts of Mubarak supporters, exchanging blows with iron bars, sticks and rocks.

At one point pro-Mubarak forces rode camels and horses into central Tahrir Square, scattering opponents. At least three people were killed yesterday and up to 1,500 injured according to medical sources.

A palm tree and a building caught alight while fires were burning outside the historic Egyptian museum as petrol bombs were hurled back and forth between the two opposing factions.

The violence was immediately condemned by David Cameron, the Obama administration, and Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, who condemned what he described as attacks on peaceful demonstrators. The White House warned that if any of the violence was instigated by the government it should stop immediately, and also strongly criticised the beating of local and foreign journalists, including a CNN reporter.

But after Mubarak's announcement that he would not seek another term at elections due in September, the regime appeared to be in no mood to listen – and determined to regain control after a week of near anarchy.

The strident tone was illustrated by a startling public rebuff to Barack Obama. Rejecting his overnight demand that the promised political transition and reforms begin without delay, the Egyptian foreign ministry said bluntly that meddling by "foreign parties" was unacceptable and was "aimed to incite the internal situation".

Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Guardian, opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei said: "Today's violence is again an indication of a criminal regime that has lost any commonsense. When the regime tries to counter a peaceful demonstration by using thugs … there are few words that do justice to this villainy and I think it can only hasten that regime's departure." Mubarak's announcement had been "an act of deception", he said. "But after today people are realising just what they're dealing with."

The trouble began when tens of thousands of anti-government demonstrators in Tahrir Square ignored orders from the army to disperse. The army's move marked a change in tactics from previous days, when it declined to intervene, describing the protests as legitimate, and troops were feted by protesters.

At the same time Mubarak supporters, who had taken no part in events, began to gather, travelling in cars or by foot, numbering in the tens of thousands. Some said they had been bussed in from the countryside by the regime and claimed they had no intention of initiating a confrontation. Others said they had recently swapped sides, saying Mubarak had made enough concessions and he should have time to usher in change.

Initial sparring between rival groups quickly turned into running battles. Then, just before 2pm, armed with clubs, bats, knives and even homemade spears, a pro-Mubarak demonstration that had been gathering for several hours 800 metres from Tahrir Squareon the Nile Corniche, outside the state television station, charged in.

Guardian journalists in the square – close to both sides – witnessed pitched battles that turned the square into a warzone as anti-Mubarak protesters tried desperately to hold their ground and both sides tore up paving stones to use as weapons. Among those singled out for attack were journalists including Anderson Cooper of CNN and two Associated Press correspondents. A Belgian journalist – Maurice Sarfatti, who uses the byline Serge Dumont – was reportedly beaten, arrested and accused of spying.

At one stage tanks attempted to move between the two groups but did little to stop the escalating clashes. In one incident soldiers moved out of the way to permit pro-Mubarak demonstrators to reach their opponents. By late afternoon, groups of men were on roofs in Champollion Street, a few hundred metres away, hurling missiles down on those beneath them.

At just after six o'clock automatic weapons fire was heard. Some pro-Mubarak forces appeared to be plainclothes police, while others involved in the assault in Tahrir Square were said to have been paid by the regime. The interior ministry denied the reports, while the army denied firing on protesters.

In other cities the regime fought back strongly. In Alexandria, Mubarak supporters staged a furious counterprotest in a square that has seen protests for nine days, sparking violent arguments and altercations between rival groups.

The violence increased fears in western capitals that the crisis, far from being defused, was taking a more sinister turn. David Cameron said: "If it turns out that the regime in any way has been sponsoring or tolerating this violence, that would be completely and utterly unacceptable."

BBC editor Craig Oliver replaces Andy Coulson

David Cameron yesterday marked a break with the era of Andy Coulson by appointing a senior BBC TV news editor with no links to the Murdoch empire as the new No 10 communications director.

Craig Oliver, who made his name revamping the News at Ten and who ran the BBC's general election coverage last year, will be paid £140,000 a year and will act as a political special adviser.

The recruitment of a senior BBC figure shows that Cameron and George Osborne, who met Oliver over the weekend, recognise that they need to place some distance between Downing Street and Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.

Coulson announced his resignation on 21 January after concluding that the swirl of allegations about illegal phone hacking from his time as News of the World editor had made his job impossible. Coulson has always denied knowledge of any wrongdoing.

Downing Street said that No 10's relations with News Corp had nothing to with the decision to hire a BBC executive. One source said: "Craig was simply the best candidate."

Fears of offending the Murdoch empire were highlighted yesterday when Tom Baldwin, Oliver's Labour counterpart, asked members of the shadow cabinet to show restraint on phone hacking and not to attack one newspaper group "out of spite".

In an email sent on his behalf, which was leaked to the New Statesman, Baldwin also called on shadow ministers not to link allegations of phone hacking with questions about News Corp's bid to take control of BSkyB.

The email said: "On phone hacking … this is not just an issue about News International. Almost every media organisation in the country may end up becoming embroiled in these allegations … We must guard against anything which appears to be attacking a particular newspaper group out of spite."

Further evidence that hacking was used regularly by the News of the World emerged yesterday when new details of the case brought by Nicola Philips, the publicist who is suing the newspaper, were published. Philips alleges the tabloid obtained a story about an affair between actor Ralph Fiennes and a Romanian singer by hacking into her mobile phone.

Philips, who was then working for celebrity publicist Max Clifford, brokered a deal between the singer, Cornelia Crisan, and the Sunday Mirror and the Mail on Sunday, to sell her story for £35,000. She says the News of the World learned of the story by listening to her voicemail messages. The paper tracked down Crisan and published details of her relationship with Fiennes on the same day as its rival titles.

The recruitment of Oliver was Coulson's last act before he left Downing Street on Monday. Coulson telephoned Oliver towards the end of the last week and arranged for him to meet Cameron and Osborne over the weekend.

Cameron said: "I am very pleased that Craig Oliver is to become the new director of communications at 10 Downing Street. Craig has formidable experience as a broadcast journalist. He will do an excellent job in explaining and communicating the government's programme."

Oliver, who voted Conservative at the general election but is not a party member, said: "I'm delighted to be joining David Cameron and his team at such an exciting and challenging time. It's difficult to leave the BBC after a fascinating few years, but this is an opportunity I can't turn down."

Oliver, 41, has been the controller of English at BBC Global News since June 2010 and was the BBC's general election editor last year. He has also worked as editor of BBC News at Ten and News at Six.

From 2002 to 2006, he was the head of output at ITV News. Before that he was output editor at Channel 4 News and at ITV News. He was educated at a Scottish comprehensive and studied at the University of St Andrews. He is married to the BBC News presenter Joanna Gosling, with whom he has three young daughters.

Oliver came to Cameron's attention – via Coulson – in the runup to last year's general election. Coulson broke ground by bypassing the press and giving stories straight to News at Ten.

Big society tsar Lord Wei 'doesn't have enough time to perform role'

Lord Nat Wei has no private income to fall back on, and is cutting his voluntary hours to earn more money and see more of his family.

It could become the allegory of the "big society" age. The man appointed by the prime minister to kickstart a revolution in citizen activism is to scale back his hours after discovering that working for free three days a week is incompatible with "having a life".

Lord Wei of Shoreditch, who was given a Tory peerage last year and a desk in the Cabinet Office as the "big society tsar", is to reduce his hours on the project from three days a week to two, to allow him to see his family more and to take on other jobs to pay the bills.

A common criticism of the plans, under which the government hopes that communities will take over the running of local services such as schools and charity projects, is that people don't have time to run a public service on top of holding down a job and seeing their families.

Wei has told friends he is cutting his hours to allow him to earn more money and "have more of a life". He originally worked three full days a week and will now work two days, with the hours split over three, while taking on more non-executive directorships with private companies.

The role is voluntary and Wei had to to give up jobs in the charitable sector when he was appointed to avoid a conflict of interest. Whitehall sources said that when he was invited to take the role he had expected it to be remunerated but was told only the night before that it was a voluntary post and there would be no salary. Other unpaid coalition advisers include Lord Heseltine and the "digital champion" Martha Lane Fox – both millionaires.

Much of Wei's work has focused on how to free ordinary people from the daily grind to give them more time to do voluntary work and involve themselves in their communities under the big society plans. Since taking the post, Wei has had a relatively low profile and there have been suggestions that he has not made enough impact on the public understanding of 'big society'. The scheme is reported to be facing Whitehall resistance and the stretched capacities of local authorities.

Wei, 34, is a former management consultant who has no private income to fall back on. He was a member of Teach First's founding staff team, then worked for Ark, one of the biggest sponsors of academies, before setting up the Shaftesbury Partnership, a social entrepreneurial company.

A Cabinet Office spokesman suggested that Wei had worked extra hours in the early phase of the programme. "The government remains committed to devolving power to citizens and supporting a big society," he said.

• This article was amended on 2 February 2011. The original described Lord Wei as one of the founders of Teach First.