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In his first interview since protests began over a week ago, the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has told the American broadcaster ABC that he would step down now but fears chaos if he does so. He said he would never run away from Egypt and that he would die on Egyptian soil. He gave his interview unrecorded to Christiane Amanpour from ABC, who sent this report.I've just come from the presidential palace in Cairo, where I had a meeting for about 30 minutes with President Mubarak. It's the first time a journalist has seen him since these protests erupted. I asked him whether he would step down. He said that he would when his term was up, but that if he did so now, even though he said he would like to resign today, there would be chaos and "the Muslim Brotherhood would take over". When I asked him about the violence that had taken place against the protesters in Liberation Square, he said "I was very unhappy about yesterday. I do not want to see Egyptians fighting each other."

While tens of thousands of protesters have remained in central Cairo after dark, and although there was relative calm in Liberation or Tahrir Square, running battles were taking place nearby. Kevin Connolly has been watching the day's events.

It's becoming grimly familiar to Egyptians, but it was still shocking to them. As day gave way to night here, Tahrir Square was a battleground again. To the tired demonstrators huddled under fluttering protest banners, holding the square has become an act of huge symbolic importance. The pro-Mubarak gangs, who roam the surrounding streets, attacking foreigners and intimidating the opposition demonstrators, are still fighting to dislodge them. When gunfire is heard, it's assumed to be the army firing warning shots. It still seems clear that the high command hopes to occupy some sort of middle ground if it can. In the end, though, they may be ordered to clear the square.

The unrest hasn't been limited to the capital Cairo. Wyre Davies is in Egypt's second largest city Alexandria.

The protests here have been nowhere near as violent in recent days as those we've seen down in Cairo. The pro-Mubarak supporters have not been able to muster in enough numbers to pose a significant challenge to the anti-government protesters. Nonetheless, the situation is incredibly tense here in this city of five million people. It's getting increasingly difficult to work as a foreign journalist here as anger and tension from all sides, not just at the political crisis, but also because of the worsening economic situation here.

The United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain have condemned what they said was an unacceptable campaign of intimidation against journalists covering the unrest in Egypt. Dozens of foreign reporters have been arrested, beaten or had their equipment seized.

World News from the BBC

The Algerian state news agency has quoted President Bouteflika as saying state of emergency laws in place for almost two decades will be lifted in the very near future. He reportedly said protests would now be permitted everywhere except in the capital Algiers.

The world's longest-running trade dispute has come to an end after the European Parliament approved a deal to cut import tariffs on Latin American bananas. Chris Morris reports from Brussels.

For 20 years, the European Union has been accused of violating world trade rules. It's been importing bananas from African, Caribbean and Pacific countries duty-free while imposing heavy duties on bananas coming from other countries, notably those in Latin America. The EU has long argued that it's trying to protect small producers in former colonies at the expense of 

Latin American bananas, most of which are produced by multinational companies from the United States. But the law is the law, and the Europeans have now agreed that the tariffs must come down. The banana war is over.

Rescue workers in northeastern Australia are fanning out across a huge area to assess damage after a devastating cyclone battered towns around the city of Cairns. Bill Shannon is the mayor of Cassowary Coast. He told the BBC about the destruction in the town of Tully.

"Buildings down, telegraph poles snapped everywhere, [an] enormous amount of damage. We've been in and going to some evacuation places where people are living without power, without water, even without light, and we are organising those things to be in turn, and these people are living in these evacuation centres because their own homes have been damaged."

The government of Brazil is to provide free medicines for everyone suffering from diabetes and high blood pressure. President Dilma Rousseff said the measure was part of her campaign to end extreme poverty. The health ministry says around 33 million Brazilians have high blood pressure and more than seven million have diabetes.