of corruption so deeply embedded in public life, where if you re living in cairo, in the simplest and largest transactions, police, up and down the line, your daily tasks, in ways that we can t get our arms around in the united states, that s part of the issue. so many multi-layered issues behind this smoke screen tonight, literally, over this city, this kind of acrid smoke from just a hint of tear gas, you can feel it in the back of your throat, but mostly burning cars, burning tires, a little kordite gunpowder. when this smoke clears, how much systemic change remains behind this. and richard, it s hard to describe, and hard to
ben, a fascinating story. we ll stay on top of it with you. thanks very much for bringing it to us. ben wedeman in cairo. now to lebanon and what demonstrators are calling a day of rage. thousands of people filled the streets across the country burning tires and throwing rocks. their anger directed at the appointment of a new prime minister backed by the militant hezbollah group, which last week forced the collapse of the government of prime minister is a yed hariri. a different reason for protests in a nearby country. nick, what s the story there? reporter: well, the new prime minister designate has said that he wants to form a government of national unit. saed hariri says he won t be part of it. they feel they have been cheated, that hezbollah here, designated a terrorist organization by the united states, cheated them out of their leader because hezbollah collapsed the government here. so, this new prime minister
graduates to continue their public service in this country as well as around the world. those are your fast five headlines. developing now overseas in thailand where authorities say the death toll has risen to 30 now following four days of clashes between the thai army and the anti-government protesters. nbc s ian williams has been chronicling this from bangkok. he joins us with more on the violence. i know it s nighttime there, ian. what can you tell us about the latest state of things? reporter: well, those violent scenes have continued into the evening here, clashes between those redshirted anti-government protesters and the army. now some of the worst clashes have taken place at some key junctions in the city to the north and in the center. at times it was thick black smoke hanging over the center of the city from burning tires, which the protesters have used to try and shield them from the army, which has replied to their rocks and molotov cocktails with gunfire. now, what s b