conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog

WORLD_ Egypt recalls ambassador to Syria

2012-02-19T05:29:00.002-08:00

Egypt recalls ambassador to Syria
February 19, 2012 - 11:04PM
DPA

Egypt on Sunday recalled its ambassador to Syria, as pressure mounts on the military-led government to expel the Syrian envoy over Damascus's continuing crackdown on dissent.

The decision was made by the Foreign Minister, Mohamed Amr, following a meeting with the Egypt's ambassador to Damascus, who is currently in Cairo, a spokesman for the ministry, Amr Rushdi, said.

The ambassador would remain in Cairo until further notice," Rushdi said in a statement.

Hundreds of people took part in a demonstration outside the Syrian embassy in Cairo on Friday.

Egypt's decision follows moves by Tunisia, Libya, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations to reduce ties with Damascus.

The move comes as Homs, a central Syrian city which has seen some of the most intense fighting in the uprising, comes under renewed shelling from government troops, according to activists.

The Egyptian state news agency MENA said Foreign Minister Mohammed Amr decided on Sunday during a meeting with Ambassador Shukri Ismael to keep the envoy in Cairo until further notice.

That report did not give a reason, though a report posted minutes before said such a decision could support the Syrian people.

"Withdrawing the ambassador could happen at any time, and if we find and discover that this benefits the Syrian people, we will do it quickly," it quoted the minister as saying.

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conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
20022012
___________
CSVN là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC

WORLD_ Prosecutor, judge killed in Syria

2012-02-19T03:11:00.000-08:00

Prosecutor, judge killed in Syria
21:34 AEDT Sun Feb 19 2012
37 minutes ago
Bassem Mroue

Gunmen assassinated a senior prosecutor and a judge in a restive province in northwest Syria on Sunday, the country's state news agency said, while activists reported that security forces shelled rebel-held areas in the besieged city of Homs.

SANA news agency said gunmen opened fire in the morning on a car carrying Idlib provincial state prosecutor Nidal Ghazal and judge Mohammed Ziadeh. The agency said the two were killed instantly along with their driver.

Syrian rebels control parts of Idlib province, which borders Turkey. It has been one of the regions hardest hit by a government crackdown on an uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime.

The uprising began with mostly peaceful protests but has transformed into an armed insurgency against Assad in many areas, raising fears the country is spiraling toward civil war. In January, the UN estimated that more than 5,400 had been killed since March.

SANA said the prosecutor's assassination came a day after gunmen shot dead Jamal al-Bish, member of the city council of the nearby northern city of Aleppo, Syria's largest. It said he was killed outside the city, a centre of support for President Bashar Assad that has been relatively quiet since the uprising began.

The Syrian government blames armed "terrorists" acting out a foreign conspiracy to destabilise the country.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights activist group said shelling continued on Sunday of the Homs neighbourhood of Baba Amr, which has been subjected to government forces attacks since February 4.

The group also said troops stormed the eastern town of Sukhna searching for fugitive members of the opposition, and that one woman was shot dead during the raids.

On Saturday, Syrian security forces fired live rounds and tear gas at thousands of people marching in a funeral procession that turned into one of the largest protests in the capital Damascus since the 11-month uprising began.

The violence broke out during a visit by a Chinese envoy, who said his country will back a solution to the crisis based on proposals already put forward by the Arab League - even though Beijing is unlikely to support the regional bloc's call for Assad to step aside.

China, along with Russia, recently supported Damascus by vetoing a UN Security Council resolution that would have condemned Assad's regime.

Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog"
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conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
19022012
___________
CSVN là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC

WORLD_ Syrian forces fire on anti-Assad crowd in capital

2012-02-19T02:41:00.000-08:00

Syrian forces fire on anti-Assad crowd in capital

1 of 2. Anti-government protesters attend the funerals, in snowy weather, of protesters killed during clashes with government troops in earlier protests against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus February 18, 2012.
Credit: Reuters/Handout

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis and Angus MacSwan
AMMAN/BEIRUT | Sun Feb 19, 2012 8:12am IST

(Reuters) - Syrian security forces have fired on a huge protest against President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, opposition activists said, shortly after a Chinese envoy appealed for a halt to 11 months of violence.

The shooting took place on Saturday at the funerals of three youths killed a day earlier in an anti-Assad protest that was one of the biggest in the capital since a nationwide uprising started.

"They started firing at the crowd right after the burial," said a witness, speaking to Reuters in Amman by telephone.

People tried to flee and seek shelter in alleyways, he said.

The opposition Syrian Revolution Coordination Union said the gunfire near the cemetery had killed one mourner and wounded four, including a woman who was hit in the head. A shopkeeper told Reuters many protesters were arrested.

The Local Coordination Committees, an opposition activit group, said security forces had killed 14 people in Damascus and other parts of the country on Saturday, including five in the opposition stronghold of Homs. None of the figures could be verified independently.

Up to 30,000 demonstrators had taken to the streets in the capital's Mezze district, near the headquarters of Airforce Intelligence and that of the ruling Baath Party, witnesses said.

Footage of the funeral broadcast on the Internet showed women ululating to honour the victims. Mourners shouted: "We sacrifice our blood, our soul for you martyrs. One, one, one, the Syrian people are one."

YouTube footage from another Damascus suburb, Douma, showed several thousand protesters at the funerals of two people said to have been killed there by security forces. The bodies were carried though a sea of mourners waving pre-Baath Syrian flags.

Assad described the turmoil racking Syria as a ploy to split the country.

"What Syria is facing is fundamentally an effort to divide it and affect its geopolitical place and historic role in the region," he was quoted by Syrian state television as saying after meeting Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhai Jun.

CHINESE SUPPORT

Zhai appealed for an end to violence from all sides, including the government and opposition forces. But his comments for the most part amounted to a show of support against world condemnation of Assad's crackdown on the popular uprising.

The envoy said China backed Assad's plan for a referendum on February 26 followed by multi-party elections to resolve the crisis. The opposition and the West have dismissed the plan as a sham.

"China supports the path of reform taking place in Syria and the important steps that have been taken in this respect," he said.

The Chinese Embassy said Zhai held separate meetings with moderate opposition figures Qadri Jamil, Louay Hussein and Hassan Abdulazim, but gave no details.

"We told the Chinese envoy that most of the opposition accept a dialogue if that dialogue is serious and responsible, meaning that the Syrian authorities would implement what is agreed. But the problem with dialogue is that the authorities have lost credibility," Hussein told Reuters.

Beijing and Moscow have been Assad's most important international defenders during the ferocious repression, which has killed several thousand people and divided world powers. The United Nations, the United States, Europe, Turkey and Arab powers want Assad to step down and have condemned the crackdown.

Russia and China vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution on February 4 calling on Assad to quit and also voted against a similar, non-binding General Assembly resolution on Thursday.

In other strife across the country, government forces bombarded the opposition stronghold of Homs on Saturday.

A blanket of snow covered Homs, strategically sited on the road between Damascus and the commercial hub Aleppo, as rockets and artillery pounded mainly Sunni Muslim rebel districts.

The troops were close to Baba Amro, a southern neighbourhood that has been target of the heaviest barrages since the offensive began two weeks ago, activists said.

"There is no electricity and communications between districts are cut, so we are unable to get a death toll. There is no fuel in most of the city," activist Mohammad al-Homsi said from Homs.

HAMA OFFENSIVE

The military has also opened a new offensive in Hama, a city with a bloody history of resistance to Assad's late father Hafez, who died in 2000 after 30 years in power.

Syrian forces killed people in Homs, Hama, the northwestern province of Idlib near the border of Turkey and in Aleppo, Damascus and the southern Hauran Plain, where the popular uprising against Assad's rule started, the Local Coordination Committees said in a statement.

Assad, who belongs to the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, in a majority Sunni country, says he is fighting foreign-backed terrorists.

The uprising began with civilian protests in March, but now includes a parallel armed struggle led by the loosely organised Free Syria Army, made up of army deserters and local insurgents.

Syria's other significant ally is Iran, itself at odds with the West.

An Iranian destroyer and a supply ship sailed through the Suez canal this week and are believed to be on their way to the Syrian coast, a source in the canal authority said.

Iraq said on Saturday it had reinforced security along its Syrian border to prevent arms smuggling after reports that fighters and weapons were crossing into Syria.

"Necessary measures have been taken to consolidate control over the borders with Syria which is witnessing turbulence that encourages infiltration and all kinds of smuggling, especially arms," Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's office said.

Iraq's Shi'ites fear that if Assad falls, hardline Sunnis could come to power, a shift that could threaten their newly-acquired dominance since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

(Additional reporting by Mohammed Abbas and Dominic Evans in Beirut and Ahmed Rasheed in Baghdad; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

____________

WHAT DO YOU THINK ?

Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog"
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conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
19022012
___________
CSVN là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC

Vài nét "chân dung" trí thức, sĩ phu, chính trị gia VN trong ngoặc kép

2012-02-18T14:40:00.005-08:00

Vài nét "chân dung" trí thức, sĩ phu, chính trị gia VN trong ngoặc kép (*)

Trân tráo trò hề "phân" với "xử"
CƯỚP đầu "xử" CƯỚP đít vi "phân"
Việt gian cộng sản bao lần
CƯỚP nước BÁN nước GIẾT dân DIỆT nòi

Cướp đất cướp nhà ra chuyện nhỏ
“Trí” hèn “sĩ” nhược chủ trương to
Câm mồm ngậm miệng ăn no
“Trí”, “sĩ” hưởng bỗng lộc bọc mo giặc hồ

Cộng đảng đâu chỉ CƯỚP nhà CƯỚP đất
Mà chúng CƯỚP cả nước Việt Nam
Chúng GIẾT dân, chúng TÙ ĐÀY người YÊU NƯỚC
Chúng HÚT từng giọt MÁU dân Nam
Chúng BÁN cả giang sơn nòi giống
Chúng giày mồ lăng nhục Tổ Tông
Chúng chính là TỘI ĐỒ truyền kiếp của dân tộc Việt Nam

"Trí thức mực” thổi kèn "hợp giải"
"Sĩ phu mu” mọp vái "đa nguyên"
Van thằng bán nước thi ân
Nhổ ra liếm lại chẳng cần đậy che

"Kiến nghị", "thỉnh thơ" cơ "trí" đấu
Đội thù vọng ngọai "sĩ" mưu tranh
Cộng nô bán nước nhục hành
"Trí", "sĩ" “hợp tác” “chính danh” đảng hồ (**)

Hải ngọai
Một mặt “thỉnh thơ” cầu thế giới
Giúp cho dân Việt có "nhân quyền"
Mặt khác “tự do” du lịch, gởi tiền
Đầu tư, từ thiện cố quyền cộng ngai

Liêm sỉ, tự trọng vữa khai
"Sĩ phu", "trí thức" bám hài cộng nô
Thờ thằng bán nước tam vô
Đội thù lạy ngoại "trí” “sĩ" vồ “thời cơ”

"Chính trị thịt xôi" dồi miệng mỡ
Bán lương tri tráo trở giả hình
Bắt tay cộng đảng cầu vinh
Làm tôi ngọai tộc vong tình nước non

Nước Việt Nam của dân Việt Nam
Không phải của lũ Việt gian cộng hồ
Không van xin lũ vong nô
Giết dân bán nước giày mồ Tổ Tiên

Dân Việt Nam quyết không nô lệ
Không cúi đầu trước họa diệt vong
Không chờ “trí “ “sĩ” trùm chăn
Không đợi “chính trị gia” ruồi nhặng tay sai ngọai bang nhố nhăng “phất cờ”

Dân Việt đồng lọat XUỐNG ĐƯỜNG
LẬT ĐỔ đảng CƯỚP cầm quyền cộng nô
Xử tội lũ bán nước giặc hồ
Đuổi bọn giặc bắc tàu ô tham tàn

Đồng bào ơi ! Hãy đứng lên !
Giành lại đất nước trong tay giặc hồ
Đồng bào ơi ! Hãy đứng lên !
Bảo vệ đất nước giữ yên cõi bờ

Đồng bào ơi! Hãy đứng lên !
Diệt cộng cứu nước xây nền TỰ DO

(Soi Dòng Sông Chữ Thấy Mù Tâm .. )

(*) conbenho xin nói rõ, những nét "chân dung" này trong ngoặc kép .

(**) bè lũ phản quốc CƯỚP NƯỚC DIỆT CHỦNG BÁN NƯỚC ĐỘC tài ĐỘC đảng Việt gian cộng sản VN, đứng đầu là quốc tặc hồ chí minh .

Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog"
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .

conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
19022012
___________
CSVN là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC

WORLD_ Syria protesters march on Embassy

2012-02-18T12:43:00.000-08:00

Syria protesters march on Embassy
(UKPA) – 1 hour ago
PRESS ASSOCIATION

Protesters gather outside the Syrian Embassy in Belgrave Square, central London

Demonstrators supporting people standing up against the regime in Syria have marched through the heart of London's Arab community.

The march, organised by Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain, united around 1,000-1,200 Muslims who oppose the regime of President Bashar Assad in Syria, and finished at the Syrian Embassy.

Making their way down Edgware Road, past Marble Arch, and down Park Lane, the enthusiasm of the protesters was not dampened by heavy rain as they approached the Syrian Embassy in Belgrave Square.

Holding posters with messages including 'O Syrian army support the people not the tyrant' and 'Bashar Al-Assad Baby Killer', the all-male protest resulted in some delays for road users along the route.

In front of the Embassy building, protesters beat posters of Assad with running shoes and flip-flops, with one poster being set alight before protest organisers called for the flames to be put out.

With a heavy police presence in the area, some demonstrators covered their faces with scarves, which protest organisers tried to stop by walking along the perimeters and asking people to remove the face coverings.

Speaking about the demonstration, Taji Mustafa, spokesman of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Britain, said: "The demonstrators were showing their support for those bravely rising up against the tyrannical Syrian regime and calling for the removal of the corrupt and oppressive system ruling over the people.

"They also opposed Western interference in the Muslim world, where the Assad regime has been supported for decades.

"They also opposed attempts to inflame sectarian tensions - which plays into the hands of this brutal regime. They called upon the sincere people in the armed forces to withdraw their support from the Assad regime, and to support the establishment of a system that ensures accountability, transparency and justice for all the people - the Islamic Khilafah (Caliphate) state."

Protesters shouted 'Free, free Syria' along the route and waved Syrian flags, while other posters said 'Bashar Al-Assad-the killer of Muslims' and 'Go Bashar and take your gang with you'. The demonstration passed off peacefully.

Copyright © 2012 The Press Association. All rights reserved.

Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog"
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conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
19022012
___________
CSVN là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC

WORLD_ Reporter’s Death Puts Focus on Difficulties of Covering a Secretive Syria

2012-02-18T00:52:00.000-08:00

Reporter’s Death Puts Focus on Difficulties of Covering a Secretive Syria
By BRIAN STELTER
Published: February 17, 2012

The conflict in Syria has become, for journalists, one of the most difficult and dangerous assignments in many years, with at least five having died while covering the uprising that began there last March.

The refusal of the Syrian government, led by President Bashar al-Assad, to let foreign journalists move freely around the country has spurred some to sneak in through Lebanon or Turkey at great personal risk. Among them was Anthony Shadid, a foreign correspondent of The New York Times, who had spent nearly a week reporting covertly inside Syria and was on his way back to Turkey when he collapsed and died on Thursday, apparently of an asthma attack. He was traveling with Tyler Hicks, a photographer for The Times.

Anthony Shadid’s Dispatches Since 2010

Journalists from the BBC, CNN, ABC, NBC, Al Jazeera English and a small number of other news organizations have managed to enter Syria without visas, like Mr. Shadid and Mr. Hicks did, and bear witness to the lopsided battles between the Assad government and opposition fighters and citizens. Along the way, journalists have confronted a unique combination of challenges, including tenuous cellphone and Internet connections, the absence of a clear front line and the constant threat of being caught by security forces loyal to the Syrian government.

Anthony Shadid, on the Scene

“I’ve never seen anything quite like this,” said Mark Whitaker, an executive vice president at CNN, which has two news crews working undercover in Syria this week. While other countries have restrictions on the press that are as severe as Syria’s — North Korea, Iran, Myanmar — “you don’t have live wars going on there,” Mr. Whitaker said.

“If you get stopped at a government checkpoint, it’s over not just for you, but for everybody in the car,” said Clarissa Ward, a CBS News correspondent, who followed a route similar to Mr. Shadid’s in and out of northern Syria from Turkey this month. Ms. Ward, a veteran of conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, the Gaza Strip and elsewhere, said, “I have never experienced anything akin to what I saw in Syria.”

Some journalists have been given permission to enter Syria, mainly through its capital, Damascus, but they have reported being tailed by the secret police and being forbidden from touring some parts of the country.

FRANCE 2, via Associated Press
Gilles Jacquier, a French television reporter, died in January during a Syrian government-sponsored trip to Homs.

Bill Neely, an international editor for ITV News in Britain who flew out of Damascus on Friday, described being in a government “security bubble” during a trip to Dara’a, where the uprising was born. When “I escaped from the bubble to talk to people,” Mr. Neely said, “it was clear they were afraid to speak.”

Mr. Shadid felt compelled to enter Syria with the help of smugglers for the same reasons that other journalists cited in interviews this week: a sense that the widespread killing and suffering there needs to be documented.

“It’s just nuts. I feel like no one there is telling the truth now,” Mr. Shadid wrote in an e-mail to editors at The Times as they weighed whether he should sneak back into the country. “We have to get the details.”

The first time he did so, in July of last year, he reported on antigovernment sentiments and sectarian tensions in the restive city of Homs. “Anthony was reporting from Homs when the rest of us could only dream of it,” said Jon Williams, the BBC world news editor, who joined others in expressing condolences to The Times on Friday.

Mr. Williams said that during the period of upheaval in the Middle East that began in Tunisia in December 2010, Syria “is by far the most perilous story we’ve covered.” Although there were many cases of harassment and violence affecting journalists in Egypt and Libya, “the intensity with which the Assad regime are contesting places like Homs raises the level of risk enormously,” he said.

When the BBC correspondent Paul Wood and his cameraman, Fred Scott, snuck into Syria from Turkey this month, Mr. Williams said that he insisted they travel with a contractor who could act as a paramedic “in case something went wrong.” This was prompted by the death of Tim Hetherington, a photographer and filmmaker, in Libya last year. “He essentially bled to death because nobody with him knew how to stem the bleeding,” Mr. Williams said.

Some other news agencies have sent security contractors into Syria with their news crews. Eason Jordan, who was CNN’s chief news executive until 2005 and helped coordinate security for television networks in Iraq, said, “It’s certainly prudent to have someone with experience, including paramedic experience, in the traveling party, but it’s not always practical to do that for logistical reasons and sometimes monetary reasons.”

Mr. Shadid and Mr. Hicks elected to travel without a security consultant. The Times sometimes uses such consultants, but weighs each situation individually.

Representatives for some news agencies, including The Associated Press and Reuters, declined to comment on the methods used by their staff members to cover Syria, citing safety concerns.

The reporting dangers have had a suppressing effect on Syria coverage, at least in the United States, where there was not a significant spike in coverage until the week of Feb. 6. Many television segments and articles have had to rely heavily on secondhand information — what Mr. Shadid called “remote-control reporting” in an NPR interview last December. For some of the journalists involved, it has been deeply frustrating.

“I would hate to think that the Assad regime has been successful in their very cynical calculation that keeping journalists out of the country will mean that the world forgets about the story,” Ms. Ward of CBS News said.

CNN executives said they had tried to put a spotlight on the strife in Syria because they anticipated that, without easy access to professional-quality video, other news outlets would pay less attention to it. “If we could see as much of what is happening on the ground as we were able to see in Egypt and Libya, this would be leading the news broadcasts of all the networks almost every night,” Mr. Whitaker said.

He and others asserted that professional video and reporting were essential even in an age of social media, when graphic videos of the violence in Syria are uploaded to YouTube and shared on Twitter seemingly every day. “It’s quite dehumanizing, really, to see fuzzy YouTube videos and photos that have been shot on cellphones,” Mr. Williams said. Interviews by professional journalists, on the other hand, “bring the story alive to the audience,” he added.

Viewer surveys by the BBC showed a below-average amount of interest in the Syria story for the better part of the last year, Mr. Williams said, possibly because of the lack of firsthand stories from journalists there. The past two weeks, when Mr. Wood and Mr. Scott of the BBC were holed up in Homs and broadcasting during the Syrian government’s bombardment of the city, “it’s gone substantially above the average,” Mr. Williams said, reiterating in his mind the value of original reporting.

At least four other journalists have died in Syria since the uprising began, according to the Committee to Project Journalists, which has no records of journalist deaths there in the 20 years before. According to the group, five journalists and one media worker died in Libya last year and two died in Egypt, where journalists had more freedom of movement.

In Syria, a freelance cameraman, Ferzat Jarban, was found dead in early November. His body was mutilated, according to information gathered by the group. Another freelance cameraman, Basil al-Sayed, died at the end of December. A French television reporter, Gilles Jacquier, died in January during a government-sponsored trip to Homs. A freelance reporter for Agence France-Presse, The Guardian and other publications, Mazhar Tayyara, died in Homs in early February.

Each death was accompanied by claims that Syrian security forces were at fault, but those claims were nearly impossible to confirm because of the dearth of independent reporting in the country.

A version of this article appeared in print on February 18, 2012, on page A10 of the New York edition with the headline: Reporter’s Death Puts Focus on Difficulties of Covering a Secretive Syria

Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog"
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
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conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
18022012
___________
CSVN là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC

WORLD_ Protests throughout Syria against President Assad's regime

2012-02-17T12:33:00.000-08:00

Protests throughout Syria against President Assad's regime

Video clips uploaded onto the internet suggest that protests against President Bashar al-Assad are continuing on the streets of Syria in spite of reports that government forces are bombarding opposition strongholds.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/9089824/Protests-throughout-Syria-against-President-Assads-regime.html

6:14PM GMT 17 Feb 2012
A clip purportedly shot in Deraa near the Jordanian border where the revolt erupted nearly a year ago, showed a town square crowded with protesters chanting in support of the city of Homs, which has now been under fire for two weeks.

Other videos seem to show similar scenes from Idlib and Homs, where protesters were chanting against President Assad and waving the green-white-black Syrian flag used by the opposition. In footage which claims to be shot in al Kala, rebel fighters in uniform seemed to be walking among the protesters.

Friday's protests took place as a senior Chinese official was due to visit Damascus in a show of support for Bashar-al Assad after the UN General Assembly told the Syrian president to halt a violent crackdown and surrender power.

Assad showed no sign of easing his campaign to stamp out the 11-month uprising against his rule. His forces on Friday resumed pummelling opposition strongholds in the city of Homs.

President Assad, who succeeded his late father Hafez in 2000 after he had ruled for 30 years, shows no sign of easing his campaign to stamp out the 11-month uprising against his rule.

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_ Syrians brave backlash to rally against Assad

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WORLD_ 56 killed in Syria crackdown on protests

2012-02-17T12:24:00.000-08:00

56 killed in Syria crackdown on protests
06:28 AEDT Sat Feb 18 2012
9NEWS

Syrian troops HAVE killed at least 56 people, opposition activists say, as the government ignored a UN General Assembly resolution condemning the continuing violence and calling on President Bashar al-Assad to step down.

Thousands of protesters defied government forces in the restive provinces of Homs, Idlib, Hama and Daraa, chanting anti-regime slogans during mass rallies held after Friday prayers.

A visit to Damascus on Friday by a top Chinese envoy, Vice-Foreign Minister Zhai Jun, was a diplomatic boost for al-Assad a day after the General Assembly resolution that was opposed by China and Russia.

The two countries had also vetoed a similar resolution in the UN Security Council on February 4.

While French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron on Friday strongly condemned the Syrian regime for "butchering" its people, they ruled out military intervention, saying Syria was different from Libya.

"What is happening in Syria is appalling. You have a government that is butchering and murdering its own people," Cameron told a joint press conference with Sarkozy in Paris.

When Western powers intervened in Libya, it was with the authorisation of the United Nations, a call from the Arab League for action and a "clear opposition in Libya that worked on behalf of the whole country", he said.

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, during a meeting in Washington with European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, reiterated international efforts to pressure al-Assad and help the Syrian people.

"We also hope to coordinate efforts to enable a Syrian-led transition before the regime's action tear the country apart," said Clinton, adding that discussions would continue at a Friends of Syria meeting in Tunisia next week.

Unlike in Libya, the Syrian opposition is fragmented and the rebels do not yet control any areas of the country. The absence of Western military support for the rebels means the conflict could drag on, and even deteriorate into civil war.

The Local Coordination Committees (LCC), a group of activists documenting the violence, said 56 people were killed by government forces on Friday.

LCC spokesman Omar Idlibi said 12 army deserters were executed at an army checkpoint in the southern province of Daraa, the cradle of the popular uprising that erupted in March.

Activists in the central province of Homs said troops shelled civilian neighbourhoods for a 14th consecutive day, killing at least 12. Many more remain buried under the rubble, they said.

Video posted on YouTube showed buildings collapsing from the fierce bombardment in the Baba Amr and Khalidiyeh neighbourhoods in the city of Homs, which is besieged by government forces.

In the northern province of Idlib near the border with Turkey, protesters took to the streets chanting: "We want the al-Assad clan to leave."

Troops opened fire on protesters in the neighbourhood of Mezze in the capital Damascus, killing several civilians. They also fired at demonstrators in the north-western province of Aleppo, where activists said several people died.

In Cairo, hundreds of protesters held a rally outside the Syrian embassy to condemn the violence.

_____________

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WORLD_ UN assembly condemns Syria slaughter

2012-02-16T17:40:00.000-08:00

UN assembly condemns Syria slaughter

By Middle East correspondent Anne Barker and wires
Updated February 17, 2012 11:04:48

Photo: Homs has been under sustained fire for 13 straight days. (AFP: LCC Syria)

The United Nations General Assembly has overwhelmingly approved a new resolution condemning rights violations in Syria and calling on president Bashar al-Assad to step aside.

The vote came after at least 22 people were reportedly killed in flashpoint cities of Syria, and a prominent blogger and other top activists were arrested.

The non-binding resolution - introduced by Egypt on behalf of 27 other countries including Arab states, Britain and the United States - condemns "systematic violations and human rights" in Syria.

An initial count showed it received 137 votes in favour, 12 against and 17 abstentions, though three delegations said their votes failed to register on the electronic board.

But the resolution, which endorses an Arab League plan, has no real power to force change without a similar vote in the Security Council, where Russia and China have already vetoed similar resolutions.

On the ground in Syria, government troops continue to pound the city of Homs after 13 straight days, firing mortars and rockets into residential areas.

In Hama, further north, 18 people have been killed in a similar crackdown, while four others have died in the southern city of Daraa.

"It's very methodical," said Mohammed, a Daraa resident reached by telephone from Beirut.

He said regime forces were attacking the province "village by village".

"The (rebel) Free Syrian Army is trying to push them back but it is not equipped and is forced to retreat. Regime troops are taking revenge on residents," he said.

Daraa massacre
The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says it fears security forces have carried out a massacre in Daraa province, where dozens of civilians disappeared on Wednesday after being cornered in a valley.

"There are fears regime forces carried out a massacre in Sahm al-Julan," it said in a statement, providing the names of 14 of those feared killed.

"Witnesses said security forces shot at the civilians and then piled them onto pick-up trucks. Their fate is unknown."

Authorities have also reportedly arrested several prominent activists for their role in the 11-month uprising.

Among them is blogger Razan Ghazzawi, a symbol of the 11-month uprising against the Assad regime, as well as prominent human rights activist Mazen Darwish, his wife and 11 others, said human rights lawyer Anwar Bunni.

The lawyer said Ms Ghazzawi was arrested in a raid on the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression, which is in central Damascus and headed by Mr Darwish.

Ms Ghazzawi, a Syrian-American, has written her "Razaniyyat" blog under her real name since 2009.

Her Twitter feed - @RedRazan - is followed by more than 6,500 people.

Photo: Arrested: Syrian blogger Razan Ghazzawi works for the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression. (AFP: Syrian Centre for Media and Free Expression)

Earlier this week, Syrian opposition groups and the United States rejected the Assad government's newly drafted constitution, which the government says would end nearly five decades of single-party rule.

The US dismissed the move as "laughable," but Russia, a major weapons supplier to Damascus, welcomed it.

Syrian opposition groups urged voters to boycott a February 26 referendum on the charter.

Meanwhile, Chinese vice foreign minister Zhai Jun said Beijing remains opposed armed intervention and forced "regime change" in Syria.

The diplomat is heading to Damascus on Friday to push for peace.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon has appealed to the international community to agree on a response to end the violence.

"I urge the international community to speak in one voice: stop the violence. Stop the bloodshed. The longer we debate, the more people will die," he said.

Rights groups say more than 6,000 people have been killed since regime forces began cracking down on democracy protests launched on March 15 last year.

ABC/AFP

Topics: world-politics, unrest-conflict-and-war, syrian-arab-republic
First posted February 17, 2012 07:37:04

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WORLD_ Syria crackdown worsens ahead of UN vote

2012-02-16T11:00:00.001-08:00

Two Syrians evacuate an injured fellow rebel in Idlib, Syria, as the US rejected Russia's attempts to broker talks between the vice-president and the opposition to calm the country's violence. Source: AP
(From Article "Syrian forces in further Homs bombings, as US rejects Russia's excuses"
AFP February 09, 2012 9:05AM )
_______

Syria crackdown worsens ahead of UN vote

From correspondents in Damascus
From: AFP
February 17, 2012 4:52AM

AT least 22 people have been killed as Syrian armour moved on protest hubs, while prominent blogger Razan Ghazzawi and other leading activists were arrested, monitors said ahead of a UN vote on the crisis.

President Bashar al-Assad's troops pummelled the central city of Homs for a 13th straight day overnight, with 18 people killed in central Hama province and four others dying in the southern city of Daraa, the monitors reported.

"It's very methodical," said Mohammed, a resident of Daraa reached by telephone from Beirut. He said regime forces were attacking the province "village by village".

"The (rebel) Free Syrian Army is trying to push them back, but it is not equipped and is forced to retreat. Regime troops are taking revenge on residents."

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group also said it feared that dozens of civilians had been massacred by security forces when they stormed a village in Daraa on Wednesday.

"There are fears regime forces carried out a massacre in Sahm al-Julan," the Britain-based group said.

The authorities arrested Mr Ghazzawi, symbol of the 11-month uprising against Mr Assad's regime, as well as prominent human rights activist Mazen Darwish, his wife and 11 others, a human rights lawyer said.

The lawyer, Anwar Bunni, said Mr Ghazzawi was arrested in an early afternoon raid on the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression, which is located in central Damascus and is headed by Mr Darwish.

"We at the Syrian Centre for Legal Studies condemn these arrests and call on Syrian authorities to immediately release them," Mr Bunni said.

Paris-based watchdog Reporters Without Borders also condemned the arrests and demanded the activists' immediate release.

The latest crackdown came with the UN General Assembly set to vote later in the day on a measure condemning repression in Syria, just days after Russia and China joined forces to derail a similar text in the UN Security Council.

Earlier, the opposition rejected a newly drafted constitution that could end nearly five decades of single-party rule and urged voters to boycott a referendum on it, a day after Mr Assad called a vote on the charter for February 26.

The United States dismissed the move as "laughable", but Russia, a major weapons supplier to Damascus, welcomed it.

The Local Coordination Committees, a main opposition activist group, called for a vote boycott, as well as stepped up efforts to topple Mr Assad.

"The draft constitution is no more than a political tool or a policy paper written by the barbaric regime," the LCC said. "We see no alternative but to topple the regime.

"The LCC calls upon our people to reject and boycott the alleged referendum to confirm the lack of public support for this criminal regime."

The National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change, another opposition group, said it also planned to boycott the vote given the ongoing violence.

"It is impossible for us to take part in this referendum before a stop to the violence and killings," the head of the group, Hassan Abdel Azim, said.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/syria-crackdown-worsens-ahead-of-un-vote/story-e6frfku0-1226273355375#ixzz1mZbRErYn

_____________

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WORLD_ China to send senior envoy for talks in Syria

2012-02-16T02:29:00.000-08:00

China to send senior envoy for talks in Syria

China, which has been criticised for vetoing a UN vote aimed at pressuring Syria's leader to step down, said on Thursday it will send a senior envoy to the country for talks on ending the violence.

Eleven months of bloodshed in Syria have left more than 5,000 dead as the regime has cracked down on protesters and rebels Photo: ANWAR AMRO/AFP/Getty Images

9:52AM GMT 16 Feb 2012
The Telegraph

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhai Jun will be in Syria on Friday and Saturday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said at a news briefing. Zhai met a Syrian opposition delegation in Beijing last week.

China and Russia drew the wrath of the United States, Europe and much of the Arab world earlier this month for vetoing a UN Security Council resolution aimed at pressuring Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down. China says the council vote was called before differences over the proposal were bridged.

Eleven months of bloodshed in Syria have left more than 5,000 dead as the regime has cracked down on protesters and rebels.

Liu said Zhai's schedule was still being arranged and he had no information on whom he would meet.

"I believe the message of this visit is that China hopes for a peaceful and proper resolution of the Syrian situation, and that the Chinese side will play a constructive role in the mediation," Liu said.

Related Articles

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_ Syria: troops attack city of Hama as explosion hits major oil pipeline - 15 Feb 2012
_ UN General Assembly to vote on new Syria resolution - 15 Feb 2012
_ Syria: seven–year–old girl shot as she called messages of support from bedroom window - 14 Feb 2012
_ Homs activists send messages via carrier pigeon - 14 Feb 2012

Zhai's visit will come during an escalation in violence in Syria, especially in the central city of Homs. It also comes ahead of a Feb 26 referendum on a new constitution that would create a multiparty system in a country that has been ruled by Assad's autocratic family dynasty for 40 years.

Assad opponents say the referendum, announced on Wednesday, and other reforms will not be enough, insisting Assad must go. The White House has also dismissed the referendum.

Earlier this week in Beijing, Premier Wen Jiabo told visiting UN leaders that the most urgent issue in Syria was to "prevent war and chaos." He said China was not protecting any party, including the government, in the dispute.

Later on Thursday, the U.N. General Assembly will vote on an Arab-sponsored resolution strongly condemning human rights violations by the Syrian regime and backing an Arab League plan that calls for Assad to hand over power to his vice president. The measure cannot be vetoed in the Assembly, but the resolution would be non-binding.

Source: AP

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WORLD_ Assad proposes referendum in strifetorn Syria

2012-02-15T20:49:00.000-08:00

Assad proposes referendum in strifetorn Syria

1 of 20. Smoke is seen rising from Bab Amro near Homs February 15, 2012.
Credit: Reuters/Handout

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis and Angus MacSwan
AMMAN/BEIRUT Thu Feb 16, 2012 4:23am GMT

AMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian opposition leaders and the West have scorned a new offer by President Bashar al-Assad to hold multi-party elections, as his troops mounted more attacks on rebel-held areas.

Assad promised a referendum in two weeks' time on a new constitution leading to elections within 90 days, but made clear he still planned to crush the uprising against him by force.

The military unleashed a new offensive in Hama, a city with a bloody history of resistance to Assad's late father Hafez al-Assad, firing at residential neighbourhoods with anti-aircraft guns mounted on armoured vehicles, opposition activists said.

France said it was negotiating a new U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria with Russia, Assad's ally and main arms supplier, and wanted to create humanitarian corridors to ease the plight of civilians caught up in the violence.

Army shelling and sniper fire have killed at least five people and wounded 50 in Hama in the last 36 hours, according to a statement by activists in the city, 240 kms (150 miles) north of Damascus.

"Hama is besieged by tanks and ... armour. No civilian movement is allowed in the northern section of the city. A large campaign of arrests and house to house searches is under way to scare inhabitants and prevent them from sheltering the Free Syrian Army," the statement said, referring to army defectors.

"Electricity is cut in the neighbourhoods that came under attack. All communications and the Internet in Hama have been severed," said the statement, relayed by opposition sources in contact with the city by satellite phone.

Tight media restrictions have made it impossible to confirm the accounts of the opposition or those of the authorities who say security forces are battling "terrorists" across the country.

The state news agency said security forces "chased and fought with an armed terrorist group in the Hamidiya neighbourhood of Hama that has been terrifying citizens" and arrested some of its members, who had automatic rifles and rocket propelled grenades.

Artillery shelled parts of Homs for the 13th day in a row. The Local Coordination Committees, an activist group, said at least four people were killed on Wednesday by army fire concentrated on Baba Amro district, a Sunni neighbourhood.

Sunni districts of Homs have been at the forefront of opposition to Assad, who belongs to the minority Alawite sect that has dominated Syria for the last five decades.

In Damascus, troops killed at least two youth when they swept into the Barzeh district, searching houses and making arrests, witnesses said.

NO REGIME CHANGE

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told French radio "The idea of humanitarian corridors that I previously proposed to allow NGOs to reach the zones where there are scandalous massacres should be discussed at the Security Council."

He said a U.N. General Assembly vote on Thursday on a non-binding resolution on Syria would be "symbolic." It follows a February 4 veto by Russia and China of a draft Security Council resolution that backed an Arab League call for Assad to quit.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he would listen to Juppe, but added: "If the plan is to use the Security Council and United Nations to adopt some language to help legitimise regime change, then I'm afraid international law does not allow this and we cannot support such an approach."

Lavrov said later "If leading members of the international community demand regime change as a condition for everything else, then we are convinced ... this is the way to a full civil war with unforeseeable consequences."

Diplomats said Arab delegations had rejected proposed Russian amendments which would weaken the Assembly resolution.

The Arab League wants a joint U.N.-Arab peacekeeping force to be deployed in Syria and has adopted a resolution that would allow its members to arm Syrian rebels.

Libya's interim leader, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, said the exiled opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) would be allowed to open an office in Tripoli. "We support the Syrian people and their aspirations," he said.

SNC members re-elected Burhan Ghalioun as its head at a meeting in the Qatari capital Doha on Wednesday.

The SNC hopes to gain international standing at a "Friends of Syria" meeting on February 24 in Tunisia. SNC Secretary General Wael Merza said 74 countries and organisations would be there.

In Homs, a YouTube video showed a doctor who gave his name as Mohammad al-Mohammad at a makeshift hospital in Baba Amro holding the body of a man with a bullet hole in the neck.

"Baba Amro is celebrating one martyr after the other ... Is the blood of Muslims in Syria so cheap? We make an appeal to Arabs, to Christians, to everyone who believes there is a God," he said.

PROMISES OF DEMOCRACY

Syrian state media said on Wednesday a draft constitution to be put to a vote on February 26 would establish a multi-party system in Syria, under Baath Party rule since 1963. Parliamentary elections would follow within 90 days of its approval.

New parties could not be based on a religion or on regional interests, which appeared to exclude the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood or autonomy-seeking Kurdish parties.

The constitution would allow the president to be elected for two seven-year terms. Assad's late father Hafez was president for 29 years and was succeeded by his son when he died in 2000.

Melhem al-Droubi, a member of the SNC and the Muslim Brotherhood, told Reuters that Assad must resign now.

"The truth is that Bashar al-Assad has increased the killing and slaughter in Syria. He has lost his legitimacy and we aren't interested in his rotten constitutions, old or new," he said.

The United States also dismissed the referendum plan.

"Promises of reforms have been usually followed by increases

in brutality and have never been delivered upon by this regime since the beginning of peaceful demonstrations in Syria," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

"The Assad regime's days are numbered."

Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation Thomas Countryman said the United States was "deeply concerned" about arms transfers from Iran to Syria.

He said Iran was supplying weapons that could be used against protesters, as was Russia. The United States is also concerned about the "tens of thousands" of shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles Syria is believed to possess, he added.

The Syrian leader dismisses the revolt as the work of terrorists backed by a conspiracy of enemy nations.

Thousands of civilians have been killed since the uprising began in March, inspired by other Arab revolts. The government says more than 2,000 soldiers and police have been killed.

(Writing by Angus MacSwan in Beirut; editing by Tim Pearce)

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Ý Kiến- Phê Bình qua bài viết "Syria: White House labels Assad's referendum promise 'laughable' "

2012-02-15T12:11:00.000-08:00

Syria: White House labels Assad's referendum promise 'laughable'

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad has promised to deliver a referendum on a new constitution within two weeks and democratic elections within months even as his forces launched fresh attacks on civilians in rebel cities.

By Rosa Prince, New York
9:49AM GMT 15 Feb 2012
5 Comments

Opposition leaders immediately rejected the offer to hold a vote on a new constitution on Feb 26 followed by multi-party elections within 90 days.

The White House dismissed the referendum as “laughable”. “It makes a mockery of the Syrian revolution,” said Jay Carney, the White House spokesman.

At the United Nations in New York, where there were renewed attempts to unite international opinion against the regime, Mr Assad’s pledge was dismissed as “hot air”.

The UN General Assembly will vote tonight on a motion supporting a plan by the Arab League to send a joint peacekeeping force to help end the 11-month conflict, in which at least 6,000 people have been killed.

The vote is not legally binding but British officials said that if significant numbers of countries voted in favour, it would increase pressure on Russia and China, both of which vetoed a UN Security Council resolution backing the Arab League plan. The league proposal called for Mr Assad’s departure within months.

Related Articles

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An economic blockade can defeat Assad - 14 Feb 2012

Asked about the possibility of elections in Syria, one senior British official said: “We’re not taking it too seriously. Assad has said a lot of hot air in the past.”

France suggested that a new, binding Security Council resolution could be put to the vote as soon as next week.

Alain Juppé, the French foreign minister, said he would work with Russia to agree on a form of words it could accept and added that the resolution could involve the creation of “humanitarian corridors” to allow peacekeepers access to civilians caught up in the violence.

Moscow has insisted that it will back international moves to end the crisis only if both the Syrian government and opposition are required to commit to a ceasefire — a demand which Western powers including Britain, the United States and France say gives legitimacy to the violent crackdown by the Assad regime.

Mr Assad responded to growing international outrage at his bloody crackdown by offering to stage a referendum on a new constitution that could effectively end five decades of single-party rule. The proposed charter would drop Article 8 of the Syrian constitution which declares the ruling Ba’ath Party as the “leader of the state and society”.

An explosion hit a major oil pipeline feeding a refinery in Homs, sending a large plume of smoke rising into the sky (Reuters)

Under the new constitution, freedom would be “a sacred right” and “the people will govern the people” in a multi-party democracy, state television said.

The referendum would be followed by elections to appoint a new president who could serve for up to two terms of seven years each. Mr Assad has been in power for 12 years, succeeding his father, who ruled for 29 years. The Ba’ath Party has ruled Syria since 1963.

He made clear, however, that the onslaught against rebels would continue. A new offensive was launched in the town of Hama, while the besieged city of Homs was shelled for the 13th day in a row. In the capital Damascus, troops carried out a search and arrest operation.

Syrian television quoted a draft of the referendum: “The political system of the state will be based on a principle of political plurality and democracy will be practised through the voting box.”

New parties could not be based on a religion or regional interests, meaning the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood and autonomy-seeking Kurdish parties would be excluded from participating.

Melhem al-Droubi, a member of the exiled opposition Syrian National Council and the Muslim Brotherhood, rejected the proposal. “The truth is that Bashar al-Assad has increased the killing and slaughter in Syria,” he said. “He has lost his legitimacy and we aren’t interested in his rotten constitutions, old or new.”

Hundreds of people have been killed in the bombardment of Homs. Activists and aid groups have warned of a growing humanitarian crisis, with food running short and wounded people unable to get proper care.

***

Showing 5 comments

canadiansyrian
13 minutes ago
so , in 2060 Butcher Assad would give the country to his son future butcher Hafez and mark my words , little Hafez will do the same or hopefully Syria by then would become the Kingdom of Assad and forget the name Syria .

and hopefully there will be no sunni majority (80%) anymore because they will all be dead in order for the minorities to survive ! you gara love that

canadiansyrian
17 minutes ago
butcher Assad`s father did the same , he came out with new constitution in 1970 that gives 7 years term to be renewed twice and ended up president for live and his butcher son Bashshar became inheriter .
now the inheriter did the same but he thinks people forgot the last constitution .
now my question is ; since inheriting in 2000 and finishing his two 7 years terms , is he gonna start fresh form now or 2014 ?

ryeatley
46 minutes ago
First:

"New parties could not be based on a religion or regional interests, meaning the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood ... would be excluded from participating."

Then:

"Melhem al-Droubi, a member of the exiled opposition Syrian National Council and the Muslim Brotherhood, rejected the proposal."

ryeatley
48 minutes ago
Why do Britain, the United States and France only require an end to violence from one side?

To say to one side "No violence", but to the other side "Kill!" makes no sence in the context of "a ceasefire", does it.

ryeatley
55 minutes ago
I cannot see why holding a vote on a new constitution on Feb. 26th. and then holding elections after 3 months is “laughable”, nor why it "makes a mockery of the Syrian revolution".

If there indeed is a "revolution", then surely the desired result is a new constitution and elections.

Unless, of course, "the West" actively desires war. That does seem to me to be the case.

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WORLD_ France discusses new Syria U.N. resolution with Russia

2012-02-15T04:29:00.000-08:00

France discusses new Syria U.N. resolution with Russia

Black smoke is seen from Homs refinery February 15, 2012.
Credit: Reuters/Handout

By John Irish
PARIS | Wed Feb 15, 2012 4:24am EST

PARIS (Reuters) - France said on Wednesday it was discussing a new U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria with Russia and wanted the council to consider creating "humanitarian corridors" in the country.

"We are renegotiating a resolution at the U.N. Security Council to persuade the Russians," French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told France Info radio.

Russia joined China on February 4 in a double veto of a Council resolution supporting an Arab League call for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to quit, provoking strong criticism from the Western and Arab states pushing for the draft.

Since then, violence has intensified with Syrian forces assaulting rebellious cities. On Wednesday troops backed by armored personnel carriers stormed a Damascus suburb.

At the United Nations, the General Assembly is due to vote on Thursday on a draft resolution that backs the Arab League plan and calls for the appointment of a joint U.N.-League envoy on Syria. There are no vetoes in General Assembly votes and its decisions are not legally binding.

Juppe, who is set to meet his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Vienna the same day, said the vote would be symbolic and would add to pressure on the Damascus government, whose 11-month-old crackdown he described as a crime against humanity.

Paris said on Tuesday it had created an emergency fund for aid agencies looking to help the Syrian people and would propose a similar one at an international level when a "Friends of Syria" contact group meets in Tunisia next week.

"The idea of humanitarian corridors that I previously proposed to allow NGOs to reach the zones where there are scandalous massacres should be discussed at the Security Council," Juppe said.

Juppe in November suggested creating humanitarian corridors with Syrian approval or with an international mandate for shipping food and medicine to alleviate civilian suffering.

Under that plan, the corridors would link Syrian population centers to the frontiers of Turkey and Lebanon, to the Mediterranean coast or to an airport.

Juppe has said the idea fell short of military intervention and that if Damascus did not support it, Paris would seek a Security Council mandate.

The Arab League on Sunday threw its support behind Syria's opposition and called for a joint U.N.-Arab peacekeeping force to quell the violence.

Juppe did not say whether armed opposition groups operating loosely under the label of the Syrian Free Army should be given weapons as some Arab officials have suggested, saying the risk of civil war was "extremely high."

"What we want is to end the violence not encourage it," Juppe said.

(Reporting by John Irish; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

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WORLD_ UN General Assembly to vote on new Syria resolution

2012-02-15T03:15:00.000-08:00

UN General Assembly to vote on new Syria resolution

The United Nations General Assembly will vote Thursday on a new resolution calling on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to put a stop to deadly attacks on civilians, diplomats said.

The UN resolution condemning the violence in Syria is expected to pass Photo: AP

The Telegraph
7:00AM GMT 15 Feb 2012

The resolution drawn up by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which was given to member nations on Tuesday, also expresses support for the Arab League's plan to end the 11-month crackdown in Syria and calls for the naming of a UN special envoy.

The move comes after Russia and China vetoed a second Security Council resolution on the crisis in Syria on February 4, because they said it was "unbalanced."

Russia and China are expected to oppose the new text but no one can veto resolutions in the 193-nation General Assembly, though they carry much less weight than those of the Security Council. Diplomats said the measure was almost sure to pass.

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"We'll see if this new text earns more or less than the 133 votes given to the first resolution" adopted on December 19, one diplomat said.

That measure denounced human rights violations in Syria, where activists say more than 6,000 have died since protests against Assad's government erupted last March.

"That will be the measure of success, but this time, the content is more political in nature," the diplomat said on condition of anonymity.

An Egyptian diplomat said his country, which presides over the Arab group in the Assembly, wanted to see a vote on the resolution "as soon as possible."

The draft resolution does not refer to an Arab League request for a joint peacekeeping mission with the United Nations, which has been met in some Western capitals with caution.

The Security Council has yet to adopt any resolutions on the situation in Syria. Russia and China also vetoed a draft in October.

The General Assembly draft is similar to the one blocked in the Council.

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WORLD_ Syria denies crimes against humanity amid heavy shelling of Homs

2012-02-14T16:10:00.000-08:00

Syria denies crimes against humanity amid heavy shelling of Homs
From: AFP February 15, 2012 7:23AM

A handout picture from a Syrian opposition activist shows a Syrian girl, who was reportedly wounded in shelling by regime forces, sitting in a home in the Baba Amro neighbourhood of the central city of Homs. Source: AFP

SYRIA has flatly rejected UN charges of crimes against humanity, even as monitors said troops killed at least 18 civilians, six in the heaviest shelling of the protest city of Homs for days.

Navi Pillay, the top human rights representative at the United Nations, said that the world body's inaction had "emboldened" Syria's government to unleash overwhelming force against its own civilians.

"The nature and scale of abuses committed by Syrian forces indicate that crimes against humanity are likely to have been committed since March 2011," she told the General Assembly.

But Syria's government has rejected her accusations.

"The foreign ministry, in a message sent to the UN Human Rights Commission, categorically rejected the new allegations made by the commission," state news agency SANA.

The ministry also accused the commission of being manipulated by "countries targeting Syria and of ignoring the terrorist crimes committed by armed groups," SANA reported.

A monitoring group said President Bashar al-Assad's forces launched one of their heaviest assaults on Homs since they began their campaign to crush rebels on February 4.

On the same day Russia and China vetoed a UN Security Council resolution on Syria for the second time in four months.

But Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said in Beijing his country "will absolutely not protect any party, including the government in Syria."

The Syrian regime's crackdown has been centred on the central city of Homs, which has been under a relentless barrage of machine gun fire, shells, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades for 10 days.

"The shelling of the Baba Amr neighbourhood began at dawn and is the most intense in five days," Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

"Two rockets are falling a minute on average," the head of the Britain-based monitoring group told AFP by telephone, citing activists on the ground.

"Six civilians died in the continuous shelling of Baba Amr neighbourhood this morning," the Observatory said later in an emailed statement.

A video uploaded to YouTube by activists showed a powerful blast striking what they said was Baba Amr, sending flames shooting into the sky and a plume of black smoke over the rebel stronghold.

Hadi Abdullah of the General Commission of the Syrian Revolution, an opposition activist group, said the shelling of Baba Amr was extremely heavy.

"The situation is tragic. There are pregnant women, people with heart problems, diabetics and, foremost, wounded people who we cannot evacuate," he said on the phone from the beleaguered city.

"On Monday evening three activists entered the town by car transporting bread, baby milk and medicine," he said. "Their car was hit by a rocket. They all burned to death.

"We told them it was dangerous but they said, 'If we don't help the residents, who will?'."

Mr Abdullah said the humanitarian situation was worsening in Homs, where vital supplies have been cut off for days, including communications, electricity, food, medicines and water.

"The urgency is to evacuate the wounded. How can we let them die in cold blood?"

"For one week, the dead have been buried in gardens, because even the cemeteries and graves are being targeted. People are crammed into shelters," he added.

Activists isolated in Homs have even reverted to the age-old practice of using carrier pigeons to communicate with each other.

"We thank Bashar for taking us back to the Middle Ages," said Omar, an activist seen standing among pigeons on a rooftop of Homs' Bab Sbaa district in a YouTube video showing them using the pigeons.

Elsewhere, another 17 people were killed across Syria, including five soldiers who died in clashes with army deserters at Kalaat al-Madiq, in central Hama province, said the Observatory.

More than 6,000 people have been killed since Assad's forces began their brutal crackdown on protesters calling for democracy in March, according to monitoring groups.

The United Nations put the figure at more than 5,400 in late December, before it gave up counting the toll, citing difficulties on the ground.

The Arab League agreed on Sunday on its latest initiative to stop the bloodshed, calling for the UN to approve a joint Arab-UN peacekeeping force.

Syria "categorically" rejected the proposal and Russia cast doubt on it.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meanwhile expressed hope that February 24 talks to be held in Tunisia by the Friends of Syria coalition would bring results.

The opposition Syrian National Council was to meet on Wednesday in the Qatari capital to decide whether to renew the mandate of SNC chief Burhan Ghalioun or appoint a new opposition leader, group spokeswoman Basma Kodmani told AFP.

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WORLD_ Nineteen killed in Syria violence

2012-02-14T12:12:00.000-08:00

Nineteen killed in Syria violence
From correspondents in Beirut
From: AFP
February 15, 2012 4:26AM

NINETEEN people have been killed across Syria, most of them civilians who died in the heaviest shelling of protest city Homs for days, says the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

"The shelling of the Baba Amr neighbourhood began at dawn and is the most intense in five days," the Observatory's Rami Abdel Rahman said overnight, referring to the main rebel stronghold in Homs city.

"Two rockets are falling a minute on average," the head of the Britain-based group said by phone, citing activists on the ground.

"Six civilians died in the continuous shelling of Baba Amr neighbourhood this morning," the Britain-based monitoring group said later by email.

Elsewhere in the central province of Homs, three farmers who had been detained at a checkpoint were later found dead in the town of Quseir, said the Observatory.
Another three civilians were shot dead during clashes in the town of Al-Atareb, in northwestern Aleppo province.

In the southern province of Daraa, cradle of an 11-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's iron-fisted rule, security forces killed one civilian in the town of Nimir.

And in Damascus province, an army deserter died in clashes with the military at Irbin town, the Observatory said.

Five soldiers were killed and nine were wounded during fighting with army deserters at Kalaat al-Madiq, in the central province of Hama.

In southern Daraa province, deserters captured a lieutenant in the town of Lajat and demanded the authorities release prisoners in exchange for his return, it said.
And in the province of Damascus, security forces opened fire on a student demonstration in the town of Maadamiyet Esham, according to the watchdog.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/nineteen-killed-in-syria-violence/story-e6frfku0-1226271296362#ixzz1mOBi5IH2

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WORLD_ Syrian troops launch 'brutal shelling' attack on Homs

2012-02-14T11:57:00.000-08:00

Syrian troops launch 'brutal shelling' attack on Homs

Syrian government forces have launched a "brutal" attack on the city of Homs, activists said, claiming it is the heaviest shelling attack in days.

The Telegraph
11:00AM GMT 14 Feb 2012

Activists said at least six civilians had been killed in the shelling on Tuesday morning, with fears that the death toll would rise.

Troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have been shelling Homs for more than a week to retake parts of the city captured by rebel forces. Hundreds are believed to have been killed since last Saturday, and the humanitarian conditions in the city were worsening.

Homs was under "brutal shelling" on Tuesday, the Local Coordination Committees activist group said, citing its network of witnesses on the ground.

With diplomatic efforts bogged down, the conflict in Syria is taking on the dimensions of a civil war, with army defectors clashing almost daily with soldiers.

Related Articles

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_ China and America hold 'frank' talks on Syria as Xi Jinping visits US - 14 Feb 2012
_ Rebels openly patrol streets of Damascus - 13 Feb 2012
_ Syria: crimes against humanity 'likely committed' - 13 Feb 2012

UN human rights chief Navi Pillay warned on Monday that the Security Council's failure to take action has emboldened the Syrian government to launch an all-out assault.

The uprising began last March as mostly peaceful protests against Assad's authoritarian rule, but has become more militarised in the face of the brutal military crackdown.

Pillay told the General Assembly that more than 5,400 people were killed last year alone, and the number of dead and injured continues to rise daily.

She said tens of thousands of people, including children, have been arrested, more than 18,000 reportedly are still arbitrarily detained and thousands more are reported missing. In addition, 25,000 people are estimated to have sought refuge in neighbouring countries and more than 70,000 are internally displaced.

"The breadth and patterns of attacks by military and security forces on civilians, and the widespread destruction of homes, hospitals, schools and other civilian infrastructure indicate approval or complicity by authorities at the highest level," Pillay said.

Also on Monday, the Obama administration said it backs Arab League plans to end continuing violence in Syria but noted several obstacles to deploying a proposed international peacekeeping force to the country and withheld full endorsement of the idea.

The administration has said repeatedly it does not see a military solution to the crisis in Syria, yet US officials indicated they would consider the Arab League call for peacekeepers and discuss it with various countries to see whether such an idea is feasible. However, they stressed there would be difficulties in getting required UN Security Council authorisation for a force.

Chief among the hurdles is opposition by Russia and China, which vetoed a far less ambitious Security Council action already this month. Russia has said peacekeepers could not be sent without Syrian government approval; officials in Damascus already have rejected the proposal, calling it unjustified interference in internal affairs.

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MIDDLE EAST_ Syrian residents say they're bracing for full-blown war

2012-02-14T01:28:00.000-08:00

Syrian residents say they're bracing for full-blown war

By the CNN Wire Staff
February 14, 2012 -- Updated 0832 GMT (1632 HKT)

CNN reporter hiding in Syrian safe house

Syria (CNN) -- As U.N. diplomats slam the Syrian regime for the country's mounting bloodshed, residents wondered out loud what the implications of total war might be.

"Everyone we've been talking to ... believes that the country is heading towards, or already is in, a full-blown war, and recovering from that is going to be incredibly challenging," said CNN's Arwa Damon, who reported from inside Syria early Tuesday.

She spoke from an opposition safe house, describing a near constant flow of people and information. CNN is not disclosing her exact location because of concerns for her safety.

"What a lot of people are realizing and accepting at this stage is that this is going to be a bloody battle -- that more lives are going to be lost," Damon said.

She said every person interviewed has a horror story to tell, but some are too petrified to speak publicly with their full names.

"One man we met, he had four members of his family executed as government forces, he said, were raiding their village," Damon said.

Her report came one day after the U.N. high commissioner for human rights denounced the Syrian government's "ongoing onslaught" against its citizens. Navi Pillay spoke before the U.N. General Assembly, which could issue a formal condemnation of the Syrian regime.

"The nature and scale of abuses committed by Syrian forces indicates that crimes against humanity are likely to have been committed since March 2011," Pillay said.

Her harsh comments prompted an angry defense from Syria's ambassador, who complained of an "unprecedented" media and political campaign to incite the opposition in his country.

While diplomats wrangled in New York, the Syrian opposition stronghold of Homs came under attack for at least the 10th straight day Tuesday as the sounds of fresh shelling reverberated through the air.

More than 680 people died last week in Syria, most of whom were killed in Homs, according to the Local Coordination Committees of Syria, a network of opposition activists.

On Monday, 30 civilians -- including two children -- were killed in violence, the LCC said. Most were in the areas of Homs and Idlib.

Meanwhile, the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency reported on a funeral for 19 soldiers and officers killed by "terrorists" throughout the country.

CNN cannot independently confirm details of the events in Syria because the government has severely limited the access of international journalists.

But Pillay said evidence proves President Bashar al-Assad's forces are behind a gruesome crackdown.

"Independent, credible and corroborated accounts indicate that these abuses have taken place as part of a widespread and systematic attack on civilians," Pillay said.

By end of the day Monday, a General Assembly draft resolution that would condemn Syrian human rights violations had not been formally introduced. It was unclear when it would be, also when there might be a vote.

The vote would not be binding, but would be the strongest U.N. statement yet on the violence. Russia and China vetoed previous attempts by the U.N. Security Council to condemn Syria for the crackdown.

"The people of Syria justifiably feel that the United Nations has shamefully abandoned their cause," British Ambassador to the U.N. Mark Lyall Grant told diplomats. "We must, as individual member states and collectively, send them a clear signal that this is not the case."

Syria's U.N. ambassador, Bashar Jaafari, said the "aggressive, illegitimate" criticism of his country is designed to undermine the government.

An Arab League proposal over the weekend for a joint U.N.-Arab peacekeeping force in the country is an "incitement to terrorism," he said, because it would provide support to opposition fighters.

Jaafari also said the proposal seeks to trample on Syria's sovereignty.

"We in Syria could not imagine sending soldiers to defend Occupy Wall Street protesters. Neither we or any other government can imagine sending forces to protect demonstrators in London or Paris," he said. "The state has exclusive responsibility for defending security on its national territory."

Russian officials said Monday they were studying the Arab League proposal, but they indicated reluctance to sign on, saying the permission of the host country is necessary for peacekeepers to enter.

A peacekeeping mission also implies there is peace first, which is not the case in Syria, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

China supports the league's mediation in Syria, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin, but he stopped short of saying whether Beijing would approve the proposal.

Along with a peacekeeping mission, the Arab League urged member states to provide political and financial support to the Syrian opposition and to cut ties with Damascus.

Syria has said it is simply fighting armed terrorist groups in its country. Jaafari cited last week's bombing of two government buildings in Aleppo, which killed 28 people, and a January bombing in Damascus that killed 26 as examples of terrorist groups -- specifically al Qaeda -- that are active in the country.

But residents of cities such as Homs, where hundreds have died in the past 10 days, say innocent civilians are under siege by government forces. They describe indiscriminate bombings of homes, snipers in the streets, arbitrary arrests and attacks on hospitals by government forces.

The destruction by al-Assad forces has also yielded a humanitarian crisis. Residents in Homs report scarce or nonexistent access to food, water and electricity.

The United Nations is ready to deploy humanitarian supplies to Syria as soon as it gets access, Martin Nesirky, a spokesman for the U.N. secretary-general, said Monday.

Syrian Arab Red Crescent volunteers were able to distribute food, blankets and other supplies to Homs and another city thanks to a brief cease-fire but say other areas are too dangerous for them to enter, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.

Pillay said most of the wounded avoid going to public hospitals for fear of being arrested or tortured. Instead, they are being treated in underground hospitals where hygiene and sterilization conditions are rudimentary and medical supplies are scarce, she said.

Pillay said at least 5,400 people have died since protests seeking al-Assad's ouster began nearly a year ago, but has admitted it is difficult to update that figure due to the chaos on the ground. The LCC says the toll has far exceeded 7,000.

Damon said some members of the opposition believe the regime will fall someday, but it's uncertain how many more lives will be lost before that happens.

"If there is military intervention, then yes, there will be a lot of bloodshed. But it's going to be over a lot quicker," one young activist said. "If there isn't military intervention, there is going to be even more bloodshed, and it's going to take a lot longer to bring down the regime."

CNN's Alla Eshchenko, Nada Husseini, Mick Krever, Richard Roth, Eunice Yoon and Brian Walker contributed to this report.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

.Residents say Syria is heading toward -- or is already in -- a full-blown war
.An opposition activist says military intervention would help minimize bloodshed
.The U.N. human rights chief decries the Syria's "ongoing onslaught" against civilians
.Syria's U.N. ambassador says criticism is aimed at undermining the government

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WORLD_ Syrian regime 'emboldened' by UN inaction, says human rights chief

2012-02-13T12:00:00.000-08:00

Syrian regime 'emboldened' by UN inaction, says human rights chief

UN's human rights commissioner says Bashar al-Assad's regime is launching an all-out assault on opponents

Ian Black, Middle East editor
guardian.co.uk, Monday 13 February 2012 18.55 GMT
Article history

The UN human rights commissioner, Navy Pillay, said the Syrian government had manifestly failed to protect its population. Photograph: Jason Decrow/AP

Failure by the United Nations to take action on Syria has emboldened the regime of Bashar al-Assad to mount an all-out assault on his opponents, the UN's human rights chief has warned.

Navi Pillay said the situation in Homs, the focus of ongoing heavy attacks by Assad's security forces, was "deplorable". Speaking to the UN general assembly in New York, Pillay said the Syrian government had "manifestly failed" to fulfil its obligation to protect its population.

The Syrian Revolution General Commission reported that 37 people had been killed on Monday, including children.

Pillay said she had encouraged the UN security council to refer the situation to the international criminal court, though that would require the support of Assad's veto-wielding allies, Russia and China, and is thus unlikely to happen.

"I am very distressed that the continued ruthless repression and deliberate stirring of sectarian tensions might soon plunge Syria into civil war," she said. "The longer the international community fails to take action, the more the civilian population will suffer from countless atrocities."

Earlier, the Syrian government rejected a call by the Arab League to deploy peacekeepers to end the escalating conflict, while Britain said no western troops could be involved in such a mission.

The official Syrian Sana news agency quoted an official source in Damascus as saying that Sunday's Arab League proposal constituted "flagrant interference" in Syria's internal affairs and was in breach of the league's own charter.

Assad's government blames the crisis on an Arab-western conspiracy in support of "armed terrorist groups".

Amid opposition reports of more government attacks and civilian casualties in Homs and elsewhere, the EU said it also backed the Arab League idea.

William Hague, Britain's foreign secretary, signalled his support but made it clear western countries would not take part in any such mission. "I don't see the way forward in Syria as being western boots on the ground in any form, including in any peacekeeping form," he told reporters during a visit to Cape Town.

"I think they would need to come from other countries rather than western nations." But there would first have to be an end to violence against civilians, forces would have to be withdrawn from towns and cities and a credible cease fire established, he said.

The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said: "We are studying this initiative and expect our friends from the Arab states to provide us with a clarification of certain points." But he also insisted that a ceasefire would have to be in place before peacekeepers could be deployed.

The recent decision by Russia and China to veto a UN security council resolution on Syria has left western and Arab diplomacy in evident disarray.

It is clear that the US and EU want Arab states to take the lead in a new "Friends of Syria" group due to hold its first meeting in Tunisia on Friday, but there is no appetite for, and little prospect of, Libyan-style western-led military involvement in the crisis.

China's foreign ministry has backed what it called the Arab League's "mediation" but offered no clear sign of support for its call for peacekeepers.

Syrian official media, meanwhile, gave prominence to a new draft constitution that has been submitted to Assad as part of what he says are genuine reforms but have been rejected as too little, too late by opposition groups.

Britain, the US and other western and Arab countries continue to demand that Assad step down, though there is little sign that he is prepared to do so.

Britain and the Arab League are both trying to encourage a more united opposition "that represents all of Syria's communities" – words that mask particular concern about the need to reassure the president's own Alawite minority in a post-Assad Syria.

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LIBYA_ Saif Gaddafi to be moved to Tripoli, then tried

2012-02-13T11:44:00.000-08:00

Saif Gaddafi to be moved to Tripoli, then tried

Marie-Louise Gumuchian and Ali Shuaib, Reuters
Updated February 13, 2012, 4:43 am

Saif al-Islam is seen after his capture, in the custody of revolutionary fighters in Obari, Libya November 19, 2011. REUTERS/Ammar El-Darwish

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son and one-time heir apparent of toppled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, will be moved to a Tripoli prison within two months and then face trial, the chairman of Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC) said on Sunday.

Three months after his capture in Libya's Sahara desert dressed as a Bedouin tribesman, Saif al-Islam remains at a secret location in the northwestern town of Zintan, reflecting a wider problem of powerful local militias and a weak central government in the North African country.

In an interview with Reuters, Mustafa Abdul Jalil said authorities were completing the construction of a prison in central Tripoli, begun under the late Muammar Gaddafi, to which Saif al-Islam would be moved.

"At this moment he is being interrogated and his trial will begin as soon as the prison facility is ready," Abdul Jalil said. "I can't give an exact timeframe in terms of weeks or months for this but it will not be more than two months."

Zintan commanders say they have kept Saif al-Islam in their remote mountain town, rather than hand him over to Tripoli, to spare him the fate of his father. Gaddafi was killed by his captors shortly after being seized in October, his decomposing body put on public display in a Misrata meat locker before being given an inglorious secret burial in the desert.

Saif al-Islam, a fluent English speaker educated at the London School of Economics, was seen as the Western-friendly face of Libya before transforming from liberal reformer to a key figure in his father's fight against rebels seeking his overthrow.

He now faces trial in Tripoli on murder and rape charges and could face the death penalty if convicted. The International Criminal Court in The Hague has indicted him for crimes against humanity but Libya says he will be tried in his home country. "By God's will, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi will receive a fair trial and also all those who are accused in this regard," Abdul Jalil said.

SEEKING SAADI

A transitional government appointed in November is leading the country to elections for a National Assembly in June, but is struggling to impose order on a myriad of armed groups that toppled Gaddafi after 42 years in power. And his offspring continue to cast a shadow over the oil-rich state.

Abdul Jalil said Niger had confiscated communication devices belonging to Saif al-Islam's brother Saadi, after Al-Arabiya broadcast an interview with him on Friday.

In the telephone interview Saadi, who fled south to Niger in September, said he was in regular contact with people in Libya unhappy with authorities and warned of a "coming uprising" in the country.

That prompted Libya to urge Niger to extradite Saadi, saying his comments threatened bilateral ties. But Niger said it could not hand over Saadi because he would face execution in Libya.

"First of all, the foreign minister of Niger and the prime minister of Niger were the ones to initiate contact with their counterparts and expressed their apology for what happened," Abdul Jalil said. "I can confirm that the government of Niger has taken all measures and steps to confiscate all communication devices in his possession."

Libya's interim leaders last year approved a request to open an investigation into Saadi over the murder of a footballer who played for the national team in the 1980s.

"The prosecutor general has already sent an extradition request to bring Saadi back to Libya in light of the crime he committed in the field of sports in Libya. The legal and penal procedures in this regard will be followed," he added.

DISARMING FIGHTERS

As it seeks to restore order, Libya's government hopes to amalgamate militias into the police and national army but the process has been slow.

"The progress of this program has not been as we had hoped for as we wanted them to join as individuals not as groups," Abdul Jalil said. "About 10 percent have joined the security bodies and handed over their weapons."

Authorities are also investigating reports by rights groups that former rebels are torturing detainees in makeshift prisons. Abdul Jalil said committees had been established to look into this: "They will soon finalize their tasks. There will be judicial procedures in this regard."

He said there were plans to move residents of Tawergha, now living in refugee camps, back to their town. Gaddafi's forces used Tawergha as a base to besiege and shell Misrata during the war. Its residents, mainly black Libyans, say they were held hostage by Gaddafi's men and did not collaborate.

Human Rights Watch has said Misrata rebels have looted and destroyed homes in Tawergha and neighboring farming villages and revenge attacks against refugees and arbitrary arrests continue. "Families and children will be returned to their homes as soon as those who are wanted face justice," Abdul Jalil said.

In October, he said he wanted the new order to be based on Islamic sharia law. Asked about an Islamic financial system in Libya, he said: "This is one of the basic principles of Islam and I believe that the international financial crisis that is sweeping the whole world is caused by usury."

Asked about his own longer term plans, he said: "My life after the National Assembly elections will be devoted to reconciliation teams in the field of national reconciliation only."

(Reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian and Ali Shuaib; Editing by Jon Boyle and Ben Harding)

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Ý Kiến- Phê Bình qua bài viết "Gadhafi son under house arrest in Niger, Libya says"

2012-02-12T23:16:00.000-08:00

Gadhafi son under house arrest in Niger, Libya says
From Jomana Karadsheh, CNN
February 12, 2012 -- Updated 2142 GMT (0542 HKT)

Saadi Kadhafi speaks during a news conference in Tripoli, Libya, in January 2010.

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- One of ousted Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's surviving sons has had his phone cut off and been placed under house arrest in Niger after warning of a revolt against Libya's new government, authorities in Tripoli said Sunday.

Saadi Gadhafi has been in Niger since September, following the collapse of his father's 42-year rule. He had been granted asylum, but Libyan authorities renewed demands for his arrest after he told the satellite news network Al Arabiya that "a new popular uprising" was brewing in his home country.

Nigerien officials would not comment on the move. But Libya's National Transitional Council, which replaced the Gadhafi regime, said Saadi Gadhafi's comments "were considered a violation of the terms of his residency granted by Niger."

"Saadi used the asylum he was granted in Niger on humanitarian basis to carry out acts of aggression against the Libyan people and their glorious revolution," NTC spokesman Mohammed Nasr al-Hraizi said in a government statement. Libya's new government complained to Niger about Saadi Gadhafi's interview, demanding Niger "take stringent measures, including his extradition to Libya."

The move came as Libya prepares to mark the anniversary of the February 17 revolt that toppled the elder Gadhafi six months later. Few details have been announced, but commemorations are expected in Tripoli; in Benghazi, where the revolution began; and in Misrata, one of its major battlegrounds.

Security has been tightened in Tripoli, with new checkpoints going up around the city in recent days. Gadhafi loyalists have been circulating text messages and YouTube videos talking about a new for uprising around the anniversary date. Gen. Youssef Mangoush, the new chief of staff of the Libyan argmed forces, said there has been no direct threat regarding the anniversary, but said the government would take all steps necessary to head off any new revolt.

The transitional government in Tripoli is still working to build a new national army and police force. The NTC has set elections for a new National Assembly in June. But several revolutionary militias and regional factions have held onto their weapons and fought occasional clashes with each other, and ordinary Libyans say their biggest concern is security.

Saadi Gadhafi was a prominent businessman and onetime head of Libya's national football league before his father's government fell to a six-month revolt in late August. The new Libyan government has accused him of misappropriating properties through force and armed intimidation, and the multinational police agency Interpol issued a "red notice" calling for his arrest in September.

In his interview with Al Arabiya, he said he had been in touch with Libyans "on a daily basis" and said several groups were ready to take up arms against the new government.

"I call everyone to be prepared for this uprising, and be ready for the zero hour," he said. "Because when it happens, it will a real uprising."

He added that he could return to Libya and "stop those acts of revenge," and he urged armed factions in Libya "to meet and discuss and achieve real peace this time."

The elder Gadhafi was killed by NTC fighters in October, along with his son Mutassim. Another son, Khamis, was reported killed in battle as the regime imploded in August.

Gadhafi's second-eldest son and closest adviser, Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, is now awaiting trial in Libya. The elder Gadhafi's wife, three other children and several grandchildren have fled to neighboring Algeria.

***

Showing 25 of 74 comments

TrippinU
1 comment collapsed Collapse Expand
Good morning, Libya Green Libya ,continuing our Nobel Resistance to the day of Liberation. IOW's:M F Rat's gonna get theirs......thank you CNN, Saadi Gadhafi
A Like Reply 6 minutes ago

dearjym
2 comments collapsed Collapse Expand
'glorious' revolution? hahahahahahahahahahahahhahaha- it's 1984 all over again.
A Like Reply 59 minutes ago

tinwatchman
1 comment collapsed Collapse Expand
dearjym - Or British history.
A Like 16 minutes ago in reply to dearjym

mangojay
1 comment collapsed Collapse Expand
Apparently this guy isn't adapting very well to his new situation. Saadi.... laws apply to you too now and believe it or not you're not untouchable either.
A Like Reply 1 hour ago 3 Likes

BalisticalX
6 comments collapsed Collapse Expand
Obama killed bin Laden, toppled Gadhafi's control, pulled America out of recession when the rest of the World continued into it... Made America billions through the auto loans, fought to make sure every American has a RIGHT to Healthcare (like the rest of the Developed World), pushes to educate with out going broke, like the rest of the World.

Now.... if he could come get rid of all the filthy brain-dead repuklicans... the voting demographics would show more average intelligence.
A Like Reply 1 hour ago 12 Likes

Scallywag151 1 comment collapsed Collapse Expand
WOW dude…puff puff pass…and don’t hot box it!
A Like 5 minutes ago in reply to BalisticalX

BalisticalX 1 comment collapsed Collapse Expand
I bet your Highly religious & republican...

There's a reason I know that....here's a hint: It has to do with your intelligence ...
The studies are out there to support that statement.
A Like 1 hour ago in reply to BalisticalX 1 Like

WildFlame 1 comment collapsed Collapse Expand
You make it sound as if he did something when he really didn't.
A Like 1 hour ago in reply to BalisticalX 2 Likes

BalisticalX 1 comment collapsed Collapse Expand
And then... Had Breakfast

A Like 1 hour ago in reply to BalisticalX 1 Like

BalisticalX 1 comment collapsed Collapse Expand
got us out of two POINTLESS wars...

A Like 1 hour ago in reply to BalisticalX 1 Like

TypeBLiberal 3 comments collapsed Collapse Expand
Obama should go back to Niger.
A Like Reply 1 hour ago 1 Like

BalisticalX 1 comment collapsed Collapse Expand
nice another extremist racist fox bot trying to change opinion elsewhere.
It has been costing fox members that are educated, to be replaced by inbred yokels like this clown.

bet he thinks Obama's m00slim & has not picked this Country up, at the same time being a constitutional scholar & a part time MD who consulted on the health bill.

Repubs are more desperate than ever....I love it... they know who will win hahaha
A Like 1 hour ago in reply to TypeBLiberal 5 Like

slupdawg69 1 comment collapsed Collapse Expand
Shut your cake hole
A Like 1 hour ago in reply to TypeBLiberal 1 Lik

chucka001 2 comments collapsed Collapse Expand
Moammar Al-Gadafi absolutely put Lybia on the Map,He rebuild Lybia,And Lybian People should give him Credit for that,even thu he was a dictator but this what an arabs need to be
Govern,And most if not All what it call National Transitional Council use to be working with Gadafi, the predident of National. T.C,him self was one of the cabenit menister,Today he is
talking big like he never knew X Pres,AlGadafi,Lybia will never be the same ,As well Egypt,There will be no Democracy in arab Countries ever.America and the West are wasting time for nothing.
A Like Reply 2 hours ago 4 Likes

RatKiller2 1 comment collapsed Collapse Expand
This is true. We are killing the GOOD dictators and helping the BAD dictators.
A Like 2 hours ago in reply to chucka001 2 Likes

RatKiller2 1 comment collapsed Collapse Expand
Let him go.....let him form a new uprising against the new Libyan government that has been formed and led by the al Qaeda! The al Qaeda sucks and should be eliminated totally from the earth!
A Like Reply 2 hours ago 3 Likes

Bureau 24 1 comment collapsed Collapse Expand
This so called Democratic government under the NTC in LIbya says for Saadi Gadhafi to give his opinion in another country to a TV crew is some how warranting them to arrest him. He can't say what the rest of the world sees loud and clear that the rebels were nothing but a bunch of western backed thugs that will destroy the Libyan prosperity for the next 20 years.
A Like Reply 2 hours ago 7 Likes

gliese42 1 comment collapsed Collapse Expand
Button6712@ Libyan prisons are now full of children who supported Gadhafi and torture is still being used on prisoners to extract information. Al Qaeda members and paramilitary groups runs the country and all thanks to NATO
A Like Reply 2 hours ago 6 Likes

Button6712 1 comment collapsed Collapse Expand
Last post. Look many people are in such dire need right now in Libya, their monthly checks are gone, some have kids in universities around the globe that no longer receive tuition and living payments, young men roam the streets with guns, water is not on in some places, its a mess. Months later and its still a mess. of course they are unhappy. There was peace and a level of life that they were used to. you didn't pay for most things you were paid. and now...no one knows what is going on. The internet was on, now its off again. all kinds of reasons to look elsewhere. But yes, less is more sometimes and this was one of them. Leave the kids alone.
A Like Reply 2 hours ago 4 Likes

TexasStud 1 comment collapsed Collapse Expand
It is in the world's best interest to terminate him.
A Like Reply 2 hours ago 2 Like

MoogleStiltzkin 4 comments collapsed Collapse Expand
Saadi would have better served his interest by keeping his mouth shut. After his comment he may be liable for war crimes o.O; when before he was safe until now.
A Like Reply 3 hours ago 3 Like

MoogleStiltzkin 2 comments collapsed Collapse Expand
true, which i doubt would happen. but there will always be some die hard ghadaffi loyalists who are stupid enuff to take saadi's comments seriously. so if anything happens he is gonna take the heat for it. The ghadaffis have obviously lost touch with reality :X they still keep on dreaming they are still relevant even after libyans discovered the life of luxury and hypocrisy they were enjoying while their people lived in poverty
A Like 2 hours ago in reply to MoogleStiltzkin 1 Lik

Button6712 1 comment collapsed Collapse Expand
they had the highest standard of living in Africa - they were not in poverty by any means. I think they are now though. you think the NTC is going to share the wealth with them?
A Like 2 hours ago in reply to MoogleStiltzkin 5 Likes F

Button6712 1 comment collapsed Collapse Expand
only if there is a war.
A Like 3 hours ago in reply to MoogleStiltzkin 1 Like

Button6712 1 comment collapsed Collapse Expand
don't you Virginia guys ever sleep?
A Like Reply 3 hours ago 1 Like

_____________

What do you think ?

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WORLD_ Syria: 'the regime put in our lives a system of killing people'

2012-02-12T17:18:00.000-08:00

Syria: 'the regime put in our lives a system of killing people'

From passive rural town to rebel stronghold, Homs is a place transformed – with evidence of brutality from both sides

Martin Chulov, near Homs
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 12 February 2012 18.17 GMT
Article history

Syrian mourners in the Rastan neighborhood of Homs carry the coffin of a man said to have been killed by government forces shelling. Photograph: Str/AP

Less than five months ago, this poor rural town on the outskirts of Homs was a passive place whose residents vented their anger at Bashar al-Assad at weekly rallies; never through the barrel of a gun.

An army attack on 23 September changed all that. Now the town is a stronghold of armed resistance in Syria's west. The Free Syria Army has a stronger presence here than in most other towns and villages stretching south to Lebanon, or north to the Turkish border.

The insurgents' ranks swelled further with the defection on Sunday just after dawn of 15 Syrian troops and officers, including an officer. The group gave themselves up to a local commander and were aggressively grilled all day by rebels who feared a trap.

Not far away from the Soviet-style school-yard that served as the defectors' interrogation centre, a town elder was holding court. He calls himself Abu Qassem and he is known locally as the "father of the two martyrs".

The deaths last September of Abu Qassem's sons, Ashraf and Yathreb, seemed to electrify an uprising here that had, until that point, been not much more than intermittent outbreaks of open defiance, followed in turn by regime security sweeps.

"I was in my field with my three sons," Abu Qassem recalled. "My land is about 600 metres long and I left them at the end of the field. People started running towards me and the army started shooting in all directions."

Abu Qassem could not reach his sons, nor could he contact them on their mobiles. The following day, his daughter called the phone of one of the missing sons, Ashraf. This time somebody answered.

Nobody spoke, but in the background she could hear soldiers cursing Ashraf, said Abu Qassem. "She heard one of them say [to an officer] 'Sir he is wounded'." Then came a reply: "kill him". She heard three shots and the phone went dead.

The following day, a relative formally identified the two men at the hospital and took them to their father. At first, he celebrated his sons' martyrdom and refused condolences.

Then in January, his third son, Gharedin, who had been captured along with his brothers, returned from four months in prison.

That was when Abu Qassem learnt what had happened to his sons after they were captured.

"Ashraf was on the ground," Abu Qassem said. "He had been wounded and they were hitting him with their rifles. He turned to Gharedin and said 'please tell my father I send him peace and my regards, please tell the same to my mother and my brother's daughter."

With that, proud the 73-year-old father and elder broke down, sobbing tears of a still unfathomable loss. "He died three times, once when they beat him, once when he sent his family his regards and once when they killed him."

Abu Qassem was himself a career military man under Hafez Assad. He retired 22 years ago and does not like to talk about his service. "If I say anything bad about that time I would be saying bad things about myself," he said.

Many in slowly swelling ranks of the town's Free Syria Army appear to be dealing with similar demons. "We did what we had to do," said one soldier, who defected one month ago. "It's nothing to talk about with you."

A kilometre past the last checkpoint on the town's western outskirts, is a site the collective band of rebels is clearly uncomfortable with. We were taken to a large hole in a pasture, which looked like the aftermath of an air strike, but was more likely a purpose-dug mass grave.

The bodies of four men were decaying among the red mud at the bottom of the hole. Animals had torn one corpse to pieces. At least one was bound by his hands and feet.

None had been given a proper burial, nor seemed likely to be. The indifference of the opposition fighters seemed to suggest that the dead men may be connected to the regime.

But like so much else in this opaque and sinister war, the reality of what happened in the middle of a lush green field outside Homs is unlikely to ever be known.

The same group of fighters early in the morning launched an ambush against a Syrian government convoy destroying what they described as a tank and killing an unknown number of men. Insurgent attacks have become a daily feature of life around here. But the rebels have not been able to open a supply line into Homs, to which every road, goat trail and mountain path has now been blocked by government forces.

"It's very difficult and very dangerous to try to go there," one opposition soldier said. "There has been so much killing."

Abu Qassem claims to not want vengeance. He says if he ever finds his sons' killers he will send them to a court and ask that they be freed.

"The regime put in our lives a system of killing people," he said. "They kill like they kill animals. In our parents' days anybody that killed somebody would say sorry and ask the parents for forgiveness and he would be let go. Now the regime kills a young boy in the street and people around him keep shooting him and shooting him.

A local medic, Dr Abbas, interrupted. "We are carrying guns now, but it is not our habit to do so. When Assad is gone we will try to quickly get back to our normal lives."

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WORLD_ Al-Qaeda leader backs Syrian revolt against President Assad

2012-02-12T11:46:00.000-08:00

Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri

Al-Qaeda leader backs Syrian revolt against President Assad

Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri urges Syrians not to rely on the West or Arab governments in their uprising to topple President Bashar al-Assad.

The Telegraph
4:24PM GMT 12 Feb 2012

In the eight-minute video, entitled Onwards, Lions of Syria and posted on an Islamist website, the Egyptian-born Zawahri also urged Muslims in Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan to come to the aid of Syrian rebels confronting Assad's forces.

"Our people in Syria, don't rely on the West or the United States or Arab governments and Turkey," Mr Zawahri said.

"If we want freedom, we must be liberated from this regime. If we want justice, we must retaliate against this regime."

Mr Zawahri took command of al Qaeda after Osama bin Laden was killed by US special forces in a raid in Pakistan last May.

This is believed to be his second such message to Syrian protesters.

Related Content

Al-Qaeda: Muslims should support Syrian uprising

In July, Mr Zawahri urged Syrian protesters to direct their movement also against Washington and Israel, denouncing the United States as insincere in showing solidarity with them.

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WORLD_ Russian arms shipments bolster Syria's embattled Assad

2012-02-12T11:18:00.000-08:00

Russian arms shipments bolster Syria's embattled Assad
30 January 2012 Last updated at 17:41 GMT

By Richard Galpin
BBC World Affairs Correspondent

Cypriot officials described the cargo of the Russian ship as "dangerous"

On 10 January, a Russian cargo ship loaded with containers from the country's main arms exporter made an unscheduled stop at the port of Limassol in Cyprus, apparently forced from the sea by bad weather.

Port officials who boarded the ship discovered what was described as "dangerous cargo".

A well-placed source has confirmed to the BBC that it was carrying tons of ammunition destined for the Syrian security forces which stand accused of committing atrocities against their own people, killing and torturing thousands since the uprising began last year.

The ship was held for several hours at Limassol before being allowed to sail on, eventually reaching the Syrian port of Tartus a few days later.

This was just the latest consignment of arms and ammunition sent by Russia in support of the Assad government, a close ally with whom Moscow has maintained good relations for decades.

According to some estimates, 10% of Russia's global arms sales go to Syria, with current contracts estimated to be worth $1.5bn (£950m).

Besides ammunition, recent sales have included military training aircraft, air defence systems and anti-tank weapons.

The current Syrian government also provides something else Moscow craves - the prestige of a navy base at the port of Tartus which is Russia's last base beyond the borders of the former Soviet Union.

Russian support for President Assad is angering Syrian opposition activists

While the Russian government says that continuing to sell weapons to Syria is not in contravention of any arms embargo and is simply the fulfilment of existing contracts, Western and some Arab countries are becoming increasingly angry.

"It is glaringly obvious that transferring weapons into a volatile and violent situation is irresponsible and will only fuel the bloodshed," said Britain's ambassador to the United Nations, Sir Mark Lyall Grant, in an unusually blunt statement at a recent meeting of the Security Council.

This frustration with Russia's continuing support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is likely to come to a head this week as several members of the UN Security Council push for a quick vote on a new resolution on Syria which was tabled last Friday.

The resolution, which condemns the violence inside the country and supports an Arab League peace plan under which President Assad would step down, is another opportunity for the international community to take a united stand on the crisis.

The last time a resolution was tabled, back in October last year, both Russia and China vetoed it fearing it could ultimately lead to foreign military intervention in a re-run of the diplomatic manoeuvring ahead of the Nato bombing campaign in Libya.

Civil war
But since October the situation inside Syria has deteriorated sharply.

QUOTE

If there is a realisation within the regime that it is falling, that it has lost the confidence of its own allies internationally… influential members will try to defect”

End QUOTE
Malik al-Abdeh
Syrian journalist

The country is perilously close to civil war as the ranks of a rebel army swell with defecting soldiers and as government forces step up their assaults on towns and cities now that the Arab League monitoring mission has ended in failure.

In these circumstances, some Russian politicians are starting to sound doubtful about their policy of shielding the Syrian government from international condemnation.

"We have a feeling, which is becoming stronger, that there is a kind of a game being played by Mr Assad and his government," says Konstantin Kosachev, deputy head of the Russian parliament's foreign affairs committee.

"He does make promises, but he never fulfils these promises so we are not happy with Mr Assad."

Moscow's long-standing position is that both the government and opposition in Syria are equally to blame for the violence and that the solution lies in bringing the two sides together for talks.

But so far there have been no negotiations.

Mr Kosachev made a surprisingly frank admission that his government's policy on Syria could change abruptly.

"If and when we understand that the conditions for any political dialogue are exhausted, we will definitely stop preventing any further actions in the (UN) Security Council," he said.

"But we are not in that situation yet."

In a sign that the tempo of international diplomacy is quickening, Russia announced on Monday that it had offered to host talks in Moscow which the Syrian government has agreed to attend.

But an opposition organisation, the Syrian National Council, rejected the offer saying President Assad had to resign before there could be any negotiations.

More defectors from the Syrian army are swelling the ranks of an armed opposition movement

It is not clear so far whether Russia will use this to justify continuing support for the Assad government and a veto of the new resolution, or if it could decide dialogue is impossible and therefore let the resolution pass.

If ultimately Moscow does withdraw its support for President Assad, there are some who believe it could prove terminal for him.

"The regime would feel extremely isolated, would feel weakened and the morale of Assad supporters would decrease substantially," says Malik al-Abdeh, a Syrian journalist and opposition spokesman based in Britain.

"If there is a realisation within the regime that it is falling, that it has lost the confidence of its own allies internationally… influential members of the regime will try to defect, perhaps escape to neighbouring countries and this is when the regime would probably crumble very quickly."

To compensate Russia for any loss of influence and trade in the Middle East, some analysts say countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates could step in.

"Russia's strategic interests in the region don't start and finish with Bashar al-Assad and in fact its strategic interests in the entire region don't start and finish with Syria," says the director of the Brookings Centre in Qatar, Salman Sheikh.

"With regard to countries like Saudi (Arabia) and the UAE, there are certainly partnerships which can be formed and there are arms that can be sold."

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WORLD_ Syria unrest: Arab League to meet in Cairo for talks

2012-02-12T03:46:00.000-08:00

Syria unrest: Arab League to meet in Cairo for talks
BBC
12 February 2012 Last updated at 10:36 GMT

Basic supplies are said to be running low in Homs

Arab foreign ministers are meeting in Cairo on Sunday to decide their next move after a resolution on Syria failed in the UN Security Council last week.

Officials say the ministers could discuss a joint observer mission with the UN and recognition of the main opposition group.

Syrian government forces have continued to bombard the city of Homs.

Meanwhile, Al-Qaeda's leader has backed the Syrian uprising.

In a video message, Ayman al-Zawahiri told the opposition not rely on the West or Arab countries for support.

Zawahiri - who took over the leadership of al-Qaeda following the death of Osama Bin Laden in May 2011 - described the Syrian government as a "cancerous regime that suffocated the free people of Syria".

He called on Muslims to offer whatever help they could.

Draft resolution

As well as the fighting in Homs, Syrian forces also entered the town of Zabadani, briefly held by the rebels last week.

Activists say at least 35 people died, while a general was killed in Damascus.

Brig-Gen Dr Isa al-Kholi, the head of a Syrian military hospital, was shot dead by members of an "armed terrorist group" as he left his home in the north of the city, the state news agency said.

It is believed to be the first assassination of a senior officer in the capital since the uprising began.

Pressure is mounting on the Arab League to lead efforts to end the bloodshed in Syria after diplomacy reached a dead-end at the UN Security Council a week ago, the BBC's Yolande Knell in Cairo reports.

Officials say the foreign ministers are expected to discuss a joint Arab-UN observer mission to replace the Arab League monitors who left in January because of continuing violence.

A delegation from the Syrian National Council (SNC), a coalition of major opposition parties, has arrived in Cairo, amid hopes that it could be recognised by more Arab countries.

"We want the Arab countries to decide how to best coordinate their initiatives to take us in the same direction, in the right direction," said Basma Kadmani of the SNC.

"We have been very reassured of everyone's agendas. It is a priority to deal with the Syria issue."

The league meeting will be preceded by a meeting of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC), which expelled Syria's ambassadors from its member countries during the week.

GCC and Arab League member Saudi Arabia is also circulating a draft resolution at the UN General Assembly, similar to the one vetoed in the Security Council by China and Russia.

The draft resolution "fully supports" the Arab League peace plan published last month, which called on President Bashar al-Assad to hand over power to his vice-president, and make way for the rapid formation of a national unity government including the opposition.

The General Assembly is scheduled to discuss Syria on Monday, when it will be addressed by the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, but no vote on the resolution is expected by then.

There is no power of veto at the General Assembly but its resolutions have no legal force, unlike those of the Security Council.

'Rare ceasefire'

After a week under shellfire and virtual siege, conditions in the western city of Homs are reported to be getting desperate, with basic supplies running low.

More than 400 people are reported to have been killed in Homs in the past week

Saturday's fatalities were reported in the Baba Amr district - a centre of anti-government protests - but residents said there had also been explosions and heavy gunfire in the neighbouring area of Inshaat.

Activists say more than 400 people have been killed since security forces launched an assault on opposition-held areas in Homs last Saturday.

Meanwhile, government forces have entered the mountain town of Zabadani, outside Damascus.

Exiled opposition leader Kamal al-Labwani told Reuters news agency a rare ceasefire had been agreed in the town, whereby rebel forces could withdraw if they gave up weapons and armour captured from the government.

Human rights groups say more than 7,000 have died throughout Syria since March. The government says at least 2,000 members of the security forces have been killed combating "armed gangs and terrorists".

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WORLD_ Britain to launch new initiative against Syrian war crimes

2012-02-12T03:11:00.000-08:00

Britain to launch new initiative against Syrian war crimes

Experts will help Syrian refugees and army defectors record details of war crimes in Syria, in plan designed to make potential perpertrators think twice

Syrian refugees residents living in Jordan Photo: REUTERS/Ali Jarekji

By William Hague MP Foreign Secretary
8:30AM GMT 12 Feb 2012

The Syrian people's terrible ordeal shows no sign of ending. A week ago, Russia and China vetoed a UN Security Council Resolution supported by all 13 other members of the Council. They chose division when the international community should have shown unity. But President Assad should not think he is off the hook. We will use every peaceful means possible to tighten the diplomatic and economic stranglehold on this vicious regime.

In Parliament last week I set out our seven point plan to step up the diplomatic pressure. The Arab League initiative remains the best chance for peace in Syria and it should be implemented. Arab Foreign Ministers are meeting this weekend to consider the options. We are working with them to set up a coalition of nations to bring the widest possible political, economic and diplomatic weight to bear on President Assad's regime. We are working to ensure that later this month the EU will adopt new sanctions against Assad's regime to help choke off the regime's sources of revenue.

At the same time we will not be deterred from seeking UN condemnation of the violence and backing for the Arab League plan, either through the UN General Assembly or the Security Council. We will urge Russia and China to support this.

In order to help people in Syria affected by the violence and those trying to develop a peaceful alternative to the regime, we have intensified our contact with members of the Syrian political opposition and we are calling for free and unimpeded access for humanitarian agencies to deliver life saving support to the Syrian people.

On top of this, we must end any illusion the regime has that it can act with impunity in Syria. There is no doubt that mass murder is being committed. Some 6,000 people have already been sacrificed to the regime's brutal determination to cling to power. Those carrying out these crimes may well think that they will get away with it.

Related Articles

_ New British initiative to gather evidence on Syrian war crimes - 11 Feb 2012
_ US satellite photographs show Syrian artillery - 11 Feb 2012
_ Free Syrian Army stands between civilians and tanks - 11 Feb 2012

However that is what Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, the architects of the blood-soaked siege of Sarajevo, probably thought; or Slobodan Milosevic when he presided over ethnic cleansing in Kosovo and Bosnia; or Charles Taylor when he committed his crimes in Sierra Leone. They were wrong: all have gone on ultimately to face international justice.

Those ordering the siege of Homs, the shelling of Idlib and the torture of Syrian children need to be put on notice that their crimes will come to light, and that they should stop these actions now.

Part of this must be to record the testimony and evidence of those who are fleeing Syria or suffering on the ground.

We will be sending British experts to the region in the coming days and weeks to help gather evidence and document human rights violations, working with NGOs already carrying out such work. We must help ensure that atrocities in Syria are documented to an international evidential standard suitable for local and international courts.

In conflicts of the past there was no systematic collection of evidence against those who committed heinous crimes. This has made prosecutions harder to mount, and longer and more costly when they take place. Often witnesses are required to testify many years after the event. Our work will be designed to support that process now.

In the past few months, Britain has commissioned experts to travel to the Syrian refugee camps in the region to document the evidence of crimes committed by the Syrian regime. We will step up these efforts. We are also providing funding to help human rights organisations in the region gather evidence against the perpetrators of crimes. Already, the organisations we are working with have spoken to hundreds of Syrian activists, refugees and army defectors who have fled their homeland since the start of the uprising. They have collected hundreds of interviews, testimonies and eye witness accounts. This is empowering ordinary Syrians to build up a strong evidence base against the regime and security services responsible for crimes against humanity.

This is only a start. I will be asking other nations to take similar action to ensure that ordinary Syrians have access to the justice they deserve. Foreign Office officials will work with our partners to set up a Syria-wide human rights abuse documentation hub to collate the mounting evidence of crime that exists. We will help ensure that it is preserved and safeguarded, in the interests of justice and of the Syrian people.

I have also instructed our Ambassadors in Lebanon and Turkey to report back to me on the situation on the border and among Syrian refugees, and to assess what other support Britain can offer.

At the same time, we will return to the UN Human Rights Council to push for an extension of the mandate of the Syria Commission of Inquiry, with a new focus on ensuring accountability in Syria.

The world must send a clear message to the Syrian regime that those who commit atrocities will be held to account, and those taking part in them now should urgently reconsider their actions.

There is a chance of saving Homs and its people from the fate endured by cities like Sarajevo in the 1990s.

It requires the regime to stop the violence and President Assad to step aside to permit a new political process. It also lies in the hands of individual Syrians to refuse to participate in the regime's campaign of terror and murder. So while we step up the diplomatic and economic pressure on the regime, we will also strive to ensure that fate of its victims is not forgotten and the extent of its crimes cannot be hidden.

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NEWS_ Facebook "defriending" led to double murder, police say

2012-02-11T14:12:00.000-08:00

Facebook "defriending" led to double murder, police say

Tim Ghianni, Reuters
February 10, 2012, 11:44 am

Facebook "defriending" led to double murder, police say

NASHVILLE, Tenn (Reuters) - A Tennessee couple who "defriended" a woman on Facebook were murdered in their home by the jilted woman's father and another man, police said on Thursday.

"It's the worst thing I've ever seen," Johnson County Sheriff Mike Reece said, adding he had never seen anything like it in his 27 years in law enforcement in the area. "We've had murders, but nothing like this. This is just senseless."

He said Billy Clay Payne, Jr. and Billie Jean Hayworth were killed last month after they deleted Jenelle Potter, the daughter of one of the suspects, from their "friends" list. Both were shot in the head and the man had his throat cut.

The couple's 8-month-old baby was in the mother's arms, unharmed, when the bodies were found.

Marvin Enoch "Buddy" Potter Jr., 60, and Jamie Lynn Curd, 38, were each charged on Wednesday in Mountain City in northeastern Tennessee with two counts of first-degree murder. The men were arrested on Tuesday.

The case was not the first involving violence linked to Facebook. Last year in Iowa, a woman was arrested on accusations of setting fire to a friend's garage after she was defriended on the social network site, local media reported.

In Texas, a man was accused of hitting his wife after she failed to "like" a Facebook post he wrote about the anniversary of his mother's death, according to media reports.

In the Tennessee case, Reece said a couple of harassment cases had been filed against Jenelle Potter in court over "someone blocking her or taking her off."

"Once you've crossed her, you've crossed her father too," Reece said, adding that Jenelle Potter, in her late 20s or early 30s, stays home with her parents and was constantly on Facebook.

Her father, "Buddy" Potter, will return to court next week for a bond hearing after he hires an attorney. Curd, also a second cousin of one of the victims, was appointed an attorney and bond was set at $750,000 for each murder count. His preliminary hearing will be in March.

No charges have been filed against Jenelle Potter, the sheriff said. She could not reached for comment.

Curd's attorney, R.O. Smith, an assistant public defender, said it was "safe to say there's more to it than the Facebook problem, it appears."

"I wish I could provide more of what went on, but there's needless to say a lot of rumors swirling around and nothing substantiated on the rumors," Smith said.

(Reporting By Tim Ghianni; Editing by Mary Wisniewski and Cynthia Johnston)

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The Syrian people are slaughtered_ Where is the world ?

2012-02-11T04:21:00.000-08:00

Syria draft resolution reaches UN General Assembly
11 February 2012 Last updated at 11:43 GMT

Syrian security forces are continuing to bombard parts of the city of Homs

The United Nations General Assembly is becoming the focus of attempts to apply pressure on the Syrian government over its continued crackdown on dissent.

Saudi Arabia is circulating a draft resolution calling for an end to violence by all sides and for President Bashar al-Assad to step aside.

It is similar to one which Russia and China vetoed in the Security Council.

The diplomatic move came as Syrian tanks and artillery continued to bombard parts of the city of Homs.

Opposition activists said the Baba Amr district - a centre of anti-government protests - had been hit by mortars on Saturday, killing at least 15 people, and that army snipers had been deployed on rooftops.

Continue reading the main story
“
Start Quote
It is odd to me that anyone would try to equate the actions of the Syrian army and armed opposition groups”
End Quote
Robert Ford

US ambassador to Syria
After a week under shellfire and virtual siege, conditions in Homs are reported to be getting desperate, with basic supplies running low.

Meanwhile, Syria's state news agency reported that the director of the Hamish military hospital in Damascus, Brigadier Dr Isa al-Kholi, had been shot dead on Saturday by an "armed terrorist group" outside his home in the capital's Rukn al-Din district.

On Friday, activists said at least 52 people were killed across the country by security forces, including 16 in Homs and 15 in suburbs of Damascus.

Human rights groups say more than 7,000 have died since the uprising began in March. The government says at least 2,000 members of the security forces have been killed combating "armed gangs and terrorists".

'Systematic violations'

The UN General Assembly is scheduled to discuss Syria on Monday, when it will be addressed by the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, but no vote on the resolution is expected by then.

The Syrian government blames "armed gangs and terrorists" for the violence

There is no power of veto at the General Assembly but its resolutions have no legal force, unlike those of the Security Council.

The draft resolution circulated by Saudi Arabia "fully supports" the Arab League peace plan published last month, which called on Mr Assad to hand over power to his vice-president, and make way for the rapid formation of a national unity government including the opposition.

While calling for an end to the violence by all sides, it lays blame primarily on the Syrian authorities, which are strongly condemned for "continued widespread and systematic violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms".

The draft urges accountability for those guilty of human rights violations, but does not specifically mention the International Criminal Court.

There is also a request for Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to appoint a special envoy to promote a peaceful solution to the crisis - a proposal that Arab League Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi made this week.

'Disturbing photos'

The US ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, on Friday posted satellite imagery on Facebook which he said showed heavy weaponry deployed outside urban areas, including Homs, Zabadani, Rankun and Halban.

DigitalGlobe released this image allegedly showing tanks near the Al-Baath university complex in Homs

"When we see disturbing photos offering proof that the regime is using mortars and artillery against residential neighbourhoods, all of us become even more concerned about the tragic outcome for Syrian civilians," he wrote.

"It is odd to me that anyone would try to equate the actions of the Syrian army and armed opposition groups since the Syrian government consistently initiates the attacks on civilian areas, and it is using its heaviest weapons," he added, referring to Russia's belief that the rebels are equally culpable.

The satellite images are dated 6 February - the day the US closed its embassy in Damascus and Mr Ford left Syria, citing security concerns.

Accusations over Aleppo bombing

Meanwhile, the government and rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA), a group of army defectors, blamed each other for two bomb blasts in the city of Aleppo that killed 28 people and wounded more than 200 others.

State television blamed the bombings on what it described as "armed terrorist gangs", which it said had targeted a Military Intelligence complex and a riot police base but killed civilian bystanders, including children.

The BBC's Jim Muir: "State TV has been carrying some extremely explicit and lurid footage"

It broadcast gruesome pictures of the aftermath of the two attacks, with large craters and scattered body parts.

The FSA's deputy leader told the BBC its fighters had been attacking the bases at the time, but were not responsible for the blasts.

Opposition activists in Aleppo also blamed the government, saying it was trying to discredit the uprising. They said there had been suspicious activity by security forces around the two bases before the explosions, and noted that state TV cameras had reached the sites within minutes.

Later, at least 13 people were reportedly killed when security forces and militiamen opened fire on a protest in the city's Marjeh district.

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WORLD_ Accusations fly over Syrian bomb attacks

2012-02-11T02:11:00.000-08:00

Accusations fly over Syrian bomb attacks
ABC
Updated February 11, 2012 17:41:09

A view of a damaged building at the site of an explosion in Syria's northern city of Aleppo.

The Syrian government and rebels are blaming each other for two bomb attacks that have killed about 30 people and wounded more than 200.

The bombings in Aleppo and two earlier ones in Damascus are not in the line of the overall uprising against president Bashar al Assad.

Correspondents in the region say this is why they suspect that activists are blaming the regime.

State television was quick to show graphic images pictures after the attack on a military base.

The government says it was the work of armed gangs, but activists blame security forces.

In Aleppo, Syrian army official Brigadier General Firas Abbas says the government will not give in to violence.

"These criminal acts carried out by these groups will not prevent us from continuing our efforts in order to crush terrorists in this city," he said.

The government bombardment of the besieged rebel stronghold of Homs is also continuing.

Resident Abu Ahmad says mosques, hospitals and houses are being targeted.

"They were throwing the people out of their homes and occupying their homes," he said.

More than 400 people are reported to have been killed in Homs in the past week.

United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon says he firmly condemns the latest attacks, reiterating that all violence is unacceptable and must cease immediately.

Tags: unrest-conflict-and-war, world-politics, syrian-arab-republic
First posted February 11, 2012 16:36:57

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NEWS_ Video of US dad shooting daughter's laptop goes viral

2012-02-10T15:25:00.000-08:00

Video of US dad shooting daughter's laptop goes viral

•"I'm going to put a stop to it"
A father, upset by her daughter's cribbing on Facebook, has pumped nine bullets into her laptop sparking a furious debate.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A video of an angry American father pumping nine slugs from a handgun into his daughter's laptop has gone viral on YouTube and sparked an impassioned online debate over his parenting skills.

Tommy Jordan, of North Carolina, explains in the video, which he titled "Facebook Parenting: for the troubled teen," that he was upset by a Facebook post by his 15-year-old daughter in which she complained about her parents.

A video of an angry American father pumping nine slugs from a handgun into his daughter's laptop has gone viral on YouTube and sparked an impassioned online debate over his parenting skills.

"This is for my daughter, Hannah, and more importantly for all her friends on Facebook who thought her little rebellious post was cute," Jordan says, speaking into a video camera apparently set up on a tripod.

Wearing a cowboy hat and smoking a cigarette, the video opens with Jordan sitting in a chair and reading with unconcealed outrage from the Facebook post, in which his daughter complains about having to do chores around the house.

"Pay you for chores? Are you out of your mind?" he says. "You don't have that hard a life but you're about too."

Jordan describes the Facebook post as "disrespectful" and says he's "going to put a stop to it."

He then picks up the camera and points it at a laptop lying on the ground.

"That right there is your laptop," he says. "This right here is my .45."

Jordan then begins to pepper the laptop with bullets.

Pausing at one point, he addresses his daughter: "You have to pay me back for these too because these are about a dollar apiece."

After plugging the laptop full of holes Jordan tells his daughter "you can have a new laptop when you buy a new laptop.

"Hope you've enjoyed your little fiasco on Facebook," he concludes.

The video, which was posted to YouTube Wednesday, has attracted 2.1 million views in just two days, been "liked" around 62,000 times and "disliked" around 4,800 times.

It has also spawned a debate about Jordan's parenting style, gathering more than 36,000 comments on YouTube and thousands more on his Facebook page.

Most approve of his actions although by no means all.

"You are one very twisted dude. I hope you get some help with your anger problem before you use that gun on someone, like your daughter," wrote Jim Freedom on Facebook.

Another Facebook poster, Rachelle Tolbert, told Jordan "Great job."

"Anyone who thinks you're an awful parent is either a teen (no explanation needed there), or a parent who lets their kids walk all over them. I think your vid was effective and reasonable," Tolbert said.

"As a father of now grown children, there is very little that will get the attention of a teenage girl... I bet this has, Good job!" said Edward Harrison.

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WORLD_ Syria says bombers kill 28 in Aleppo

2012-02-10T14:37:00.000-08:00

Syria says bombers kill 28 in Aleppo

By Albert Aji & Lee Keath in Aleppo
From: AP
February 11, 2012 8:54AM

A soldier inspects a destroyed Syrian armoured vehicle inside the damaged Syrian police headquarters compound, in the northern city of Aleppo. Picture: AP Source: AP

TWO suicide car bombers struck security compounds in Aleppo overnight, killing 28 people, Syrian officials said, bringing significant violence for the first time to an industrial centre that has largely stood by President Bashar Assad during the 11-month uprising against his rule.

Anti-Assad activists denied any involvement and accused the regime of setting off the blasts to smear the opposition as government forces pummel rebels in one of their main strongholds, Homs.

State media touted the bombings as proof the regime faces a campaign by terrorists, not a popular uprising.

The military stepped up its siege of Homs, where hundreds have reportedly been killed over the past week.

Soldiers who have been bombarding the central city made their first ground move, storming into one of the most restive neighbourhoods.

Troops and security forces opened fire on anti-regime protesters who streamed out of mosques after Friday prayers nationwide. At least 27 civilians were killed, according to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The morning blasts in Aleppo, Syria's most populous city, ripped apart the facades of the local headquarters of the Military Intelligence Directorate and a barracks of the Security Preservation forces.

At the Directorate, windows were shattered and a large crater was torn into the pavement outside the entrance. A weeping correspondent on state-run TV showed graphic footage of at least five corpses, collected in sacks and under blankets by the side of the road.

Security officials said suicide bombers in explosives-packed vehicles tried to smash through the entrances of both sites. At the barracks, Brig. Firas Abbas told an Associated Press reporter on a government-guided visit to the scene that the vehicle made it through one roadblock before detonating near the gates. A head lay on the ground and security officials said it belonged to a suicide attacker.

State television cited the Health Ministry as saying 28 people were killed in the two blasts and 235 wounded. The dead included 11 security personnel killed at the barracks, 13 military personnel killed at the military intelligence building and four civilians, security officials said.

State TV blamed "terrorists." But anti-government activists accused the regime of setting off the blasts to discredit the opposition and avert protests that had been planned in the city on Friday.

Captain Ammar al-Wawi of the Free Syrian Army, a rebel group that wants to bring down the regime by force, denied involvement. He said fighters from his group had a short gunbattle with troops several hundred metres from the Directorate about an hour before the explosion but did not carry out the bombings.

"This explosion is the work of the regime to divert world attention from the crimes it is committing against the people of Homs," he said.

The blasts were the fourth such dramatic suicide attack since late December. All occurred on Friday mornings against various security headquarters and prompted the same exchange of accusations. The earlier attacks, in the capital Damascus, killed dozens of security forces and civilians, according to Syrian officials. Nobody has claimed responsibility for any of the attacks.

Friday's bombings were the first significant violence in Aleppo, a northern city of some two million people that is home to a prosperous business community and merchant class whose continued backing for Assad has been crucial in bolstering his regime.

The city has seen only occasional protests. Assad's opponents have had little success in galvanising support there, in part because business leaders have long traded political freedoms for economic privileges. Also, the city has a large population of Kurds, who have mostly stayed on the sidelines of the uprising since Assad's regime began giving them long-denied citizenship as a gesture to win support.

Still, hours after the explosions, hundreds of protesters marched in several Aleppo neighbourhoods after Friday prayers, part of nationwide demonstrations labelled "Friday of 'Russia is killing our children"' - a denunciation of Russia's veto of a UN attempt to condemn Syria's crackdown.

Regime forces opened fire on the Aleppo protesters, killing at least seven, according to the Observatory. Another activist group, the Local Coordination Committees put the Aleppo toll at 12 and said 22 others had been killed nationwide. The figures could not be independently confirmed due to restrictions the Syrian government has put on journalists.

Assad's crackdown has killed well over 5,400 people since the uprising began in March, according to UN estimates.

The regime's crackdown on dissent has left it almost completely isolated internationally - except for key support from Russia and China, which delivered a double veto to block a UN resolution calling on Assad to leave power.

The king of Saudi Arabia, which has led Arab efforts against Assad, made his first public comments on Syria's crisis on Friday. He denounced the Russian and Chinese vetoes, saying "the confidence of the world in the UN has undoubtedly been shaken."

"These countries don't rule the world, never. The world is ruled by wisdom, fairness, morals, and standing up to the aggressor," King Abdullah said in a televised speech. "We are living scary, scary days."

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov signalled Friday that Moscow would use its veto again to block any resolution aimed at ousting Assad.

"If our foreign partners don't understand that, we will have to use strong means again and again to call them back to reality," he was quoted as saying by the ITAR-Tass news agency.

Moscow's stance is motivated in part by its strategic and defence ties, including weapons sales, with Syria. Russia also rejects what it sees as a world order dominated by the US Last month, Russia reportedly signed a $US550 million ($511.77 million) deal to sell combat jets to Syria.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/syria-says-bombers-kill-28-in-aleppo/story-e6frfku0-1226268384138#ixzz1m1Nsva1W

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WORLD_ Syria uprising: live

2012-02-10T06:41:00.000-08:00

Syria uprising: live

Live coverage of developments in Syria, as the violence escalates in the Syrian flashpoint city of Homs with soldiers loyal to Bashar al-Assad's regime attempting to crush opponents.

Image 1 of 9
An excavator removes debris at the site of the explosion in Syria's northern city of Aleppo Photo: REUTERS/George Orfalian

1:30PM GMT 10 Feb 2012
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/9064047/Syria-uprising-live.html

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WORLD_ Syria uprising: as it happened Feb 9

2012-02-10T06:17:00.000-08:00

Syria uprising: as it happened Feb 9Coverage of the developments in Syria, as David Cameron accused the Assad regime of being "hell-bent on killing, murdering and maiming" its own citizens, and more than 70 people were killed.

Image 1 of 6
A Syrian rebel runs for cover during an exchange of fire with army troops in Idlib, Syria Photo: AP

By Sarah Titterton
10:00PM GMT 09 Feb 2012
Comment

• Cameron: Regime "hell-bent on killing, murdering and maiming"
• More than 70 are killed across Syria today
• Total death toll in Homs siege soars past 400
• Syrian man's leg blown off by land mine on Lebanon border
• Turkey: The middle class are still supporting Assad

Latest

22.00 We're going to leave it there for tonight, please check our Syrian page for the latest.

21.00 David Blair writes on David Cameron stating the Syrian regime is 'hell-bent' on 'murdering and maiming' its own people:

The Prime Minister's angry denunciation of President Bashar al-Assad came on the sixth day of an assault on Syria's third city that has now claimed at least 300 lives. Tanks and heavy artillery have been used to pound large areas of Homs, inflicting some of the worst bloodshed since the conflict began 11 months ago.

"It's quite clear that this is a regime that is hell-bent on killing, murdering and maiming its own citizens," said Mr Cameron during an official visit to Stockholm. "What we're seeing on our television screens is completely unacceptable."

The "appalling" bombardment of Homs had created "scenes of destruction," he added. The Prime Minister urged the "toughest possible response" to ensure that "Assad stops his murderous tactics and that we see transition and change in Syria".

20.41 Barack Obama has decried the "outrageous bloodshed" in Syria, AFP reports.

Syrian rebels in Idlib
19.27 The United States is working with its European and Arab allies to organise the inaugural meeting of the "Friends of Syria" to explore ways to further isolate President Bashar Assad, support his foes and end ongoing violence, AP reports.

The State Department said on Thursday that its top Middle East envoy, Jeffrey Feltman, has been dispatched to Morocco, France and Bahrain to help put the meeting together and determine the group's membership and its mandate. Arab League foreign ministers are due to meet on Sunday in Cairo and could announce a date and venue for the meeting after that.

France and Turkey, both of which have historic and commercial interests in Syria, have offered to host the meeting. Morocco, which sponsored the U.N. Security Council resolution calling for Assad to step down that Russia and China vetoed, is also a candidate.

Mourners pray at a funeral for a ten-year-old boy and two rebel fighters killed during fighting in Idlib

18.20 Middle East Correspondent Richard Spencer is inside Syria. His frontline dispatch from just outside Homs:

Down the road ahead, their provincial capital is being ruthlessly pummelled into submission, by tanks, mortars and what looked from the blast damage to be heavy duty artillery.

But however outnumbered and outgunned they may be, the revolutionaries of Homs are fighting back, and they are paying a heavy price.

In villages around the city, liberated areas have sprung up, with a patchwork of front lines defended by the loose confederation of amateurs and defectors who like to call themselves the Free Syrian Army.

On Thursday, a steady stream of them poured into a makeshift field hospital set up in a tumbledown, traditional Arab farmhouse, plastic tarpaulin protecting the "operating room" from the bare rafters and cane roof.

16.53 David Cameron has accused the Assad regime of being "hell-bent" on murder.

The Prime Minister didn't hold back as he demanded regime change while speaking to reporters in Stockholm - calling for the "toughest possible response" from the itnernational community so that "Assad stops his murderous tactics and that we see transition and change in Syria."

He says:

It's quite clear that this is a regime that is hell-bent on killing, murdering, and maiming its own citizens... What we're seeing on our television screens is completely unacceptable ... it really is appalling, the scenes of destruction in Homs.

David Cameron's strong words for Assad

16.10 The death toll across Syria has just leapt up again to more than 70 - 61 of whom, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, died in shelling and other violence in the Homs province.

Thirty-six of those people died in the Homs neighbourhood of Baba Amr alone, according to the AFP.

15.13 The Associated Press says that Syrians are using loudspeakers to call for help during lulls in the shelling. They cannot go outside to seek help for fear of snipers.

15.11 Turkey's ambassador to the EU claims Syria's middle class are still supporing Assad - mostly because they are afraid of what could replace him.

Selim Yenel tells Reuters:

What we are seeing is horrendous. The result will probably be bloody, and unfortunately the Russians are backing him...Assad still has backing. The middle class is still supporting Assad. They are afraid of what comes after him.

Homs under siege today
15.04 Britain's ambassador to Syria Simon Collis has written a blog post in which warns you "should not question what you know is true".

Addressing the abyss between what citizens in Syria are telling aid agencies and Western reporters, and what the Syrian state claims is happening, the ambassador says he has witnessed the regime's violence towards its people with his own eyes.

On 15 March 2011 we watched as 40 Syrians lined up outside the Ministry of Interior on Merjeh Square in central Damascus to protest silently the arbitrary detention of their friends and family. They made no provocative chants and advocated no violence. They simply held up pictures of their friends and family members that had been held in detention for months or years without trial. It was a scene of dignified and peaceful protest.

After 10 minutes, the regime had had enough. Plain clothed security forces moved in en masse. We stood and watched as they beat innocent civilians with sticks and batons. No care was taken for the elderly, for women, for the young children. All were treated with equal brutality.

This scene has been repeated time and again.

14.57 The death toll across Syria today has been revised to 37.

That includes the 23 who died in shelling this morning in Homs - some of whose bodies were "completely charred", according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

AFP elaborates on the other 14:

In Rastan, a town in Homs province, shelling killed an 11-year-old girl and a colonel in the regular army, said the Observatory.

A young woman was also killed in northwestern Idlib province and one man died in the southern region of Daraa, cradle of the revolt against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

Two more people died in shelling and heavy gunfire as regime troops tried to storm the town of Zabadani, near the Syrian capital Damascus, the Observatory added.

In eastern Deir Ezzor province, machinegun fire wounded dozens of people including women and children in Koriyeh, the Observatory said, adding that army reinforcements were being sent into the town.

Elsewhere, a rebel ambush killed seven members of the security forces and wounded dozens of others near the town of Daraa, said activists.

14.34 A Syrian man has had his leg blown off after he stepped on a land mine fleeing the country into Lebanon, AFP is reporting.

The 26-year-old is being treated at a hospital in the Lebanese region of Akkar, officials told the agency.

From AFP:
Syria has planted mines along its border with northern Lebanon to prevent refugees streaming in, smuggling, or for Lebanon to become a safe haven for the opposition.

An injured Syrian fighter is carried into hospital in Idlib

14.30 Russia has taken a "cautious" view of the so-called "Friends of Syria" coalition which the US is attempting to forge.

The fledgling group may be set to meet in Turkey to coordinate humanitarian assistance for Syrians desperate for aid. But a Russian foreign ministry spokesman was not impressed with the idea. His remarks, as reported by AFP:

We take a generally cautious view of formats that we do not believe are legitimate for dealing with specific international disputes. We have had very bad experience working in such formats, and take a cautious attitude to various contact groups and groups of friends. As you remember, we had such unsuccessful experience in Libya.

13.31 Roy Greenslade has posted a Guardian blog about the death of an AFP journalist who worked for the newspaper as well as CNN and al Jazeera known as "Omar the Syrian", real name Mazhar Tayyara.

Greenslade writes:

One of his friends told AFP Tayyara was caught in a burst of shelling in the district of Khaldiyeh, a stronghold of dissent, while trying to help people wounded in the bombardment.

The friend said he was struck by shrapnel to the head, stomach and a leg and died of his injuries three hours later in hospital.

Tayyara had found his calling, the friend said, and "died doing what he believed was right".

12.57 The fighting in Syria is not just in Homs. This new Telegraph video shows members of the Free Syrian Army - including a number of Syrian Army defectors - preparing to defend themselves against Assad's forces in Idlib.

12.41 The Twitter account Arab Spring has posted a chilling picture they claim is one of the shells being used in Homs. The image has not been verified.

12.29 An AFP snap is claiming that seven Syrian security force members have been killed in a rebel ambush, according to activists. Hopefully more soon.

A rebel retreats for medical treatment in Idlib

12.27 The Arab League has said it will meet next week to discuss whether to recognise the Syrian National Council as the legitimate representative of Syria, and whether to allow it to open offices in Arab capitals, AP is reporting.

11.41 There is a ominous lack of news coming out of Homs today, as Sky News video editor Shirish Kulkarni notes:

Many of the agencies so far are repeating the same statements from witnesses and activists used in their earlier takes for later pieces. Considering the speed at which updates were coming yesterday, it's unnerving.

10.59 More on the problems of military intervention in Syria - and why it this is a vastly different situation from the one faced in Libya a year ago - from CNN's Tim Lister, who writes:

Some also argue that, despite the price (of Western military intervention), there would also eventually be a strategic gain: a post-al-Assad Syria would unlikely be as close to Iran as is the current regime and might also deprive Hezbollah of critical regional support.

Others see the risks of international intervention as outweighing any benefits, with the danger that civil war would inevitably spill into Lebanon.

Body bags of victims of shelling in Homs

10.52 Time magazine have tweeted a link to a new photo essay from their photographer Alessio Romenzi in Homs. After counting 25 civilian casualties in two hours, he emailed to Time: "The word ‘safe’ is not in our dictionary these days.”

10.40 Germany is expelling four Syrian diplomats after the arrest several days ago of two men suspected of spying on the regime's opponents in Berlin, Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said.

09.58 The death toll in Homs this morning has been revised down to 24 - for now. AFP quotes Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, who said:

Twenty three people have died in the shelling that began at dawn on the Baba Amr neighbourhood and one died in Khaldiyeh.

In total more than 400 people have died in Homss ince the assault began less than a week ago.

Another activist, Omar Shaker, told AFP that residents are hiding from the shelling in the ground floor of buildings as there are no underground shelters.

He said there are craters in the ground every 10 metres.

A Syrian woman prays for those killed in the attacks

09.39 A doctor in Baba Amr, one of the neighbourhoods in Homs most targeted by the regime forces, has told AFP that shells are "raining down on us". Ali Hazuri said the regime forces are using "heavy artillery".

08.53 Meanwhile in Israel, defence minister Ehud Barak has warned again of Israeli fears that Syrian's weapons could fall into the hands of Hezbollah.

He said Israel is tracking the issue "constantly and carefully" but did not elaborate.

The Telegraph's Phoebe Greenwood wrote recently that Israel is prepared to take action to prevent the weapons from falling into Hezbollah's hands:

Tel Aviv has expressed grave concerns about the fate of Syria's weaponry should Bashar al Assad fall, saying they pose as great a threat to Israeli security as Iranian nuclear development... Syria's massive stockpile of weapons includes surface-to-air missiles, high-trajectory long-range rockets and missiles, biological and chemical weapons, which are currently under the watchful guard of government troops.

Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak

08.49 China has revealed that a Syrian opposition delegation visited Beijing this week. Reuters reports that Chinese claims that the Syrian National Coordination Body for Democratic Change was in Beijing to meet with a vice foreign minister for four days.

A Chinese spokesman said:

Both sides exchanged views on the present situation in Syria and China explained its principles and position ... and called on all sides to immediately stop the violence.

The Syrian government should earnestly fulfil its promises, urgently begin an inclusive reform process that has wide participation, and resolve disputes and conflicts via talks and consultations ... China is willing to maintain contacts and communication with relevant Syrian opposition groups, is willing to push and encourage talks and make great efforts to ameliorate the situation.

He added that China will "make unstinting efforts towards peace and stability in Syria", and said the delegation "appreciated China's stance on the Middle East question and hoped it would play an even greater role so that Syria can emerge from the crisis at an early date".

08.35 The Telegraph also has a dispatch from Damascus, where brave residents - many of them women - are sheltering refugees from Homs, risking their lives for strangers desperate for a safe haven.

The correspondent, who cannot be named for security reasons, writes:

The activists took The Daily Telegraph to one safe house. A nine-year-old boy, the man of the house, opened the solid white metal door just enough to let us pass. His four sisters were hidden away in a side room for safety. Paunchy, with worn clothes, her hair array and deep bags under her eyes, the mother stood in the empty living room, too frightened and exhausted to speak of her ordeal. She and her family had fled from Karm Zeitoun district of Homs just one week before.

Jordanian riot police hold Syrian protesters back from the Syrian embassy in Amman

08.32 The Telegraph's Alex Spillius has spoken to a US State Department official who warns the international community may be forced to "militarise" the crisis.

He writes:

The official from the State Department told The Daily Telegraph that while the White House wants to exhaust all its diplomatic options, the debate in Washington has shifted away from diplomacy and towards more robust action since Russia and China blocked a United Nations resolution condemning Syria.

The Pentagon’s Central Command has begun a preliminary internal review of US military capabilities in the region, which one senior official called a “scoping exercise” that would provide options for the president if and when they were requested.

The White House said it was talking to allies about holding a “Friends of Syria” meeting in the near future and was considering delivering humanitarian aid to affected areas in the country.

08.25 Simon Tisdall has written a piece in The Guardian on the "Western conspiracy to do nothing", in which he warns that the foreign country doing the most in Syria right now is not the UK, Russia, or the US, but Iran.

The reality is that from Barack Obama down, nobody in the western camp, with diplomacy at a standstill, has a clue what to do. They know only what they cannot do - which, primarily, is not get involved in another Middle East war.

Not so the rulers of Iran... Assad's Syria is Iran's springboard into the Arab Middle East.

08.18 Some of the quotes included in the morning's papers are increasingly desperate. The Independent has spoken to Homs residents about the horrific report yesterday that 18 premature babies died in a hospital there when it was hit by power cuts - the "slaughter of the innocents". Mahmoud Araby, a 25-year-old student, told the newspaper:

The families were there when it happened. We were so angry and disgusted.

The inside of a home in Homs after shelling

08.03 The death toll in Homs is already climbing this morning with agencies reporting that at least 29 people have been killed since midnight as Assad's regime launches a fresh assault on citizens there.

From Reuters:

Syrian forces killed at least 29 people on Thursday in rocket and mortar bombardments of several districts of Homs, the heart of a revolt against President Bashar al-Assad, activists and opposition sources said.

They said the bombardments centred on the Baba Amro, Inshaat, Khalidiya, al-Bayyada and Jouret al-Shayyah districts of the city of one million people.

Earlier, the British-based opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 12 people had been killed in Baba Amro and another in Khalidiya.

08.00 GMT (10.00 Damascus) Good morning, we'll continue our live rolling Telegraph coverage of the uprising in Syria this morning as the government launches a new blitz on Homs, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon claims Russia and China's veto of the UN has emboldened the Assad regime, and a US official warns that the international community may have to "militarise" the crisis.

Syria uprising: February 8 as it happened
Syria uprising: February 7 as it happened
Syria uprising: February 6 as it happened

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WORLD_ 4 Diplomats From Syria Are Expelled By Germany

2012-02-09T20:05:00.000-08:00

4 Diplomats From Syria Are Expelled By Germany

By NICHOLAS KULISH and ALAN COWELL
Published: February 9, 2012

BERLIN — As tensions mount between Western nations and Syria, the German authorities said Thursday that they had ordered the expulsion of four Syrian diplomats after arresting two men accused separately of spying on opponents of President Bashar al-Assad.

The police here arrested the two men on Tuesday, saying they were “strongly suspected of investigating Syrian opposition members in Germany for a Syrian intelligence service over a period of years.”

The men were identified, under standard German procedures, only as Mahmoud El A., 47, of Lebanese descent, and Akram O., 34, a Syrian.

State and federal police officers searched the homes of six other suspects “believed to be involved in espionage,” prosecutors said.

In a statement on Thursday, Guido Westerwelle, the German foreign minister, said the four diplomats — three men and a woman who were not identified by name — had been given three days to leave Germany. Mr. Westerwelle did not go into detail about the expulsions, but officials said the embassy personnel were suspected of carrying out activities incompatible with their diplomatic status, a formulation that usually refers to espionage.

The action came after several Western and Arab nations reduced their diplomatic presence in the Syrian capital, Damascus. The United States closed its embassy there this week.

Syrian officials made no immediate public comment on the expulsions.

After Tuesday’s arrests, Mr. Westerwelle summoned the Syrian ambassador to tell him that intimidation of Syrian opposition figures in Germany would not be tolerated, officials said. According to German news reports, the two men arrested were not diplomats, but worked closely with Syrian Embassy officials.

Their activities were said to have included infiltrating demonstrations to photograph Syrians opposed to Mr. Assad and then transmitting the images to Damascus along with other information about opponents.

About 32,000 Syrian citizens are registered as living in Germany, according to official statistics, and around 2,600 of them applied for asylum in the 11 months since the Syrian uprising began.

Many Syrian exiles have complained of harassment.

Late last year, Ferhad Ahma, a politician of Syrian descent from Germany’s opposition Green Party, who is also a member of the Syrian National Council opposition movement, said he was attacked in his apartment.

A statement from the Greens at the time said two men posing as police officers arrived at his apartment at 2 a.m. and beat him when he opened the door. Green Party officials accused Syrian agents of responsibility, but the police said the identity of the assailants was not clear.

In October, a Syrian-American man was arrested in the United States and accused of secretly working with Syrian intelligence to gather information on overseas protesters. The Syrian Embassy in Washington has called the charges baseless.

Nicholas Kulish reported from Berlin, and Alan Cowell from London. Victor Homola contributed reporting from Berlin.

A version of this article appeared in print on February 10, 2012, on page A10 of the New York edition with the headline: 4 Diplomats From Syria Are Expelled By Germany.
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WORLD_ West offers words, only, as Syria killing rages

2012-02-09T15:42:00.000-08:00

West offers words, only, as Syria killing rages

1 of 17. Wounded men are seen in the Sunni Muslim district of Bab Amro in Homs in this image received February 8, 2012.
Credit: Reuters/Handout

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis and Angus MacSwan
AMMAN/BEIRUT | Thu Feb 9, 2012 5:44pm EST

AMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian government artillery barrages killed dozens of civilians in Homs on Thursday, activists said, as President Bashar al-Assad, bolstered by Russian support, ignored appeals from world leaders to halt the carnage.

The United Nations secretary-general condemned the "appalling brutality" of the operation to stamp out the revolt against Assad, and Turkey's ambassador to the European Union warned of a slide into civil war that could inflame the region.

Diplomats from Western and Arab powers, lining up meetings that could mean some decisions soon, condemned Assad in strong language. But having ruled out military intervention, they were struggling to find a way to convince him to step down.

Syria's powerful ally Russia, meanwhile, said no one should interfere in the country's affairs.

In Homs, witnesses said makeshift hospitals were overflowing in besieged opposition areas with the dead and wounded from nearly a week of government bombardments and sniper fire.

Medical supplies and food were running out and, in the streets, some of the wounded had bled to death as it was too dangerous for rescuers to bring them to safety.

The Local Coordination Committees, an opposition group in Homs, put the death toll on Thursday alone as high as 110 by nightfall, though it remains impossible to verify such accounts:

"This number includes three families whose bodies were dug up from under the rubble of their homes, bodies brought to field hospitals and people who died their from their wounds today," the group said in a statement sent to Reuters.

A Syrian doctor, struggling to treat the wounded at a field clinic in a mosque, delivered an emotional plea via YouTube video. Standing next to a bloody body on a table, the man, named only as Mohammed, said to the camera, and to the outside world:

"We appeal to the international community to help us transport the wounded. We wait for them here to die in mosques. I appeal to the United Nations and to international humanitarian organizations to stop the rockets from being fired on us."

U.S. PONDERS AID

Concern was growing in foreign capitals over the plight of civilians.

The United States said it was considering ways to get food and medicine to them - a move that would deepen international involvement in a conflict which has wide geopolitical dimensions and has caused divisions between world powers.

"I fear that the appalling brutality we are witnessing in Homs, with heavy weapons firing into civilian neighborhoods, is a grim harbinger of things to come," U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said after briefing the Security Council in New York on Wednesday.

Neighboring Turkey, which once saw Assad as an ally but now wants him out, has said it can no longer stand by and watch. It wants to host an international meeting to agree ways to end the killing and provide aid.

Foreign ministers of the Arab League, which the U.N.'s Ban said was planning to revive an observer mission it suspended last month, are due to meet in Cairo on Sunday.

A senior League official said they would discuss a proposal to send a joint U.N.-Arab mission to Syria.

In Moscow, Russian foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich reiterated that Kremlin view that though the bloodshed was regrettable, a solution was a matter for Syria.

"There is an internal conflict, the word revolution is not being used - it is a not a revolutionary situation, believe me," he said.

Russia and China, which let the United Nations support the air campaign that helped oust Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, provoked strong condemnation from the United States, European powers and Arab governments when they vetoed a resolution in the Security Council last week that called on Assad to step down.

Moscow, for whom Syria is a buyer of arms and host to a Soviet-era naval base, wants to counter U.S. influence and maintain its traditional role in the Middle East.

For both Russia and China, Syria is also a test case for efforts to resist international encroachment on sovereign governments' freedom to deal with rebels as they see fit.

Lukashevich's comments followed remarks on Wednesday from Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who drew clear lines on a foreign role in the crisis.

"Help them, advise them, limit, for instance, their ability to use weapons but not interfere under any circumstances," Putin said.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy spoke to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday night and said that despite their differences, it was necessary to maintain pressure on Assad's government to end the repression.

In Brussels, Turkey's ambassador to the European Union told Reuters that because the opposition was fragmented and Assad still had support from Syria's middle class, the unrest could descend into full-scale civil war.

Turkey, Syria's largest neighbor, is also concerned that sanctions being imposed on Damascus by the EU and the United States will not succeed in forcing Assad from power, while Iran and Russia provide him with support.

"What we are seeing is horrendous. The result will probably be bloody, and unfortunately the Russians are backing him," Selim Yenel said.

"The regime is not just a person, or one family. It's a big group of people and ... they want to hold on to power. That's why we are fearing it is going to turn into a civil war, and this civil war could turn into a regional conflict."

HOMS UNDER FIRE

The Syrian Human Rights Organisation (Sawasiah) said this week's assault on Homs had killed at least 300 civilians and wounded 1,000, not counting Thursday's toll. International officials have estimated the overall death count in Syria since last March at more than 5,000.

There was no comment from the Syrian authorities, who have placed tight restrictions on access to the country and it was not possible to verify the reports of local activists.

The bombardments on Thursday morning hit mainly Sunni Muslim neighborhoods that have been the focus of attacks by the government forces led largely by members of Assad's Alawite religious minority. Such sectarian divisions have come to the surface as killings have increased on either side.

The main street in Baba Amro was strewn with rubble and at least one house was destroyed, according to YouTube footage broadcast by activists from the district who said troops had used anti-aircraft cannon to demolish the building.

The video showed a youth putting two bodies wrapped in blankets in a truck. What appeared to be body parts were shown inside the house.

Hussein Nader, an activist in Baba Amro, told Reuters: "Silence reigns for four to five minutes, then another barrage of tank fire or rockets or mortar rounds comes in."

"Whole houses have come down and we do not know how many more have been killed. They are not advancing and it seems that they are content by continuing to shell Baba Amro until every inhabitant is killed."

In a publication documenting conditions in Homs this week, New York-based Human Rights Watch spoke of possible war crimes:

"This brutal assault on residential neighborhoods shows the Syrian authorities' contempt for the lives of their citizens in Homs," said Anna Neistat of HRW. "Those responsible for such horrific attacks will have to answer for them."

BENGHAZI? OR SARAJEVO?

The uprising against the Assad family's 42-year dynastic rule has evolved from civilian demonstrations to armed insurgency over the past few months. The Assad government contends it is fighting foreign-backed "armed terrorists".

Syria's position at the heart of the Middle East, allied to Iran and home to a volatile religious and ethnic mix, means Assad's international opponents have ruled out the kind of military action they took against Libya's Muammar Gaddafi.

Some commentators compared Homs to Benghazi, the Libyan city saved by NATO strikes from advancing columns of Gaddafi's troops. Others, grimly, remembered Sarajevo, the Balkan city left to bleed for years while world powers bickered.

In London, a Times editorial said that a conflict in Syria would be longer, messier, more difficult militarily and more complex than Libya. But, it said: "Western governments cannot forever limit their involvement to declarations of impotent fury by foreign ministers. Eventually they must do more."

"If the calls to help the rebels end even with the provision of arms, a threshold will have been crossed into a conflict. The West will have taken sides."

(Additional reporting by Justyna Pawlak, Luke Baker and Sebastian Moffett in Brussels, Guy Faulconbridge in Moscow, Erika Solomon and Dominic Evans in Beirut and Ayman Samir in Cairo; Writing by Angus MacSwan in Beirut; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)

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COMMENTS_ The agony of Homs- Telegraph View

2012-02-09T11:04:00.000-08:00

The agony of Homs

Britain should insist that aid agencies be allowed to enter Syria's beleagured city.

Under siege: the city of Homs has been devastated by forces loyal to the Syrian regime, with many lives lost Photo: AFP/Getty Images

By Telegraph View
9:02PM GMT 08 Feb 2012
52 Comments

If anyone doubted President Bashar al-Assad’s pitiless determination to preserve his stranglehold on Syria, the flaying of Homs by heavy artillery should dispose of any such illusions. Scores have died in a furious bombardment targeting the Sunni quarters of a bitterly divided city of one million people.

The pounding of Homs comes at a moment when vetoes cast by Russia and China have wrecked any hopes that United Nations pressure might restrain Mr Assad. Meanwhile, the most powerful countries in the Arab world, led by Saudi Arabia, have withdrawn their ambassadors from Damascus, saying there is “no point” in dealing with an implacable regime. Britain and the leading Western powers are casting around for a new policy towards Syria.

They should begin by making one unequivocal demand: aid agencies must be allowed to enter Homs to alleviate the city’s suffering. Already, there are credible reports of the wounded being unable to reach hospitals because of the barrage, and of people dying where they fall for lack of medical help. Britain may find it impossible to agree with Russia and China on the question of whether Mr Assad should stay or go, but we can surely unite behind the simple demand that the Red Crescent and other relief agencies must be allowed to help a city under relentless attack. This has nothing to do with military intervention or arming the rebels: the only motive here should be simple humanitarianism.

William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, has rightly pledged that Britain will be a leading member of a new “Friends of Syria” group. In that capacity, he should make free humanitarian access to Homs its first demand. If Mr Assad was confronted with a call that united Russia and China with the West and the Arab League, even he might find it hard to resist.

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_ Three families 'murdered' - 08 Feb 2012
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_ Syria: Assad's gunmen 'murdered entire families' - 08 Feb 2012
_ Armoured vehicles enter Homs - 08 Feb 2012
_ Syria activists: up to 100 die in 24 hours as Assad's tanks strike - 08 Feb 2012

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Showing 1-25 of 54 comments

geofffrey
Today 04:42 PM
Please PM don't drag Britain into another ME conflict on moral grounds. Syria may be a sad situation, but 200 years ago, the British never would have known about all this misery. We've got 3 million people unemployed, 1 £trillion government debt, 3 £trillion personal debt.

amcgrath
Today 04:20 PM
The days when "the west" acted on ethics are long gone - if they ever existed?

"intervention" only happens when it is politically desirable. Israel is allowed to attack aid convoys with impunity, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis can be killed to save them from Hussein (once he became an irritant rather than an ally to the west).

hopefully the Leveson inquiry will continue to uncover the filthy way in which media magnates have been allowed to operate, but for as long as i can remember, any politician who has shown any shred of ethics has been branded and portrayed as some sort of kook and marginalized by westminster and the press in what seems like a coordinated attack.

bagpuss2011
Today 04:17 PM
As George W Bush might have put it, Syria ain't got much oil, so it ain't worth wastin' no good missiles on it. Sweet ol' gazoline in them Syrian hills, now that would be another question!

cartimandua
Today 03:53 PM
No let this be a lesson to Muslims who complain about our interference. Lets not interfere and then they and Lefty media will see what happens when no one does.
Its what they wanted let them suck it up.

BNarpa Lvr
Today 02:13 PM
And yet..... When Georgian President Saakashvili shelled the then Georgian city of Tskhinvali killing 200 + of his own people, cameron is in favour of it
What really happened in South Ossetia? ".. former British army officer Ryan Grist..... was acting head of mission for the
Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the OSCE, which
acts on behalf of its 56 member governments in Europe, North America and
Central Asia as an early warning system for upcoming trouble in
conflict zones.....
On the night of August 7-8 he was in constant contact with the three
OSCE military monitors based in the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali,
when Georgia launched its artillery strikes on the town of about 30,000
people.
"It was an indiscriminate attack on a civilian town," he told Newsnight.

I heard accounts, and saw evidence, of how Georgian 'Grad' rockets -
which cannot be accurately targeted - fell on residential quarters of
the town.

IgonikonJack
Today 12:50 PM
Homs has become a theater of massacre: People die in the
streets. People die in their homes. People die in hospitals--
hospitals that are, sometimes, intentionally bombarded to
discourage help for the dying--those from the conflict and
artillery barrage.

And, the world watches in amazement. Put the blame squarely
on where it lies: Russia and China who have used their veto
power to engage in another act of obstructionism as innocent
civilians die in Syria--all because of raw materialism and
strategic interests.

The question is whether this carnage has reached a point of
no return. Hafez al-Assad killed an estimated more than 20,000 people in the homs in 1982, the world didn't know
the full implications. There were no iPhones and social media
then: Just as large portions of the 1986 Tiannanmen Square masscare were obliterated. But, today it's harder to impose total, absolute news black out.

The images of heavy rtillery bombardments coming out of
Syria are unimaginably savage. The 1982 Homs siege and 2012
siege have a lot in common: Svagery and mercilessness.
Bashar al-Assad is poised to exceed his father's bloody records, unless something is done by the world community.

How can one family be responsible for killing more than 30,000 people for opposing an unelected government that
has militarized its administration? From Hafez to Bashar: the
grandchild is named Hafez--to signal another continuous Hafez dynasty and legacy in the making. This was what Mubarak planned for Egypt and Gaddafi for Libya--none of which succeeded, because of resistance from the people.

The Arab League has done more than it used to do: Idling.
This time it has seen what Islamic dictatorship is doing to
Muslims in the Middle East, and even decided to engineer
the failed UN resolution. The next questiion is what the world
does to help Syrians as China and Russia shamefully block
action by the UN.

Telegraph View has revealed some measures being worked out. Another emerging consensus is that the Free Syria Army needs support. If its viability is in doubt, it won't elicit more defections. Defections were an essential key that eroded
pro-Gaddafist military capabilities; secondary to air strikes.

Senseless obstructionism is nothing new to Russis. It faces reality too late. You remember Serbia? It did the same thing
there, but failed. Now, China another human rights violator is playing the same senseless game of obstructionism. Even Burma has rebuffed it and the northern power.
Igonikon Jack, USA

______ Verka Sadoochka
Today 02:47 PM
" How can one family be responsible for killing more than 30,000 people for opposing an unelected government that
has militarized its administration?"

How about the Bush family??

______ rationalthought
Today 02:15 PM
Wow another startling piece of "journalism" from this tedious repeater of other peoples articles

____________ hatebigots
19 minutes ago
Try do better, then. And not cheap propaganda like Assad`s media. Or Putain controlled RT.

icarustwo
Today 12:21 PM
We have no right whatsoever to become involved in this internecine struggle. Apart from anything else ,it appears we know little of the make up of the protestors/insurgents.
There are hints that the Saudi's are clandestinely funding the revolt,and if this is true,it would certainly be the end of any minorities who profess a faith beyond the confines of the Sunni sect.
As for humanitarian aid, have not the Arabs organisations that could assist? They certainly have the money.
The west has done it's bit in the area, time for the home team to pull it's weight.

unclesams
Today 11:29 AM
Let's stay out.

Ask both sides to stop violence immediately and go back to the negotiation table

______ hatebigots
16 minutes ago
You never knew about hte many times he broke his promises of ending violence...

& the many times he said the protesters were "terrorists" and refused to talk with them (he just babbles ridiculous insults), which explain why after so many months after all started the armed uprising...

I need to be more informed...

bernardthebolt
Today 11:20 AM
Pity poor Mr. Assad, he has booked himself a permanent place in the great outer darkness of the after life, sitting next to his hated father. He will of course take with him all his accolites,secret police and other assorted murderers with him. Mr. Assad, the Great God of Heaven will in due time, judge your actions whilst you lived here on earth and reward you accordingly.

aspals legal pages
Today 10:10 AM
Sadly, the paralysis at the UN is entirely the making of NATO, whose breaches of the UN mandate concerning Libya were acquiesced in by the UN itself. That mandate gave the authority for a no-fly zone, arms embargo and protection of civilians. The first two were in place quickly and relatively bloodlessly. It was NATO's obviously liberal interpretation of the third that went far beyond what the Russians and Chinese had permitted by not vetoing, that was so damaging to the Security Council's credibility - NATO unashamedly took sides with the rebels, providing them with an air force and attacking Gaddafi's forces whenever and wherever they could. They failed to protect civilians in an impartial way, as we graphically saw with the destruction of Sirte, where civilians were cowering in their homes under the onslaught. The difference was that they were thought to be pro-Gaddafi. No protection was provided to the inhabitants of Tawergha, also said to be pro Gaddafi, which was the site of what human rights organisations consider to be genocide by rebel forces.

NATO breach of the mandate actually meant that it was acting unlawfully - it went beyond the lawful authority given to it. So, it is no real surprise that the Russians and Chinese have the utmost distrust for the promises of the Security Council when it called for action over the situation in Syria. All this is a tragedy for the Syrian people as the UN Charter, which is the only lawful authority for waging war, can apparently be breached with impunity by the Security Council itself. So, any threats of armed intervention would be unlawful unless authorised by the Security Council, and we know how another such vote would go, don't we?

______ cartimandua
Today 03:54 PM
Russia and China never have to act. They are never going to be a destination country for refugees

pheasantplucker
Today 09:40 AM
...'' William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, has rightly pledged that Britain will be a leading member of a ''Friends of Syria'' group.''...?
I think William is getting a bit above himself here.
What is all this ''Friends of Syria'' cobblers ?
I don't have any Syrian friends.
None of my friends has Syrian friends.
We don't even know any Syrians whom we could befriend if we felt so inclined, which we don't.
I suspect William Hague is short of friends, and if he wishes to befriend a Syrian or two (perhaps to share a hotel room with sometime), then he is free to do so - in a private capacity.
Syrians are arabs.
Syria's problems are arab problems.
Arab problems need to be sorted out by arabs.
We don't need to befriend Syrians, William.
They can find plenty of friends on Facebook if they're so desperate for friendship....

______ UndyingCincinnatus
Today 04:48 PM
My hamster is Syrian and even he doesn't care about what goes on in that country.

______ mikey2
Today 02:48 PM
Well written pheasant, we have no responsibility or interest in Syria moral or otherwise - let them get on with it. And if wee Willie Hague needs a war to feel useful let him talk about Mali - a people far away of whom we know little. Or if he is burning to promote human rights let him address North Korea...or Cuba...or(add your favourite dictatorship in this space).

NotAnotherHaji
Today 09:40 AM
"Should insist" or Cameron will do?? Have a vote rejected at the UN, try more sanctions, take back Bashirs degree, close their embassy, a statement int the house of commons, phone up Obama or declare war?
Muslims killing muslims, good.

Palfreman
Today 09:28 AM
It's a war zone. No aid agencies cannot show up. Well, they can, but they might get shot at by either side, possibly in combat and possibly stood up against a wall. That is what war is like.

trooper909
Today 08:51 AM
"Britain should insist ?" Else what ? Cameron has enough problems trying to avoid mentioning his last military adventure in Libya to "Free the people" would these be the same people now engaged in torture and imprisonment of the ex government supporters ? Let the Arab countries provide the aid this time

Geoffrey Woollard
Today 08:40 AM
It is the business of the Syrians to sort this out, possibly with the assistance of the Arab League. It is not, repeat not, our business.

______ teddyjnr
Today 05:33 PM
Yes, the best we can do is suggest to the Arab League they come down on the governments side and assist their struggle in protecting Syria from blood-drenched Islamic extremists

____________ hatebigots
14 minutes ago
Too bad no one saw "blood-drenched Islamic extremists" in the military rebels nor in the peaceful demonstrators which were massacred for last 11 months...

roverdc
Today 07:31 AM
Experience in all three places the west have intervened is that one repressive brutal regime which treated a section of their population appallingly is replaced by that group which then reversed the process

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WORLD_ Ban Ki-moon: UN's failure to agree a Syria resolution is disastrous

2012-02-09T03:17:00.000-08:00

Ban Ki-moon: UN's failure to agree a Syria resolution is disastrous

Lack of UNSCR resolution 'encouraged Syrian government to step up its war on its people', says secretary general

Julian Borger, Luke Harding, Chris McGreal in Washington, and Peter Walker
guardian.co.uk,
Thursday 9 February 2012 08.19 GMT
Article history

Ban says he deeply regrets that the 'security council has been unable to speak with one clear voice to end the bloodshed'. Photograph: AP

The UN's failure to agree a resolution on Syria is "disastrous" for the country's people, the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon has said as President Assad's government launched its most intense bombardment so far of rebel-held areas.

Speaking at the UN headquarters in New York, Ban said he had briefed the security council about a plan proposed by the head of the Arab League, Nabil al-Araby, for a possible joint UN-Arab League observer mission to Syria.

But as witnesses in the opposition stronghold of Homs reported an unprecedented assault involving tanks and heavy artillery, with more than 200 rockets falling in the space of three hours on the opposition-controlled suburb of Baba Amr, Ban said the situation was becoming desperate.

"For too many months we have watched this crisis deepen. We have seen escalating violence, brutal crackdowns and tremendous suffering by the Syrian people. I deeply regret that the security council has been unable to speak with one clear voice to end the bloodshed," he said in a brief statement.

The failure of a UN security council resolution calling for the departure of the president, Bashar al-Assad, which was vetoed by Russia and China, was "disastrous for the people of Syria", Ban said.

He added: "It has encouraged the Syrian government to step up its war on its own people. Thousands have been killed in cold blood, shredding President Assad's claims to speak for the Syrian people."

The situation in Homs was "unacceptable to humanity" and "a grim harbinger of worse to come", the UN chief added, warning the instability would inevitably spread around the region.

Ban said he had briefed the security council about his talks with Araby and the proposal for an observer mission, which could involve a joint official envoy.

"We stand ready to assist in any way that will contribute towards improvement on the ground and to the overall situation," he said.

The Guardian has been unable to independently verify eyewitness accounts or casualty figures from Homs, but similar reports came from rebel areas around the country as Assad, spared from the UN resolution, appeared to speed up attempts to eliminate the threat to his regime.

One activist, Raji, speaking from a basement inside Baba Amr, said Syrian forces had begun using heavier artillery rounds with devastating effect. In addition to the 27 killed, he said many people were lying dead under the rubble of their houses. There were also reports that 18 premature babies had died in hospital after power cuts caused their incubators to fail, according to the BBC. State TV denied the reports.

In the face of the increase in violence, western and Arab governments urgently sought a fresh response. The Pentagon was reported to be reviewing contingency plans for intervention in Syria, from providing humanitarian relief to direct military action. There was no sign the Obama administration was seriously contemplating military options, but the president is under increasing pressure in an election year to respond decisively to the reports of mass killing in the country.

"We are seriously dying here. It is really war," Waleed Farah told the Guardian via satellite phone from al-Khaldiyeh, another rebel-held neighbourhood in Homs.

Hopes of quickly healing the global rift caused by the weekend's security council vote came to nothing. When William Hague spoke to the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, to ask Moscow to reconsider its vote and its arms sales to Damascus, Lavrov said there was no independent confirmation of the regime's use of heavy weaponry in Homs and elsewhere and insisted that the supply of Russian arms was legal, according to British officials. After visiting Damascus on Tuesday, Lavrov called for a political dialogue and a UN resolution backing the deployment of more observers in Syria, but the opposition Syrian National Council has rejected Moscow as a broker and is insisting Assad step down in line with an Arab League peace plan.

Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, said: "We of course condemn all violence regardless of its source, but one cannot act like an elephant in a china shop. Help them, advise them – limit, for instance, their ability to use weapons – but do not interfere under any circumstances."

China also defended its decision to veto the UN resolution and rejected Hague criticism of the vote as "extremely irresponsible" and "totally unacceptable".

With no sign of a break in the diplomatic deadlock, urgent efforts were under way aimed at building as broad an international coalition as possible to keep up the diplomatic pressure on Damascus. A "friends of Syria" conference is expected to be called in the next few days to agree joint measures, including fresh sanctions, anti-Assad resolutions at the UN general assembly, and diplomatic support for the opposition Syrian National Council with the aim ofcreating a credible alternative to the Assad regime. The next steps will be decided at meetings of the Gulf Co-operation Council on Saturday and the Arab League on Sunday. Most observers, however, believe Assad can weather such pressure as long as he can rely on backing from Moscow and Beijing.

Turkey declared it was launching its own initiative to confront what it warned was becoming a grave political and humanitarian crisis. The prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has spoken by telephone to the Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, and the foreign minister, Ahmet Davotuglu, flew to Washington to press for an emergency international conference. Western capitals support the Turkish initiative but argue the leading role and venue is better left to Arab states.

Turkey's ambassador to London, Ahmet Ünal Çeviköz, said Turkey would not insist on hosting a conference. He said: "The important thing is to form as wide as possible an international platform of like-minded countries to show the determination of the international community that there is no possibility of a return to the status quo ante. Assad thinks he can buy time but we have to show we have no more confidence in him."

Çeviköz said his government believed the death toll was "much more severe" than the 5,000-7,000 reported, and argued that priority should be given to ending the violence and addressing the humanitarian needs of the Syrian people.

"The people of Homs are facing not just bombardment but a blockade of the city, with a serious lack of food and medicine," the ambassador said. "There needs to be contingency planning on ways of reaching out to people and regions in Syria which are facing this crisis."

Turkey has floated the idea of a humanitarian corridor or a safe zone for displaced populations, but Çeviköz said those decisions would have to be taken at the proposed international conference.

If Russia and China continued to oppose such concerted action, he added: "They will have the responsibility of being the culprits in a humanitarian crisis."

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WORLD_ Activists Say Syrian Troops Kill 50 in Homs

2012-02-08T21:38:00.000-08:00

February 08, 2012
Activists Say Syrian Troops Kill 50 in Homs
Edward Yeranian Cairo

Photo: Reuters
Residents rest in a shelter in is Baba Amr near Homs, February 8, 2012. Syrian forces thrusting into the rebellious city of Homs, killing dozens of civilians.

Syrian rights activists say government forces have killed at least 50 people in an ongoing assault on the central city of Homs, and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has pledged to consider sending a joint U.N.-Arab League team to Syria to monitor the escalating violence.

British-based activist say troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad attacked Homs with gunfire, rockets and shells on Wednesday, heavily damaging more than 20 buildings in rebel-held districts. The activists say the government bombardment of Homs has killed hundreds of people since it began early Saturday. They say at least 13 other people were killed in violence around Syria Wednesday.

Syrian state media say "armed terrorists" detonated a car bomb in Homs, killing and wounding civilians and troops. State media also accused rebels of attacking the city's oil refinery.

Undated citizen journalism image provided by Local Coordination Committees in Syria shows man weeping as he sits next to a man who was purportedly killed in shelling by Syrian government forces, Homs, February 8, 2012. (AP Photo)

In an opposition video, a young man named Danny Abou Diyne, working in a field clinic in the Homs district of Baba Amr, points to the dead body of a two-year old boy. He says the child was killed when a shell slammed into his house, destroying it.

“He's about two years old," he said. "He got hit in this war zone, in his house. Is this what the U.N. is waiting for, until there are no more children left? Until they kill all the children and all the women?

VOA cannot independently confirm the video or opposition figures concerning deaths because Syria restricts independent reporting.

Free Syrian Army (FSA) members in Saqba, a Damascus suburb, February 8, 2012. (Reuters photo)

Homs low on medical supplies

A doctor calling himself Mohammed Mohammed told Al Arabiya TV via webcam that he and his colleagues were working under extreme duress and that medical supplies were running low. He begged the world to pressure Syria to allow ambulances to evacuate the wounded.

Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights in London told Alhurra TV that the government shelling was creating a human disaster. He added that it is difficult to get an exact casualty figure because many people were buried under the rubble.

Abdel Rahman also said pro-government militias killed 30 members of three families overnight when they stormed their homes on the outskirts of Homs. He called the killings “a massacre.”

Khattar Abou Diab, who teaches political science at the University of Paris, says Syrian military actions are taking place in a number of parts of the country and that most of the operations are under the command of President Assad's family members.

He says the military campaign is taking place in the northern district of Idlib, the southern Horan region bordering Jordan, in the outer suburbs of Damascus, as well as in Homs. He says top members of Assad's family, including his brother-in-law Assef Shawqut and his brother Maher, are directing the campaign, resembling the Gadhafi family's involvement in the fighting in Libya.

Recent Comments on Syria

U.S. President Barack Obama said February 4 the citizens of Syria must know the United States is with them, and the Assad regime must come to an end.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin condemned all violence "regardless of its source," but said February 8 outside forces should let Syrians settle their conflict "independently."

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Februray 7 the recent failure of the U.N. Security Council to pass a motion pressuring Syria was a fiasco.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said February 6 no government can attack its population "without its legitimacy being eroded."

U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay has called for urgent international action to protect civilians in Syria, saying she is "appalled" by the government's "willful assault on the city of Homs."

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said February 8 Mr. Assad's reform promises are merely manipulation and should not be believed.

Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron said Wednesday Russia and China had set themselves apart from Arab and world opinion by voting against a U.N. resolution on Syria.

Turkey proposes conference

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Wednesday his government is ready to host an international conference to support the Syrian people. He said the conference should be held promptly in Istanbul or in another regional country. Davutoglu spoke before leaving for Washington to meet U.S. congressional leaders and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for talks likely to focus on Syria.

Washington has been exploring the possibility of providing humanitarian aid to Syrians in cooperation with U.S. allies. Western powers and Arab nations have said repeatedly they do not want to intervene militarily in the Syrian conflict.

A senior EU official said the 27-nation bloc plans to announce a tightening of economic sanctions on the Assad government at a foreign ministers meeting February 27.

The EU official said new measures against Syria are likely to include a block on financial transactions with the Syrian central bank and a ban on purchases of Syrian phosphates - one of the country's main natural resources. EU nations buy about 40 percent of Syria's phosphate exports. The EU stopped importing oil from Syria last year.

Russia opposes unilateral moves

The Kremlin said Russian President Dmitry Medvedev urged his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy to avoid "hasty unilateral moves" toward Syria. Mr. Medvedev spoke to the French president by telephone Wednesday.

Moscow used its U.N. Security Council veto last week to block a Western and Arab-backed resolution that would have endorsed an Arab League plan calling on Mr. Assad to step aside. The Syrian president is a key Russian military ally.

Mr. Sarkozy's office said he used the phone conversation to call on the Russian president to fully support the Arab League plan and increase pressure on Mr. Assad to stop brutally repressing the Syrian people.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met Mr. Assad in Damascus on Tuesday and secured a pledge from the Syrian president to assign his deputy ((Vice President Farouk al-Sharaa)) to hold a dialogue with the Syrian opposition. But Syrian opposition groups have rejected dialogue with the Assad government.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Wednesday Mr. Assad had an opportunity to talk to the opposition early in the uprising, but Washington believes that opportunity no longer exists.

Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron said Wednesday he has "very little confidence" in the Russian-Syrian efforts, while French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Mr. Assad's promises are merely manipulation and should not be believed.

U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay called for urgent international action to protect civilians in Syria, saying she is "appalled" by the government's "willful assault on the city of Homs." Pillay also said is it time for the international community to "cut through the politics and take action" to protect the civilian population.

VOA Wire Services and reporter Dorian Jones in Istanbul contributed to the report.

Join the conversation on our social journalism site - Middle East Voices. Follow our Middle East reports on Twitter
and discuss them on our Facebook page.

Related Articles

UN Chief: Arab League Mission to Return to Syria

Ban Ki-moon said he and Arab League chief are also considering creating joint special envoy to Syria

.White House Underscores Displeasure with China, Russia Votes on Syria.

***

Comments (34)

the def blinded by glitter and noise 09-02-2012
my god, millions of peoples watched the super bowl, and i see 3 comments on this page. good luck people.

ahgo georgia 08-02-2012
Putin mulls over how to cheat his own citizens in forthcoming elections and tries to invent new methods of falsification and ballot stuffing.It seems to me neither China no Russia has a moral right to veto resolution aiming to stop the genocide of syrians carried out by the butcher Assad.The world community must intervene ,let China and Russia keep their neutrality and do not interfere in Syrian affairs.

Fortone KSA 08-02-2012
@ Clank "Ask for democracy in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, UAE, not selectively only in Syria, Libya, North Korea etc..." I have heard this too many times. Im pretty sure it can happen at one country at a time, not at once.

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COMMENTS_ Syria uprising: live

2012-02-08T12:27:00.000-08:00

Syria uprising: live

Live coverage of developments in Syria, as 100 people are killed in less than 24 hours and Assad's tanks roll in to Homs.

Image 1 of 5
A Syrian woman holds prayers for the victims who were killed during the attacks Photo: REUTERS/Fadi Al-Assaad

Image 1 of 5
Syrians protest in Doha, Qatar Photo: AP Photo/Osama Faisal

Image 1 of 5
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov seen during a news conference in Moscow, Russia Photo: AP

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Damages inside a home following shelling at the Baba Amr neighborhood of Homs, Syria Photo: EPA

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Two damaged military vehicles after clashes in Homs Photo: REUTERS

By Sarah Titterton
6:30PM GMT 08 Feb 2012
882 comments

• Opposition: 100 dead - including 18 babies
• Activists report tanks in Homs
• Cameron: "Very little confidence" in Russia-Syria talks
• China: Hague's criticism of UN veto is "irresponsible"
• US begins reviewing military options, says CNN

Latest

19.22 French President Nicolas Sarkozy has urged his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev to give full support to an Arab League peace plan to persuade Bashar al-Assad to quit as Syria's leader, AFP reports.

During a phone conversation, Sarkozy also told Medvedev of "the necessity to increase the pressure on the Syrian regime to cease its brutal repression of the Syria people," said a statement from the French president's office.

19.19 Telegraph video of a convoy of armoured vehicles streaming into Homs:

19.10 Doctors Without Borders has quoted Syrians as saying that many civilians who have been wounded in their country's violence are unable to get adequate medical treatment - in part because security forces have taken over many public hospitals.

The aid group released a video in Paris on Wednesday showing interviews with 10 wounded Syrians and 5 Syrian doctors who have fled the nation.

The unidentified witnesses said many wounded are afraid to go to such hospitals for treatment, knowing that Syrian authorities could arrest them and subject them to interrogation or even torture. Instead, some get whatever treatment they can in private clinics or makeshift hospitals in homes.

18.32 Russian president Dmitry Medvedev tells Nicolas Sarkozy "unilateral" Syria steps should be avoided.

17.16 As the onslaught on Bab Amr continues to destroy the nieghbourhood, Syrian state television claims that Homs residents requested the army's intervention to protect them. Telegraph video:

16.44 Syrian TV is now claiming the citizens of Homs requested the army's intervention. One man tells the camera:

We request the intervention of the army to protect us from the gangs, we can't go anywhere, we have been forced out of our homes in Karm al-Zeitoun. There are snipers in the streets.

16.13 A new Telegraph story details more of the unimaginable last few hours in Homs today:

Pleading for help from the outside world, Syrian activists said they were in desperate need of food and medical aid. Troops fired rockets and mortars while tanks entered the Inshaat neighbourhood and moved closer to Bab Amro, the district hardest hit by bombardments that have killed nearly 200 people in the last two days.

Yet another explosion in Homs

15.19 The BBC are reporting that amongst the dead are 18 premature babies, who perished when their hospital was hit by power cuts. The BBC's Paul Wood, one of the few Western reporters still inside Homs, reports more on the "despair and hysteria" now gripping the city.

He says:

One word sums up the mood in Homs - despair.

15.12 Syria's opposition claim as many as 100 civilians have been killed in Homs today, Reuters is reporting. Syrian TV is still blaming the explosions in the city on "terrorists" laying charges.

14.38 Shashank Joshi has blogged for the Telegraph on "a case of dangerous moral equivalence" in Syria, the UN veto and the Guardian newspaper.

He examines an article in the Guardian by Seumas Milne entitled "Intervention in Syria will escalate not stop the killing" - and promptly tears it apart. An excerpt:

Milne is right that there is a “proxy war” being waged against Iran, and that broader geopolitical concerns shape the various actors’ perspectives... But Milne’s suffocating “anti-imperialist” worldview leads to a deeply unpleasant moral equivalence between a reluctantly militarising opposition and unyielding regime. This leads to some absurd conclusions. Such as the idea that poor, misunderstood Russia is simply protecting itself from Western depredations. “Russian officials have privately assured opposition leaders that the quarrel is with the US, not them,” Milne tells us. That’s a relief, then. Those being slaughtered in Homs don't know how lucky they are.

A destroyed tank in Homs

13.52 The aid agency Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has said the Assad regime is persecuting doctors and healthworkers who treat wounded people, and denying medical aid to opponents. The aid agency says "medicine is being used as a weapon of persecution".

A Syrian doctor quoted in the MSF report said:

We are constantly being pursued by the security forces. Many doctors who treated wounded patients in their private hospitals have been arrested and tortured.

The report is all the more chilling when you hear the latest from Homs, where a doctor in Baba Amr, Ali Hazouri, tells AFP that there are about 500 people wounded - half of them women and children.

He said a field hospital has been hit repeatedly over the last few days, adding:

One rescuer from the Red Cross had both legs blown off in the shelling. We have shut down the hospital and are treating the wounded in their homes... We need the Red Cross to be allowed in to evacuate the wounded," he said. "And we need food.

13.50 Syrian TV is now reporting that several people have been killed and wounded in a car bomb in Homs, AFP reports.

13.23 David Cameron says he has "very little confidence" in the promises made by Assad to Russia yesterday. Speaking in Parliament, he said that the Kremlin had to "look at their conscience and realise what they have done".

13.10 Russia's Vladimir Putin has warned that the world faces a growing "cult of violence" in the world - and warned that leaders cannot act "like an elephant in a china shop" over Syria.

From AFP:

We of course condemn all violence regardless of its source, but one cannot act like an elephant in a china shop... Help them, advise them, limit, for instance, their ability to use weapons but not interfere under any circumstances... A cult of violence has been coming to the fore in international affairs in the past decade. This cannot fail to cause concern ... and we must not allow anything like this in our country."

12.22 The US has begun reviewing its military options in Syria, CNN is reporting, with one official calling it a "scoping exercise".

The report says officials are downplaying the review as routine and that all emphasis remains on a non-military solution - for now.

A senior official is quoted as saying:

The Pentagon is closely monitoring developments in Syria. It wouldn’t be doing its job if it didn’t put some ideas on the table. But absolutely no decisions have been made on military support for Syria.

12.18 China has denounced William Hague's criticism of the UN veto as "extremely irresponsible".

12.10 "Frightening" video doing the rounds on Twitter today purportedly from Homs - showing lorry after lorry after lorry rolling past carrying armoured vehicles and other weapons. The video, below, cannot be verified, and it's not clear where exactly the convoy is and where it is heading. There are reports that columns of tanks are heading for Homs today.

12.03 UN rights chief Navi Pillay is now calling for urgent international action to help Syrias.

The statement on AFP:

I am appalled by the Syrian government's wilful assault on Homs, and its use of artillery and other heavy weaponry in what appear to be indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas in the city. The failure of the Security Council to agree on firm collective action appears to have fueled the Syrian Government's readiness to massacre its own people in an effort to crush dissent.

11.45 The influential US blog The Drudge Report has linked to a report suggesting that Iran has sent 15,000 troops to help Assad. The report sites an account published in Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper two days ago - but it may have over-egged what the newspaper actually said. From Ha'Aretz:

A top Iranian military official is activly aiding the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad in suppressing popular unrest throughout the country, a top member of the National Syrian Council said on Monday.

According to the Syrian official, Kassam Salimani, commander of the Quds Force, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard special forces unit, has arrived in Syria recently and has taken up a spot in the war room which manages army maneuvers against opposition forces....

The Quds Force includes 15,000 elite soldiers who operated, among other locations, in Iraq during the war, and the specialty of which is engaging in unconventional warfare on foreign soil. Among other duties, the Quds Force is in charge of traning and funding Hezbollah.

So the report does not appear to actually suggest that all 15,000 forces have been sent to Syria. Nevertheless, if true, the links are worrying - and for more reasons than one. A Reuters report has already speculated on Obama's worst-case scenario fears that the Syria conflict could spiral into a proxy war for the US.

Members of the Free Syrian Army train outside Idlib

11.41 Foreign Policy has published a photo essay showing what they are calling "Syria's Ground Zero", or the remains of Homs after the bombardments.

11.16 A report out of the Washington Post is claiming that 11 Iranian pilgrims kidnapped in Syria have been released after help from "friendly nations".

The Iranian foreign ministry did not elaborate on who those "friendly nations" to Iran and Syria were.

10.47 The diplomatic finger-pointing continues: Beijing has called William Hague “irresponsible” for saying that China’s decision to veto a United Nations resolution condemning the bloody crackdown in Syria opened the door to more violence.

10.27 Mishal Husain at the BBC is tweeting a bit more on what Syrian TV is showing:

10.22 Two alerts have just come over the AFP wire: One saying that Syrian TV are claiming an "armed terrorist group" (the regime's moniker for the rebels) has attacked an oil refinery in Homs; and another saying that Turkey is planning an international conference on Syria. More shortly...

10.17 The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights are now saying the 47 people killed since midnight in Homs include three entire families. They included at least three children aged five, seven and 15.

Hadi Abdullah, another activist, told AFP: "We fear a new massacre".

Rebels gearing up for the fight against the Assad regime

10.10 Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov is speaking out again today, insisting that Syrians must decide the fate of Assad.

AFP are reporting that he "sidestepped" a direct question from a journalist about whether he urged Assad to step down. Lavrov is quoted as saying:

Any outcome of national dialogue should be the result of agreement between the Syrians themselves and should be acceptable to all Syrians... Trying in advance to decide the result of national dialogue is basically not the job of the international community.

He also criticised the decision by Gulf states to pull their ambassadors out of Syria, and expel Syrian ambassadors from their countries.

I do not think that recalling ambassadors helps create conditions that would be favourable to the realisation of the Arab League's plan... To us at least this logic is not clear, as was unclear the hasty decision to freeze the work of the Arab League's mission in Syria. The presence of foreign observers always plays a restraining role and it was unclear why a number of Gulf states recalled their envoys from this mission and why the mission after that was suspended at the very moment its report was supposed to be heard at the UN Security Council.

09.17 Footage shot in Homs by an independent cameraman over several days this month depicts what life has become inside parts of Syria's third-largest city:

08.39 The regime is now setting fire to homes in Homs, reports Al Arabiya:

08.32 The Daily Mail this morning outlines a three-step plan approved by David Cameron to force Assad from power:

• British officials are to help the Syrian opposition with develop a plan for the future of their country, and show them how to win the hearts and minds of the Syrian people;

• Britain will back new EU sanctions;

• Cameron will also back the Arab League's efforts to oust Assad

08.03 One activist who spoke to The Guardian has accused Assad's regime of genocide. Karam Abu Rabea said:

The regime didn't expect us to continue our struggle against them. They didn't think we would persist. So now it is using its last card. It is the genocide card.

A member of the Free Syrian Army trains in Idlib

08.02 Reuters are reporting that 47 people have died in Homs since midnight as armed forces loyal to the regime battled into the city - just hours after the Russian foreign minister said Assad had assured him that he was "fully committed" to peace.

It is believed that troops have killed 150 people in Syria in the last 48 hours. This is the fifth day of the "major offensive" on Homs.

Activist Mohammad Hassan told Reuters:

Electricity returned briefly and we were able to contact various neighbourhoods because activists there managed to recharge their phones. We counted 47 killed since midnight... Mortar and rocket fires have subsided, but heavy machineguns and anti-aircraft guns are still strong... tanks are in main thoroughfares in the city and appear poised to push deep into residential areas.

08.00 GMT (10.00 Damascus) Hello and welcome to The Daily Telegaph's live rolling coverage of the crisis in Syria, where President Bashar al Assad is continuing his assault on rebels against his regime.

Syria live: February 7 as it happened
Syria live: February 6 as it happened

***

Showing 1-25 of 882 comments

stephenreal
22 minutes ago
I find it odd that Russia and China would support a post colonial power
set up the 19th century French with such religious fervor. Odd, you
would think they would be for the revolutionaries instead of the
remnants of French colonialism? This political and financial support effectively makes them neo-colonialists.

Allen_Snyder
Today 06:33 PM
The killings were committed by those gun men who went into houses to kill those civilians. Who were those gun men? The motive of these killings is likely to get "sympathy" from the west hence to get direct military aid from the west. There is no evidence to suggest those gun men were Syrian government troops. In any case those who smuggled weapons to those activists to start armed struggle and to exact violence on other group of Syrians have a lot to answer for the trouble in Syria.

dkrause
Today 04:54 PM
To think that the Russians will relinquish their naval base in Syria and their only passage way to the Mediterranean is a trifle ludicrous. So far the USA and its allies have not met a power capable of waging war on land, sea, air (and space) since WW II. To say that the consequences would be devastating for all the parties involved would be an understatement. Russian ICBM cannot be intercepted by any of the western powers and they can reach London, Paris and New York in less than 45 minutes; that's a fact and not a tall-story told to sell the war against Iraq. Furthermore, China is also against military intervention in Syria and since China is the prime lender to most western economies (and the reason for their survival)... well, you can infer the rest.

______ mrbomber
Today 05:09 PM
There's NO reason to blame Russia for persevering their navy base in Syria even if you think that's their only reason of vetoing. US didn't impose massive propaganda and political intervention against Bahrain after their crazy crackdown on the mass protestors as well as in Saudi, because they have their navy bases there. The double standard is so staggering that you just cannot believe their take on Syria has any motive involved with ''humanitarian purpose''.

Secondly, the idea to impose NO FLY Zone without the declaration of war is extremely dangerous game NATO is playing. Because they simply lead the role examples of any offensive military actions could be imposed without the political negotiation and it means the world war could be triggered anytime anywhere and without the notice of each other

mrbomber
Today 04:39 PM
The propaganda of War is rolling like those cheesy scripts out of
Hollywood which have been recycled time after time, year after year.

Not even a slight change of format or rendering

How desperate is that for being a ''fair and balanced'' journalist institution? Because the coalition government said so?

dagda1
Today 04:32 PM
If the west is so concerned about civilians, why have the US/UK etc. imposed crippling sanctions on the civilians of Syria and Iran.

Is this a form of aid I am unfamiliar with? I don't think the sanctions helped too many civilians in Iraq or maybe I have go this all wrong and starvation etc. is actually good.

Allen_Snyder
Today 01:16 PM
There are two sets of Syrian people in Syria and we should not take sides.

The Syrian government has arms and so does the opposition. It is not "peaceful" protest any more as it is 100% armed confrontation. The Syrians must know what will result in armed uprising and violent confrontation. UN should concentrate on defending UN charter and promote peace and negotiation in Syria. Get the both sides together around the negotiation table and force them to take up their own promises and exercise restraints. Failing that then enforce the arms embargo. This does not disadvantage opposition. If they are determined then they must find way to pursue their government without violences. That will change the game plan altogether if the opposition manages that. The reported on going armed struggle make the peaceful solution all too urgent

______ bertalexi
Today 02:50 PM
..... and just how do you propose 'forcing' both sides to take up their own promises and exercise restraints. Reminds me of the 'Peace Compact' of the late 1930's - basically everybody must disarm, upon pain of being forced to do so!

______ m8
Today 01:22 PM
Indeed.

The situation in Syria is that there are Sunni Islamists on one hand-the so-called "activists", and then there are the minority groups on the other- Alawites (Assad's group-14% of the population), Christians (10% of the population),Kurds (9%) and Druzes (3%).

So basically the minority groups are terrified to death by the prospect of having medieval barbarians in power (as they quite right should be).

If foreign powers intervene in Syria, it will be the start of a bloody secretian war.

Thrasos
Today 11:50 AM
And every day, every year, 10 people die from avoidable error in the NHS. That's 390 this year so far. Haven't noticed the BBC, the Grauniad, The Independent, Sky going on and on and on about those deaths. Maybe it does not pass the lefty news filter?

Firozali A.Mulla
Today 09:19 AM
The U.S .population, which was one-third smaller than Russia's at the time of the Revolution, is now 313 million and growing: "The Soviet Union put the United States on the ideological defensive for the first time in its history. ... In November of 1917, V. I. Lenin led the Bolsheviks to
control of Russia in 'ten days that shook the world.' Now in putative control of a huge nation, the Bolsheviks saw themselves as leaders of a global movement to
liberate people everywhere from bonds forged in the American and French Revolutions of the late eighteenth century and fastened on the limbs of workers in particular during the Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth. Lenin defined imperialism as 'the monopoly stage of capitalism' and 'a colonial policy of monopolistic possessions of the territory of the world which has been completely divided up. We only want to keep on thinking kicking Greece and not use any other method. "Whether as supporters or critics, Americans paid close attention to Russia because it seemed to exemplify a new revolutionary spirit detached from their own largely
liberal, middle-class tradition; indeed, it seemed rooted in an attack on middle-class capitalism and democracy as enslaving rather than liberating forces. Tensions ran
high in the United States because the revolution in Russia implied that a communist. . “Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt,
kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.” ~ Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965)I thank you Firozali A.Mulla DBA

______ Tony_0pmoc
Today 12:23 PM
The World's Political Map has changed dramatically over the last 100 years, and nearly reversed.

Because it has been such a slow process, many people haven't recognised the changes.

Now it is places like Russian cities that are advertising in English for inward capital investment and people for small scale Capitalist Companies to start up.

Meanwhile in the West - Large Corporations, have absorbed or destroyed small competitors, and in effect become Powerful Monopolies who use their size and Financial Power to Control Government. This is Extremely Close To Communism, or More Accurately Totalitarian Fascism. The effect on the General Population is much the same. Dictatorship and Impoverishment.

I know several young people with good degrees who have moved to China and feel extremely welcome there and are doing well.

The World has turned upside down.

After WWII, many German Nazis were deliberately attracted to, and employed by the USA Government and Corporations. They were highly intelligent. The political changes in America may not be entirely co-incidental.

Because of the dramatic Political Switch in Russia over the last 30 years, which involved a great deal of poverty for most ordinary people, there has also been a massive clear out of the very rich and powerful, a large number of who'm now live in Central London.

Russia has gone through the changes and is now ready for business, as the West self implodes under Dictatorship.

Its Russia, China and South America, that are the last remaining obstacles to a Worldwide Dictatorship, which is very Definitely not Benign nor Capitalist/Competitive in Nature.

Meanwhile people continue believing the same old tribal nonsense and propaganda from the TV and Newspapers that are far more effective than anything the Soviets produced.

Tony

unclesams
Today 09:18 AM
Will timeline continue as predicted by the following democracy fiction?

Democracy fiction: 20 essential steps for implementing democracy in a country (part 2)

9. Propose an UM (United Mess) resolution that will stir up more violence/hatred to prove you are right in your efforts to stop violence.

10. If your UM resolution is vetoed, express your anger immediately to stir up anger worldwide against those who have vetoed your resolution

a) To expose how bad they are and how righteous you are

b) To put pressures on them to make it easier next time,

c) To make opposition groups/government becoming more desperate for violence to prove you are always right.

11. Propose an international coalition to support opposition groups

12. Call in your buddy for a coalition force

13. Start bombing all over the land to “protect” their civilians so that they can live a peaceful life while being waked up by bombs every nights.

14. Slaughter tens of thousands people accidentally. Try not to show any bloody pictures in public media so that nobody will understand what that number means and be horrified

15. Kill their leaders unintentionally. Never ever capture them alive to avoid future troubles

16. After the country is bombed into desolation, put together a democratic government while still doubting if it will be better than the previous one

dagda1
Today 09:12 AM
The USA and their lapdogs need to go to Regime change anonymous.

The continual wars and the continual regime change is unrelenting as is the media's pushing of these unwanted wars.

Every time the US changes a regime, their puppet junta turns against them after a number of years. It has never worked and never will.

Just look at Libya which has descended from a country with one of the highest standards of living to anarchy with the "good" Al Qaeda flag flying above the Libyan court house . Articles like this are just tiresome. We want to concentrate on what happens in the UK but we are bombarded with Syria at every avenue as they try to train our senses to accept yet another war.

The BBC should be changed to Syria 24 or anti assad 24. The coverage Syria is getting is disproportionate to where it is in respect to us. I am exhausted. After this it will be Iran next. We have not even got a military to do anything about it but we posture like we do. I hate it and I am sick of it with every part of existence. Stop this now.

______ Dr_Drug
Today 02:17 PM
"Every time the US changes a regime, their puppet junta turns against
them after a number of years. It has never worked and never will."

Just look at Gerhard Schröder's comments about Iraq.

hatebigots
Today 09:41 AM
Go to your beloved Syria then.

See things for yourself, like NGO`s are doing right now.
Instead of thinking you know more than everyone else just because you have a laptop.

the "good" Al Qaeda flag flying above the Libyan court house was removed after a few hours by Libyans because it was illegal.
Basic propaganda really fools you,huh? It only has to be western hater.

Stop being a puppet & start thinking for yourself.

Or go to Syria & start shooting protesters if you hate them so much.

Your hate speeches sometimes are very sad...

____________ m8
Today 01:04 PM
Mr. Bigot,
You say: "See things for yourself, like NGO`s are doing right now."

NGO's have withdrawn from Libya.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/worl...

This is as a direct result of NATO's war crimes there.

Fail.

____________ hatebigots
Today 02:57 PM
slave m8,
that article says nothing about your imaginary "NATO`s war crimes".

& NGO`S job is to expose war crimes. Like they did with Gaddafi. And extremist rebels.

You were saying, slave?

Fail.

____________ m8
Today 03:47 PM
Insults never enders others to your cause, Mr. Bigot.

Since laziness seems to be your hallmark, here's a nice little article about NATO war crimes in Libya. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new...

From the International Criminal Court, no less.

Double Fail.

____________ Tony_0pmoc
Today 01:24 PM
NATO's war crimes are becoming increasingly transparent, even in the case of Libya, before they had taken place. How any so called Liberal, can support Nato's bombing a population to protect them, as almost the entire American and British Liberal Left did, demonstrates not naivety (surely they can't be THAT stupid), but Complicity in War Crimes...
There was more opposition to the Bombing of Libya, from the Telegraph and the extreme "right" - even Con Coughlin (to my amazement), than there was in The so called Liberal Left Guardian and Independent..

Anyone who thinks we have a Free Press, should try and get a job working for them, and survive The Induction (Psychological Brainwashing Process).

It appears that all our Senior Politicians are treated to the same process.

God help us.

Tony

____________ hatebigots
Today 02:58 PM
what NATO`s war crimes?...
I believe in human rights NGO´s not in dictator´s lapdogs

____________ dagda1
Today 01:34 PM
tony_0pmoc they are falling for it again with Assad. I despair how the public just fall for the tyrant du jour time and time again.
How many civilians have NATO killed in the past year, never mind assad

____________ hatebigots
Today 02:59 PM
How many civilians were kiled by your precious gaddafi?

NATO didnt attacked Syria...

But Assad killed more than 6000.
Not mentioning their total number of victims since their clan took power in 1971...

____________ Dr_Drug
Today 02:18 PM
" tyrant du jour"

The UN should have each day of the year named after a tyrant.

____________ El_Pesidente
Today 10:21 AM
Hahahahaha, now that was funny coming from you "Stop being a puppet & start thinking for yourself" Hahahahaha

____________

What do you think ?

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WORLD_ Syria: Gulf Cooperation Council denounces Assad for 'mass slaughter'

2012-02-07T11:28:00.000-08:00

Syria: Gulf Cooperation Council denounces Assad for 'mass slaughter'

Six of the Arab world’s richest countries denounced President Bashar al-Assad for waging “mass slaughter” on Tuesday, withdrawing their ambassadors from Damascus and expelling Syria’s envoys from their own capitals.

By David Blair, and Bruno Waterfield
7:08PM GMT 07 Feb 2012

The move by the Gulf Cooperation Council, which includes Saudi Arabia, deepened Syria’s diplomatic isolation. It coincided with decisions by France, Italy and Spain to emulate Britain and withdraw their own ambassadors from Syria for consultations.

The GCC explained there was “no point” in the ambassadors staying “after the Syrian regime rejected all attempts and aborted all honest Arab efforts to solve this crisis and end the bloodshed”.

The Arab League has proposed a peace plan that would involve Mr Assad handing over power to his vice-president. But Syria rejected this blueprint, while the Security Council failed to endorse it on Sunday after vetoes cast by Russia and China.

Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, claimed that Syria’s regime had agreed to press ahead on the basis of the “Arab League initiative” yesterday. But the departure of the ambassadors from the Gulf states may eliminate any chance of Arab mediation to end the crisis.

The GCC statement added that its member countries “follow with sorrow and anger the increase in killing and violence in Syria, which has not spared children, old people or women with heinous acts that, at best, can be described as mass slaughter”.

Related Articles

_ Russia claims Assad promised 'cessation' of violence in Syria - 07 Feb 2012
_ Lavrov: Assad is 'fully committed' to ending violence - 07 Feb 2012
_ Assad regime vows to 'hunt' down rebels as death toll rises in Syria - 07 Feb 2012
_ Israel: We will act to prevent Syria's chemical weapons from reaching Hezbollah - 07 Feb 2012
_ Syria's First Lady breaks her silence - 07 Feb 2012

European Union foreign ministers will try to exert more pressure on Syria when they meet on 27 Feb. EU officials have begun work on new economic sanctions that would target Syria’s central bank and ban imports of phosphates, the country’s sixth-biggest export industry.

”New economic measures against the national bank, metals and minerals will significantly hit the regime’s ability to access finance,” said a European diplomat. Officials were preparing this “step change” in sanctions in time for the foreign ministers to consider.

However, the most significant step against Syria’s economy - imposing an embargo on oil exports to the EU - has already been taken. The British National Security Council held what a spokeswoman called a “detailed and lengthy” discussion of Syria on Tuesday, including an assessment of tighter economic sanctions.

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WORLD_ Syria crisis: Gulf Arab states expel Syrian ambassadors

2012-02-07T10:19:00.000-08:00

Syria crisis: Gulf Arab states expel Syrian ambassadors

7 February 2012 Last updated at 17:54 GMT
BBC

BBC's Paul Wood, in Homs, says Russian-made tanks are firing on residents

Gulf Arab states say they are expelling Syrian ambassadors in their countries and recalling their envoys from Syria.

The Gulf Cooperation Council said Syria had rejected Arab attempts to solve the crisis and end 11 months of bloodshed.

The US closed its embassy in Syria on Monday, and several European countries have recalled their ambassadors.

The moves came as Syrian government forces continued their fierce assault on the restive city of Homs, and Russian officials visited Damascus.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called for a solution to the crisis based on Arab League initiatives, days after Russia and China vetoed a UN resolution on Syria.

After meeting Mr Lavrov, Syrian media quoted President Bashar al-Assad as saying he was willing to co-operate with "any efforts towards stability".

The BBC's Paul Wood - one of the very few foreign reporters in Homs - says the Syrian army resumed mortar attacks and heavy machine-gun fire after daybreak.

He says Russian-made tanks have been seen close to the city centre, but there is no sign so far of the ground assault feared by many residents.

Hundreds are reported to have died since the shelling of the city began on Friday. At least 95 people were killed on Monday alone, activists say.

'Honest efforts aborted'

A Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) statement said: "Members have decided to withdraw their ambassadors from Syria and ask at the same time for all the ambassadors of the Syrian regime to leave immediately."

There was "no point in them staying after the Syrian regime rejected all attempts and aborted all honest Arab efforts to solve this crisis and end the bloodshed", it added.

Member states "follow with sorrow and anger, the increase in killing and violence in Syria, which has not spared children, old people or women with heinous acts that at best can be described as mass slaughter".

The GCC said it would urge all other Arab states to adopt "decisive measures" when the Arab League meets next week.

The decision comes a day after the US closed its embassy in Damascus and pulled out all remaining staff.

The UK, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy have also recalled their ambassadors.

Mr Lavrov called for a solution to the crisis based on initiatives put forward by the Arab League on 2 November 2011 to end the violence, though he has given no indication that Russia supports the league's more recent call for Mr Assad to step down.

He said Damascus was ready for a larger Arab mission to monitor peace efforts, and would set a date for a constitutional referendum.

The Arab League deployed an observer mission to Syria in December but suspended it in late January amid worsening violence.

Later, Syrian state news agency Sana said Mr Assad "reiterated Syria's willingness to work with all efforts towards stability in Syria".

The BBC's Jim Muir in neighbouring Lebanon says that if Russia got anything from the talks they were not revealing it, and if something was agreed behind the scenes it would become clear in the coming days.

The effect of this on the city of Homs would be a litmus test for any progress the Russians had made, our correspondent says.

The Syrian opposition, meanwhile, has voiced strong criticism of the stalemate at the UN, saying the Russian and Chinese vetoes on Saturday encouraged the Syria government to step up the assault on Homs.

Mr Lavrov has said Western reaction condemning Russia's veto on Saturday bordered on "hysteria".

Moscow has said the draft - which backed an Arab League peace plan calling for President Assad to hand over power - would have forced regime change on Syria.

The Syrian government, which has been fighting an uprising against President Assad's rule since March, says it is fighting foreign-backed armed gangs.

Thousands of former army soldiers have defected to the rebel side, forming the Free Syrian Army.

Syria's interior ministry said operations against "terrorist groups" would continue until "security and order are restored" in Homs.

Human rights groups and activists say more than 7,000 people have been killed by Syrian security forces since the uprising began last March.

The UN stopped estimating the death toll in Syria after it passed 5,400 in January, saying it was too difficult to confirm.

President Assad's government says at least 2,000 members of the security forces have been killed.

Are you in Syria? Do you have friends or family there? Send us your comments and experiences using the form below. At no time should you endanger yourself or others or take any unnecessary risks.

Send your pictures and videos to yourpics@bbc.co.uk or text them to 61124 (UK) or +44 7624 800 100 (International).

***

Analysis
Jonathan Marcus
BBC diplomatic correspondent

----------------------------------------
After the collapse of efforts to pass a UN Security Council resolution on Syria, all the talk now is of "new initiatives" - Turkey, France, the UK, the Arab League are all promising action.

So what's on offer? First there will be efforts through other parts of the UN system - the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council - to try to increase the pressure on Damascus.

The Arab League may appoint a special envoy for Syria. Momentum is building for a much broader group of countries - perhaps styled as "the Friends of Syria" - to co-ordinate activities and keep the Syria issue in the spotlight.

For now though this is all entirely in the realm of diplomacy. Some may already be filtering arms to Syrian rebel fighters but the international consensus is that external military intervention has no role in this crisis.

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OPINION_ Killing in Syria

2012-02-07T00:09:00.000-08:00

Editorial
Killing in Syria
Published: February 6, 2012
The New York Times

Two days after Russia and China vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a peaceful transfer of power in Syria, President Bashar al-Assad continued his killing spree.

On Monday, government forces using tanks and machine guns shelled a makeshift medical clinic and residential areas in Homs, a major center of protests. Since Friday, an estimated 240 people have been killed in perhaps the bloodiest episode in the 11-month-old uprising. Moscow and Beijing now have the blood of Syria’s valiant people on their hands as well.

Both argued that the resolution, endorsing an Arab League initiative, would expand the conflict. That is nonsense. The real explanation is that these two authoritarian governments fear any popular movement and, after the ouster of Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya, are determined to deny the West another perceived victory.

While the resolution failed, the support at the Council was strong: 13 nations — including India and South Africa, which had abstained on an earlier vote in October — voted in favor. It is a sign of Syria’s increasing isolation and the repugnance that all responsible governments should feel toward Mr. Assad’s murderous ways.

If Russia and China are determined to obstruct the Security Council, the United States is right to look for a way to press for new sanctions and greater isolation of Syria. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has proposed a “friends of democratic Syria” group to support the opposition and work for a democratic political transition.

Mr. Assad has made clear that there is no compromise or deal to be had. But he is not immune to pressure. The “friends” group should use all the diplomatic and economic levers they can muster to encourage his ouster. That includes strictly adopting and implementing sanctions on Syria like those imposed by the European Union, the United States and the Arab League.

Washington on Monday withdrew its ambassador from Damascus, and other countries should do the same. In time, the business and military elite will come to realize that sticking by the Assad government is a losing proposition. There is growing talk in Washington and elsewhere of arming the Free Syrian Army, a coalition of military defectors and opposition members. It is understandable that many Syrians want to fight back against the brutal regime, which is believed to have already killed as many as 6,000 people since pro-democracy protests began. But we fear that that will make things worse.

An all-out civil war would be even more damaging to civilians — Assad’s army has 200,000 troops — and increase the chances that the fight will spill over into the broader region or become a proxy war.

Russia unconscionably refuses to halt its arms sales to the Assad government. The United States and its allies should publicly expose every shipment. Russians are growing tired of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and frequent public reminders of his responsibility for the killings in Syria will only further tarnish his image.

On Tuesday, the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, is supposed to visit Damascus. The message he should be carrying is clear: It is time for Mr. Assad to go. If Russia chooses, instead, to enable more killing, it will find itself increasingly isolated. The world is watching, finally.

A version of this editorial appeared in print on February 7, 2012, on page A30 of the New York edition with the headline: Killing in Syria.

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WORLD_ US closes embassy in Syria as diplomatic pressure mounts on Assad

2012-02-06T11:23:00.000-08:00

US closes embassy in Syria as diplomatic pressure mounts on Assad

THE United States has closed its embassy in Syria, as Western powers sought to escalate pressure on President Bashar al-Assad to step down.

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad prays during a celebration of Prophet Mohammed's birthday at the al-Rawda mosque in Damascus yesterday Photo: EPABy Alex Spillius and Henry Samuel in Paris

3:42PM GMT 06 Feb 2012
Reports said that Robert Ford, the US ambassador, and 16 members of staff drove across the border into Jordan.

The State Department warned last month it would close the embassy unless Mr Assad's government stepped up its protection. It cited concerns about the safety of personnel and recent car bombs.

The Obama administration has long demanded that Assad step down. Officials insist his regime's demise is inevitable.

President Barack Obama has reiterated his call for Mr Assad step aside after instigating a bloody crackdown of democracy protests that has claimed at least 6,00 lives and sparked a sputtering insurgency led by army defectors.

Shortly before the embassy’s closure was announced, he vowed to seek further sanctions against Damascus but maintained that the West did not need to launch a military campaign as it did in Libya.

“It is very important for us to try to resolve this without recourse to outside military intervention,” he told NBC. “And I think that's possible.”

The decision to close the US embassy came amid renewed diplomatic efforts against Damascus after a United Nations resolution condemning the violent repression of anti-regime protests was vetoed by Russia and China over the weekend.

As William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, prepared to give a Commons statement on Syria, Downing Street said the actions of Russia and China were "incomprehensible and inexcusable".

"Clearly there is a tragedy unfolding in that country," said a spokesman.

"Russia and China are protecting a regime that is killing thousands of people. We find their position incomprehensible and inexcusable."

President Nicolas Sarkozy of France meanwhile said he would speak with President Dmitry Medvedev of Russia to discuss the situation in Syria, which he described as a "scandal".

"France and Germany will not abandon the Syrian people," Mr Sarkozy said after a Franco-German summit in Paris with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"What's happening is a scandal. We will not accept that the international community remains blocked," he continued, adding that Francois Fillon, the prime minister, would also speak to Vladmir Putin, Russian prime minister and power behind the throne.

France and Germany have backed the idea of a Syrian “contact group”, which would see European countries and the Arab League join forces to provide a diplomatic forum for anti-Syrian measures. A similar group was created against Col Muammar Gaddafi in Libya.

Russia still hopes to play a diplomatic role with Mr Assad, a long-term ally and buyer of Moscow's arms exports. Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, is due to fly to Damascus on Tuesday to hold talks with the Syrian president.

Paris has been prominent in Western efforts to try to force Assad to end a bloody crackdown on protests that has claimed at least 6,000 lives.

Mr Sarkozy has raised the possibility of creating zones to protect civilians, the first proposal by a Western power for outside intervention on the ground.

Mrs Merkel said she was "appalled" by Russia’s obstruction of the UN Security council resolution.

"I have to say here, Russia must ask itself if we are really in a historical situation where policy should be made separately from the Arab League. I can't imagine that this will prove to be a big success," she said.

The idea of a “Friends of Syria” group was mooted over the weekend by Mr Sarkozy and Alain Juppé, the French foreign minister. “We are going to help the Syrian opposition to structure itself, to get organised,” Mr Juppé said.

"Europe will further tighten the sanctions imposed on the Syrian regime and then we are going to try to ratchet up international pressure and there will come a time when the regime will be obliged to acknowledge that it is totally isolated and that it cannot continue.”

But diplomatic sources say France is intent on avoiding forming a “Western front” against the Syrian regime, preferring that the Arab League play a central role. A meeting is slated “in the coming days”, the sources told Le Figaro newspaper.

Qatar, who currently holds the presidency of the Arab League, could play a pivotal role, both in stepping up sanctions and – potentially – coordinating military aid to the Syrian opposition, analysts said.

“A great deal of sanctions decided by member states have still not been applied, like for example the suspension of air routes between Damascas and Arab capitals,” Hazem Nahar, a Syrian opposition figure based in Qatar told Le Monde. “If all these measures became effective, the regime would have much more trouble paying its chabiha – pro-regime miltita – and security service members. That could accelerate its collapse.”

“Western countries are terrified by the idea of military intervention,” said David Roberts of the Royal United Services Institute in Doha. “But after the Russian-Chinese veto, the Qataris could feel more authorised to send money, arms and instructors to members of the Free Syrian Army,” he told Le Monde.

Gérard Longuet, the French defence miniser, kept up criticism of the UN veto saying: "It's a disgrace for the countries that refuse to assume their responsibilities."

"There are political cultures which deserve a kick in the ass. To accept that a dictator can operate freely is disgraceful for governments that accept it,” he told Europe 1 radio.

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WORLD_ Clinton calls for 'friends of democratic Syria' to unite against Bashar al-Assad

2012-02-05T11:53:00.000-08:00

Clinton calls for 'friends of democratic Syria' to unite against Bashar al-Assad

US secretary of state says UN has been 'neutered' by double veto but that international community has duty to halt bloodshed

Rajeev Syal and agencies
guardian.co.uk,
Sunday 5 February 2012 14.46 GMT
Article history

Hillary Clinton says 'friends of Syria' would redouble their efforts outside of the UN after veto setback. Photograph: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images

Hillary Clinton has called for "friends of democratic Syria" to unite against President Bashar al-Assad following China and Russia's veto of a tougher UN response to his regime, which she described as a "travesty".

Speaking in Sofia a day after the collapse of the UN security council resolution, the US secretary of state said the international community had a duty to halt ongoing bloodshed and promote a political transition that would see Assad step down. She said the "friends of Syria" should work together to promote those ends.

Clinton was harshly critical of Saturday's veto by Russia and China that blocked UN action against the continuing violence in Syria. "What happened yesterday at the United Nations was a travesty," she said.

"Faced with a neutered security council, we have to redouble our efforts outside of the United Nations with those allies and partners who support the Syrian people's right to have a better future," Clinton told reporters after meeting top Bulgarian officials.

The creation of a formal group of like-minded countries to co-ordinate assistance for Syria's opposition, similar to the Contact Group on Libya that oversaw international aid for opponents of Muammar Gaddafi, is possible. However, in the case of Libya, the group also co-ordinated Nato military operations to protect Libyan civilians, something that is not envisioned in Syria.

US officials said a group would work to further squeeze the Assad regime by enhancing sanctions, unite disparate opposition groups inside and outside the country, and provide humanitarian relief.

William Hague earlier described the Syrian regime as "doomed" and "murdering" and warned that the country was moving closer to an all-out civil war following the collapse of the UN's diplomatic effort.

The UK foreign secretary said hopes now rested on the Arab League to increase pressure for political change in the light of this weekend's setback.

"This is a doomed regime as well as a murdering regime. There is no way it can get its credibility back either internationally or with its own people," Hague said on Sky News.

"Because the regime is so intransigent, because it is conducting ten months unmitigated violence and repression – more than 6,000 killed with 12,000 or 14,000 in detention and subject to every kind of torture and abuse – it is driving some opponents to violent action themselves. That is tipping Syria closer to something that begins to look like a civil war," he said.

In Syria, dozens were reported killed on Saturday in one of the bloodiest days since protests began last March. Rebel groups and opposition activists said the regime launched an assault on the city of Homs on Friday night using mortar and tanks to bombard civilian areas.

One opposition group said it had confirmed 62 deaths in Homs, while other organisations gave death tolls in excess of 200.

Hague said that Russia and China's veto had emboldened Assad's position. "I think Russia and China do bear increased responsibility and that means in the Middle East and Arab world there will be a great deal of anger at the positions that Russia and China have taken.

"This underlines the need for a political transition and in our view for Assad to go, or in the plan of the Arab League to hand over to his deputy and form a unity government. That's a sensible way forward."

He said, however, that he would continue to work alongside Moscow and Beijing, and planned to contact Russia's foreign minister when he returns from a visit to Syria later this week.

"We will continue to work with Russia and China on this. We want them to change their position," Hague said.

Asked about plans by Arab countries to expel Syrian diplomats, Hague said that Britain's diplomatic options were constantly being reviewed but any announcement would first be made to parliament.

"We haven't taken any decisions to sever our diplomatic links at the moment but the Arab League is playing a very strong role … This is the main way forward now, for the Arab League to pursue their plan because they don't need the UN to do that although it would have been good to have had a clear mandate from the United Nations.

"They should pursue their plan and intensify their own pressure on the Assad regime to stop the killing and allow a peaceful political transition."

Hague said the UK had reduced its embassy operations in Syria to an absolute minimum and reiterated the government's position of ruling out military intervention, stressing the differences with last year's regime change in Libya.

"In Libya we had the authority of the UN to take all necessary measures. Given what has happened this weekend, we could not pass such a resolution.

"Secondly, the consequences would be far more difficult to foresee in Syria than they were in the relatively straightforward Libya because of the knock on effects across the region. Thirdly it would have to be on a dramatically bigger scale in Syria in order to be effective," he said.

The Sino-Russian veto was intended to promote a political settlement, China's state news agency Xinhua said on Sunday.

It "aimed at further seeking peaceful settlement of the chronic Syrian crisis and preventing possible drastic and risky solutions to it," it said. "With the veto, Russia and China believed more time and patience should be given to a political solution … which would prevent the Syrian people from more turbulence and fatalities."

The opposition Syrian National Council condemned Moscow and Beijing for obstructing the passage of the draft resolution.

The veto drew an angry response from Washington's UN envoy, Susan Rice, who tweeted that she was disgusted, adding that Russia and China would have blood on their hands.

The Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, criticised the UN resolution, saying it made too few demands of anti-government armed groups, and could prejudge the outcome of a dialogue among political forces in the country.

Russian news agencies reported that Lavrov and Russia's foreign intelligence chief, Mikhail Fradkov, would meet Assad in Damascus on Tuesday.

Syria has been a key Russian ally since the Soviet era and Moscow has opposed any UN demands that could be interpreted as advocating military intervention or regime change.

Earlier on Saturday, Tunisia decided to expel Syria's ambassador in response to the "bloody massacre" in Homs and said it no longer recognised the Assad regime. As news of the violence spread, a crowd of Syrians stormed their country's embassy in Cairo and protests broke out outside missions in Britain, Germany and the US.

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