
Beirut: Peace envoy Kofi Annan said on Friday he was "frustrated and impatient" a week after a massacre in Syria of 108 people shocked the world, and there were signs Russia might be moving closer to the West's position on tackling the crisis. President Vladimir Putin denied that Russia, which has a base in Syria and supplies it with weapons, was providing the government with the means to crush rebels,...

01:45 AM, Jun 02, 2012

Amman: President Bashar al-Assad faces renewed international pressure to end the bloodshed in Syria but, with peace envoy Kofi Annan visiting Damascus, his government blamed Islamist militants for a massacre in which UN observers had implicated his army. Annan, on a mission from the United Nations and Arab League, is scheduled to meet Assad on Tuesday, when he can be expected to urge compliance with the tattered ceasefire deal which...

04:01 AM, May 29, 2012

Amman: The UN Security Council will meet on Sunday to discuss the killing of at least 109 people in the Syrian town of Houla, a council diplomat said, a sign of mounting outrage at the massacre which the government and rebels blamed on each other. Images of bloodied and lifeless young bodies, lain carefully side by side after the onslaught on Friday, triggered shock around the world and underlined the...

04:12 AM, May 28, 2012

Damascus: Syria's foreign ministry spokesman has denied government troops were behind an attack on a string of villages that left more than 90 people dead. Friday's assault on Houla, an area northwest of the central city of Homs, was one of the bloodiest single events in Syria's 15-month-old uprising. Jihad Makdissi told reporters in Damascus at a Sunday news conference that Syria is being subjected to a "tsunami of lies"...

03:53 PM, May 27, 2012

Beirut: The United Nations said on Saturday that more than 92 people were killed in what activists said was an artillery barrage by government forces in the worst violence since the start of a UN peace plan to slow the flow of blood in Syria's uprising. The bloodied bodies of children, some with their skulls split open, were shown in footage posted to YouTube purporting to show the victims of...

12:24 AM, May 27, 2012

Thiruvananthapuram: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has decided to set up its Kerala consulate here in the state capital, India's Minister of State for External Affairs E. Ahamed said on Thursday. "The decision to set up the consulate in Thiruvananthapuram is because of the rule that consulates can be set up only in state capitals. There are certain rules and guidelines and they have to be adhered too," Ahamed told...

05:17 PM, May 17, 2012

Damascus: Syria accused the United States and Western countries on Saturday of colluding with al Qaeda-linked militants to target the country, in the wake of a string of explosions in Damascus and Aleppo the government has blamed on foreign-backed fighters. "Western countries and the United States, which made alliances to wage wars using the pretext of fighting terrorism, are now making alliances with the terrorists which Syria has been facing,"...

03:28 AM, May 13, 2012

Beirut: Syrian forces foiled an attempted suicide car bombing with 1,200 kg (2,640 pounds) of explosives in the northern city of Aleppo on Friday, state television said, a day after two bombs in the capital Damascus killed at least 55 people. The would-be bomber was killed in the al Shaar district of Syria's largest city which, like Damascus, has seen increasing street protests against President Bashar al-Assad and rising levels...

01:49 AM, May 12, 2012

Beirut: Two suicide car bombers killed 55 people and wounded 372 in Damascus on Thursday, state media said, the deadliest attacks in the Syrian capital since an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began 14 months ago. The blasts further shredded a ceasefire that was declared by international mediator Kofi Annan on April 12 but which has failed to halt bloodshed pitting Assad's security forces against peaceful demonstrators and an array...

01:39 AM, May 11, 2012

Beirut: Explosions blew the fronts off buildings in the Syrian town of Idlib on Monday, with state TV reporting nine people killed and 100 wounded including security services personnel targeted by an intensifying rebel bombing campaign. Images on state television showed flattened cars and mangled bodies lying under tarpaulins near the site of a pair of bombings. Craters had been blasted in the road. "My wife and I were asleep...

04:40 AM, May 01, 2012

Beirut: A suicide bomber killed nine people including security officers at a Damascus mosque on Friday, Syria's interior ministry said, in another blow to a fraying UN-brokered truce between President Bashar al-Assad and rebels fighting for his downfall. The explosion happened as worshippers were leaving the Zain al-Abideen mosque, which was under heavy security due to its reputation as a launchpad for anti-Assad demonstrations after Friday prayers. A local resident...

03:39 AM, Apr 28, 2012

Beirut: Security forces fired rockets that ripped through a building in Syria's central city of Hama on Wednesday, killing at least 12 people and wounding dozens more, activists said, in a bloody violation of the shaky ceasefire in the country. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Hama district of Mashaa al-Teran had been hit by heavy fire. The grassroots Local Coordination Committee put the death toll from...

02:35 AM, Apr 26, 2012

Geneva: The United Nations hopes to get permission from the Syrian government in the coming days to send more aid workers to help at least 1 million people in need of urgent assistance, a top UN humanitarian official said on Friday. Syria has recognised there are "serious humanitarian needs" and that action is required, but logistical issues and visas for aid workers are still being discussed, said John Ging, director...

11:17 PM, Apr 20, 2012

Geneva: An initial team of UN ceasefire monitors is due to arrive in Syria on Sunday evening and will be deployed on Monday in an effort to keep the peace plan on track, the spokesman for international mediator Kofi Annan said. The six-person advance team will be joined by two dozen more observers in coming days in line with a UN Security Council resolution adopted on Saturday authorising the deployment...

03:07 AM, Apr 16, 2012

Beirut: Opposition activists said at least six people were killed in Syria on Saturday as the UN Security Council tentatively was scheduled to vote to authorise an advance team to monitor a fragile, three-day-old ceasefire. Activists also reported the first shelling, in the city of Homs, by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, since the UN-Arab League-brokered ceasefire took effect. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said four people were...

01:18 AM, Apr 15, 2012