Russia said Saturday that Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will visit Damascus on Tuesday along with the foreign intelligence service chief for talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad.
"On the order of the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Sergei Lavrov and Mikhail Fradkov will visit Damascus on February 7 for a meeting with Bashar Assad," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.
Full StoryTunisia will expel the Syrian ambassador and stop recognizing the Damascus regime as government after a violent repression that killed over 200 people in the central city of Homs, the presidency said.
"Tunisia has begun formal procedures to expel the Syrian ambassador and to end all recognition of the regime in power in Syria," said the presidency in a statement.
Full StoryPolice fired tear gas and birdshot at protesters on Saturday in the third day of deadly clashes in Cairo, as anger at the ruling military boiled over after 74 people died in football-related violence.
The police responded after dozens of protesters threw stones at officers guarding the interior ministry headquarters hundreds of meters (yards) from the Egyptian capital's iconic Tahrir Square.
Full StoryKuwaiti authorities arrested several people when hundreds of angry Syrians and local activists stormed the Syrian embassy in the Gulf state on Saturday, the interior ministry said.
"A group of Syrian expats stormed the Syrian embassy in Kuwait, removed the flag and destroyed utilities," the ministry said in a statement.
Full StoryArmed clashes between supporters and opponents of a presidential election in Yemen left dozens of people wounded in the main southern city of Aden, activists from both sides said on Saturday.
The violence erupted late Friday when supporters of the Southern Movement, a separatist group, attacked a march organized by rivals from a year-old protest movement against President Ali Abdullah Saleh, one activist said.
Full StorySyria's government denied on Saturday that its army bombarded the central city of Homs, instead blaming the bloodshed on "armed gunmen," state media reported.
The government "denies shelling by the army in certain districts of Homs, as peddled by television stations that are inciting" violence," the official SANA news agency said, after rights groups reported that at least 260 civilians were killed in the assault on the protest hub.
Full StoryFive men were arrested Saturday after gaining entry to the Syrian embassy in London, police said, as protesters demonstrated outside the building.
Around 150 protesters gathered outside the plush property in Belgrave Square, one of central London's finest squares, which houses a string of embassies.
Full StorySyria's army randomly bombarded the protest hub of Homs early on Saturday, killing at least 260 civilians in one of the "most horrific massacres" in the country's uprising, an opposition group said.
In a statement, the Syrian National Council also called on the world to act, and demanded that Russia change its position, condemn President Bashar Assad's regime and allow democracy.
Full StoryThe Syrian army is slowly disintegrating as troop morale plummets and more soldiers defect to join rebels fighting a regime crackdown against dissent, a spokesman for the Free Syrian Army said Friday.
"The regular army is in a pitiful state and getting close to collapsing," said Major Maher Nuaimi, who is based with the FSA in Turkey, in a telephone interview with Agence France Presse.
Full StoryGermany's foreign minister said Friday that U.N. wrangling over a resolution on Syria was harming the people, as he pushed for decisive action amid Russian hesitation and frantic diplomacy.
Speaking ahead of the opening of the Munich Security Conference, Guido Westerwelle called on his counterparts at the gathering to use the time to continue talks on finding language acceptable to all in a resolution.
Full Story