Syria was likely behind the assassination of MP Gebran Tueni in 2005, which was aimed at silencing his caustic remarks against the regime of President Bashar Assad, stated a leaked U.S. Embassy cable dated December 19, 2005, published exclusively in al-Jumhuriya newspaper on Wednesday.

The WikiLeaks cable added that the assassination was also a message to the Lebanese opposition that “no one can protect them.”

Syrian opposition groups insisted on regime change as they met in Turkey on Wednesday, a day after President Bashar Assad decreed an amnesty for political prisoners following two months of bloodshed.

The three-day gathering -- titled "Conference for Change in Syria" -- opened with the Syrian national anthem and a minute of silence for "the martyrs" killed in bloody crackdowns on street protests simmering in Syria since March.

Government Commissioner to the Military Tribunal Judge Saqr Saqr charged Sheikh Mohammed Ali Ismail al-Husseini with spying for Israel on Wednesday.

The army intelligence detained al-Husseini, who is the secretary-general of the Arabic-Islamic Council, last week after suspecting that he had collaborated with the Israeli Mossad.

Syrian opposition activists opened a conference in Turkey on Wednesday to discuss ways of a regime change in their country and draw up a "roadmap" for a peaceful transition.

More than 300 dissidents, mostly exiles representing various opposition and ethnic groups, gathered at a hotel in the Mediterranean resort of Antalya, a day after Syrian President Bashar Assad decreed an amnesty for political prisoners which they dismissed as inadequate.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe on Wednesday demanded "more ambitious and bolder" action from Syria after President Bashar Assad decreed a general amnesty for political prisoners.

"I fear that it might already be too late," Juppe told France Culture radio after the Syrian leader announced the amnesty following two months of deadly anti-government protests.

Three civilians were shot dead on Tuesday by Syrian security forces at Rastan in the center of the country and in the southern region of Daraa, a rights activist said on condition of anonymity.

"Ibrahim Salhum was killed today at Rastan" near the city of Homs, as the military attempted to quell anti-regime protest there for the third straight day, the activist said.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday decreed a general amnesty for Muslim Brotherhood members and political prisoners after two months of deadly anti-regime protests, the official SANA news agency reported.

"President Assad has by decree issued an amnesty on all crimes committed before May 31, 2011," it reported. "The amnesty applies to all political prisoners as well as to the Muslim Brotherhood."

The Syrian military used heavy machine-guns and artillery in fresh attacks on a town in the country's turbulent heartland Tuesday, killing at least one person, activists said.

The Local Coordination Committees in Syria, which helps organize and document the country's protests, said heavy gunfire could be heard in Rastan, which is a few kilometers north of the central city of Homs and has been under attack since Sunday.

Speaker Nabih Berri on Monday expressed his belief that “the Cedar Revolution has set Lebanon back 60 years legally and demographically, squandered public money, and provided the suitable atmosphere for further foreign intervention in Lebanon’s present and future.”

“This is the reason behind its failure,” Berri noted in a speech at a ceremony organized by the International Intellectual Conference to honor late Shiite clerics Mohammed Makki al-Jizzini and Zeineddine al-Jabhi.

U.N. rights Chief Navi Pillay on Monday slammed the brutality of crackdowns on protestors by government forces in Libya and Syria, saying the actions were shocking in their disregard for human rights.

"The brutality and magnitude of measures taken by the governments in Libya and now Syria have been particularly shocking in their outright disregard for basic human rights," Pillay told the U.N. Human Rights Council.