At least 38 people have been killed after Syrian tanks launched an offensive on another rebel town on Sunday. The attack came as the UN appealed for an immediate halt to violence in the country. Syrian troops stormed several other cities on Sunday raising the overall death toll to 69, according to Reuters news agency. Meanwhile, Agence France-Presse reported about 52 victims. Over 100 are reported... 

NATO is planning a military campaign against Syria to help overthrow the regime of President Bashar al-Assad with a long-reaching goal of preparing a beachhead for an attack on Iran, Russia’s envoy to NATO Dmitry Rogozin said. The UN Security Council condemned on Wednesday ongoing violence in Syria and urged the country’s authorities to stop using force against peaceful protesters, while... 

UN Security Council UN Security Council member Germany on Sunday formally requested emergency consultations by the 15-nation body on the Syrian government’s deadly offensive against demonstrators, a spokesman said. A meeting could be held on Monday. But the move is likely to reopen bitter divisions within the Security Council, which has not yet been able to agree even a statement on President... 

The first serious move after months of promised reform, the Syrian government today announced that it was ending its near 50-year ban on opposition political parties, though with a number of caveats. The new law resembles the laws under Mubarak in Egypt, allowing opposition parties but forbidding any based on religion, region, or ethnicity. This would keep the Kurds from forming parties, as well as... 

Supporters of Bashar Assad's government demonstrate on his behalf over the weekend in Damascus, the Syrian capital. Since Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s sharp words last week, the Obama administration has stopped short of calling for President Bashar Assad to resign and has toned down its rhetoric. After sharply escalating its criticism of Syria’s bloody crackdown on pro-democracy... 

Army presses ahead in its campaign to overcome anti-regime revolt, prepares to intervene in Al-Bukamal. The Syrian army on Sunday set its sights on the town of Zabadani near the Lebanon border as it pressed ahead in its campaign to overcome an anti-regime revolt, a human rights activist said. In the east, on the frontier with Iraq, security forces were also reported to be preparing to intervene in... 

At least 41 protesters were killed today and another 120 wounded as security forces opened fire on marchers in several areas around Syria. The deaths were the highest single day toll in weeks. But so too was it the biggest march yet, with estimates that around one million Syrians took part in demonstrations nationwide. The largest rally was in Hama, where 500,000 took part in the rally. The largest... 

Syrian pro-democracy activists report that security forces opened fire on a demonstration in the Damascus suburb of Qatana today, killing at least 20 people, while another seven were reported killed not far from the Turkish border. The killings, if confirmed, would make today the deadliest day in over a month, as the Syrian regime has increasingly avoided massive killings that have only served to... 

Escalating its rhetoric against Bashar al-Assad, the White House declared Tuesday that the Syrian president had “lost his legitimacy” but declined to call explicitly for his resignation or removal. The statement, which echoed similar remarks by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Monday, followed what appeared to be orchestrated attacks by pro-Assad demonstrators on the U.S. and French embassy... 

German Defense Minister Thomas de Maizière in Berlin: “Significant progress must be made in Afghanistan.” The US has been critical of Germany for not supporting NATO in the mission in Libya. SPIEGEL spoke to German Defense Minister Thomas de Maizière about Berlin’s skepticism of getting involved in Libya and Syria, and about the future of the NATO alliance. SPIEGEL: Minister de... 

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (left) with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has asked Russia to support a draft United Nations Security Council resolution on Syria. Clinton made the call during a phone conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday, AFP reported. “With regard to Syria, their discussion focused on action... 

US Special Forces units based at Fort Hood, Texas, have been told to prepare for deployment to Libya no later than July, according to a US military source. The Special Forces would then be followed in September or October by heavy armored units of the First Cavalry Division, currently located in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with other components of the US III Corps. This report was broadcast today... 

Twitter protesters in their green "uniforms". The U.S. government funded the creation of wireless networks to facilitate secret communications for opposition groups to avoid the control of authorities in nations such as Iran, Syria and Libya. According to The New York Times, the State Department and the Pentagon spent about $50 million to also create an independent network of mobile telephones... 

World View: The anti-regime demonstrations that worked so rapidly and unexpectedly in Tunisia and Egypt are faltering elsewhere as rulers fight to hold on to power The Arab awakening is turning into the Arab nightmare. Instead of ushering in democracy, the uprisings in at least three Arab states are fast becoming vicious civil wars. In the past 10 days, crucial developments in Syria, Libya and Yemen... 

The situation around Syria continues to be in the spotlight of the politicians and the media. In recent days the situation in the country has sharply deteriorated. The tone of the comments in various western media outlets is nearly the same: they are blaming President Bashar Assad. At some point Milosevic and Gaddafi were subject to similar attacks by the Western media. Would Syria be subject to the...