DAMASCUS popularity and DAMASCUS trends

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon informed the U.N. Security Council on Friday afternoon that the U.N. monitoring mission in Syria will be up to full strength next week, but that Syrian forces continue to shell Syrian towns and that "most elements" of the U.N. six-point peace plan have yet to be implemented. In a 13-page report to the U.N. Security Council, Ban said that the U.N. in...

DAMASCUS - Tens of thousands of activists took to the streets of Aleppo and Idlib on Friday, braving the gunfire of Syrian troops, as at least 28 people were killed across the country, monitors said. The latest violence came as Kofi Annan, the UN-Arab League envoy to Syria who brokered a repeatedly-violated ceasefire last month, finalised plans to return to Damascus. For the first time in the ....

Activists say two killed in northern city of Aleppo, with reports of violence in Homs, Idlib, Damascus and Inkhel.

The rebel Free Syrian Army denies abducting 13 Lebanese Shia pilgrims who were kidnapped in Syria on Sunday, and blames the Damascus government.

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) -- Syria's oil minister acknowledged the heavy toll international sanctions have taken on the country's oil sector, saying Wednesday that they had sucked about $4 billion from the economy....

A bomb that apparently struck a restaurant in the Syrian capital Damascus killed at least five people, the state-run news agency said Tuesday, as activists reported intense clashes between army defectors and soldiers in the restive north.

Mounted police disperse Israeli-Arab demonstrators at Damascus Gate, where thousands of Jewish marchers enter Old City.

At least 16 people killed in attack, while UN observers narrowly escape roadside car bomb in DamascusThe Syrian army has killed 16 people, including children, during shelling in the town of Souran in the central province of Hama, the British-based rights group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says."The army shelled the town and then stormed it," the head of the group, Rami Abdelrahman, t...

FIERCE fighting between regime troops and armed rebels have rocked parts of the Syrian capital Damascus overnight.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad shot two protesters in the capital Damascus on Friday and fired in the air to break up thousands of anti-government demonstrators in the commercial hub of Aleppo, activists said.

In second consecutive day of mass street protests in Aleppo, demonstrators chant," the people want the fall of the regime!"

Headline Title:  Syria: Deported Palestinian journalist tortured in custody 17 May 2012 A prominent journalist has told Amnesty International how Syrian government forces tortured and detained him in deplorable conditions before deporting him to Jordan on Monday.  Salameh Kail...

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) -- The president of the Syrian Olympic Committee says the war-torn country will send 20 sports officials and 10 athletes to the London Games....

The al-Nusra Front, a Syrian Islamist militant group, denies saying it was behind last week's deadly bomb attacks in Damascus.

During overnight clashes in the Syrian city of Rastan, 120 miles north of Damascus in Homs province, at least 30 people were killed, including 23 Syrian soldiers, in what has possibly been one of the deadliest attacks on government troops in the 14-month revolt. The attacks came after a weekend of shelling by Syrian security forces on the opposition-held town during which dozens of people w...

A little-known militant group today claimed responsibility in a video posted online for the twin bombing in Syria's capital that killed at least 55 people earlier in the week.

Al-Nusra Front, an Islamist group unknown before the Syrian revolt, released a video on Saturday claiming responsibility for twin suicide bombings in Damascus that killed 55 people.

Two Turkish journalists who had been imprisoned in Damascus were headed to Tehran on Saturday after Iranian mediation with the Syrian government secured their release, a Turkish foreign ministry spokesman said.

More than 40 people died and 170 were injured on Thursday (10th) after the explosion of two car bombs on the highway south of Damascus, official sources reported. The blasts occurred at 7:50 (local time) in a densely populated area, where almost at midday the authorities were still collecting human remains from the rubble.

China strongly condemns the two recent terrorist bombings in the Syrian capital of Damascus, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Friday.

Twin suicide car bombs exploded outside a military building in Damascus and killed 55 people, the deadliest attack against the regime yet.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - 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.

AT LEAST 55 people were killed and 372 wounded yesterday in two massive car bomb blasts in the deadliest attack in Syria since the rebellion erupted 14 months ago.

Two powerful car bombs exploded outside a key military intelligence compound in Damascus on Thursday, the largest such attack since the uprising began 14 months ago.

Two strong explosions in the Syrian capital have reportedly killed more than 40 people and wounded 170, as well as damaging a military intelligence building

The two powerful explosions outside an intelligence headquarters in the capital Thursday peeled open a new, more treacherous front in the struggle for Syria.

Twin bomb blasts in the Syrian capital Damascus kill 40 people and wound more than 170, mostly civilians, Syrian state television reports, with one striking near a well-known military intelligence complex.

Twin bomb blasts in the Syrian capital Damascus killed 40 people and wounded more than 170, according to officials.

Two explosions shook the Syrian capital Damascus early on Thursday and smoke could be seen rising from the south-west of the city.

Syrian state television blames armed rebels for two large explosions in southern Damascus in which dozens of people have been injured

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the United Nations Security Council have strongly condemned deadly bomb attacks in Damascus today, and called for an end to the ongoing violence in the Middle Eastern country.

Erdogan encourages refugees at camp near border on eve of parliamentary election that Damascus says is sign of reform

SO FAR, a U.N. monitoring mission in Syria has had one tangible effect: It has gotten people killed. On Sunday and Monday, monitors toured neighborhoods in the city of Homs and in the Damascus suburbs of Doura and Zabadani. When they left, the areas they visited were shelled, and security forces carried out sweeps in which civilians suspected of speaking to the monitors were taken from their ho...

Washington and its allies need to pressure Damascus, Moscow and Beijing. That is the only way to stop the killing in Syria and avoid another war.

While it is important for both Washington and its anti-Assad allies to ready a contingency "Plan B" in case the peace effort does fail -- just having one in reserve can deter the Damascus authorities from aborting the peace initiative -- the "Friends" should not be in unseemly haste to bury it alive.

PARIS (AP) -- France's foreign minister says an array of international sanctions targeting Syria's repressive regime have depleted its financial reserves by half - and Damascus is actively trying to evade them....

Syrian activists have accused forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad of bombarding rebel areas as a UN mission is expected to arrive in Damascus.

ISTANBUL (AP) -- A coalition of more than 70 partners, including the United States, pledged Sunday to send millions of dollars and communications equipment to Syria's opposition groups, signaling deeper involvement in the conflict amid a growing belief that diplomacy and sanctions alone cannot end the Damascus regime's repression....

A car bomb hit Syria’s second city Aleppo Sunday, a day after blasts killed 27 in Damascus, and police arrested and beat activists at a rare anti-government protest in the capital

Two envoys will be posted at EU delegation to attend Spaniards resident in Syria

A spokesman for the Red Cross today confirmed the organisation is transporting the Sunday Times reporter's body, and that of French photographer Remi Ochlik, by ambulance to Damascus.

William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, has ordered the evacuation of all British diplomats from Syria and closed the UK embassy in Damascus because of mounting security threats.

Today's topics: road to Tehran; road to Damascus; Mayor Ford's vision ... and more

Damascus is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on earth, a place where the past is unusually tenacious. In recent years, neighboring capitals like Beirut and Amman have succumbed to Dubai-style makeovers, but Damascus has remained a city of low stone and concrete buildings. There are no Walmarts . . . (Subscription required.)

China's envoy to Syria calls on all sides in the country to end violence, amid talks with President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus.

France, Gulf states pull envoys; 19 killed as Moscow's top diplomat visits Damascus; leaked emails purport to show regime's tactics for manipulating Western media.

The six Gulf Cooperation Council states have decided to expel Syria's envoys and withdraw their own from Damascus over the "mass slaughter" of civilians.

ON THE ground in Syria the Arab League observer mission appears to have had little impact on the 10-month uprising, either in restraining the authorities’ brutality or reassuring beleaguered protesters. As Saudi Arabia announced over the weekend its intention to pull out of the mission because of Syria’s failure to co-operate with its mandate, league foreign ministers meeting in Cairo sought to...

DAMASCUS - Pressure mounted on the Arab League Friday to seek UN intervention in the face of growing exasperation that the bloc’s hard-won observer mission in Syria has failed to staunch 10 months of killing. Meanwhile, thousands of people poured out of mosques after Friday prayers to call for the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, after choosing “Prisoners of the ...

Steve Spurrier Jr. was at Damascus High on Thursday morning, but highly-regarded junior Zach Bradshaw was not the only player he discussed with Coach Eric Wallich. Bradshaw, a wide receiver-linebacker whose stock continues to rise, holds a dozen scholarship offers, including one from the Gamecocks. He attended South Carolina’s game against Clemson and is believed to be very interested in the Ga...

An Arab League advisory body called today for the immediate withdrawal of the organisation's monitoring mission in Syria, saying it was allowing Damascus to cover up continued violence and abuses.

Thirty people were killed and over 100 were wounded in a double suicide car bombing targeting security and intelligence buildings in Damascus, Friday. Syrian State TV said that the casualties included both military personnel and civilians, adding that the attack may have been the work of al-Qaeda. Eyewitnesses said they heard two blasts rock the capital. An activist with the Syrian Observatory ...

Syria's foreign minister says Damascus has formally agreed to allow Arab League observers into the country, the Associated Press reports.

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Marisa Tomei and Joshua Jackson will star in the upcoming political thriller "Inescapable," Myriad Pictures and Alliance Films announced Thursday. Alexander Siddig ("Miral") will co-star in the film, which will be directed by his "Cairo Time" collaborator Ruba Nadda. Nadda also wrote the script. "Inescapable" centers on a Syrian expatriate (Siddig) whose journalist d...

Release Time:  For Immediate Release Ambassador Robert Ford returns to Damascus today with our full confidence and support.  His return demonstrates our continued solidarity with the Syrian people and the value we place on Ford’s efforts to engage Syrians on their efforts to achieve a peaceful and democratic transition.  We believ...

ON my first night in Damascus I met a young woman with almond eyes, long black hair and pour-on jeans.

France calls for tougher sanctions against Syria and urges the UN Security Council to act to stop violent repression of protesters by Damascus.