BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian rebels attacked a military airport in the country's north on Saturday in a push to cut off Syria's biggest city Aleppo from the capital Damascus, and secure a strategic north-south corridor. President Bashar al-Assad's forces appear over-stretched with fewer fighters on the ground and have sought to limit rebel advances with far superior firepower, increasingly from the air and especially in the Aleppo and Damascus areas. …
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian rebels cast doubt on Monday on prospects for a temporary truce aimed at stemming bloodshed in the 19-month-old conflict, saying it was not clear how an informal ceasefire this week could be implemented. International mediator Lakhdar Brahimi, who held talks in Damascus on Sunday with President Bashar al-Assad, has proposed Assad's forces and the rebels hold fire during the three-day Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha which starts on Friday. …
DAMASCUS (Reuters) – International mediator Lakhdar Brahimi said after talks with President Bashar al-Assad that the escalating Syrian conflict posed a global danger. "We discussed the Syrian crisis and I repeat, this crisis is very dangerous," Brahimi told reporters after he met Assad for an hour at the presidential palace. "This crisis is deteriorating and represents a danger to the Syrian people, to the region, and to the whole world. …
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian troops stormed into a Palestinian refugee district in Damascus, opposition activists said, after a four-day artillery assault on the southern suburb where rebels fighting to oust President Bashar al-Assad have dug in. Assad's forces have preferred to use air power and artillery to hit areas where rebels are positioned and infantry raids normally occur only once many have fled. Activists said they feared for civilian inhabitants in the latest offensive. …
Rebel fighters have vowed to make Aleppo the "grave" of President Bashar al Assad's regime as they hung on in Syria's second city in the face of overwhelming firepower.
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Damascus and Syria's second biggest city, Aleppo, came under shell fire on Thursday as troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad stepped up efforts to crush rebels threatening the government's two main power centres. One of the most senior figures to defect from Assad's inner circle, Brigadier General Manaf Tlas, put himself forward as someone who could help unite the fragmented opposition inside and outside Syria on a blueprint for a transfer of power. …
AMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) – The United States has branded Syria's leaders murderers after an attack on a village by President Bashar al-Assad's troops left dozens dead, but there was no break in the deadlock among world powers over how to bring about an end to the bloodshed. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also condemned what his monitors on the ground had seen as an "indiscriminate" bombardment that included rocket-firing helicopters of the town of Tremseh in rebellious Hama province, and he questioned Assad's commitment to a U.N.-sponsored peace plan for Syria. But at U.N. …
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syria's ambassador to Iraq defected on Wednesday in protest at the military crackdown by President Bashar al-Assad's forces against a 16-month uprising, Syrian opposition sources said. Nawaf al-Fares, who has close ties to Syrian security, would be the first senior diplomat to quit the embattled government. There has been no comment from Damascus or Baghdad. …
BEIRUT/PARIS (Reuters) – One of President Bashar al-Assad's personal friends has defected and was headed for exile in France on Friday, as the Syrian crisis took on a Cold War tone when Washington threatened to make Russia and China "pay" for backing the government in Damascus. Manaf Tlas, a cadet college classmate, Republican Guard general and son of Assad's father's defence chief, has yet to surface abroad, or clearly to throw his lot in with the rebels, who acknowledged the loss of one of their strongholds overnight. …
ANKARA/BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syria described its shooting down of a Turkish warplane as an act of self-defence and warned Turkey and its NATO allies against any retaliatory measures. In shell-shattered districts of Homs, heart of a 16-month-old revolt against President Bashar al-Assad, rebels battled troops as aide workers tried to evacuate civilians. Turkish television reported the desertion of a Syrian general and other officers across the border. …
MOSCOW/BEIRUT (Reuters) – Both rebels and forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad are intensifying violence in Syria and striving for military gains rather than peaceful transition, the chief U.N. monitor in Syria, Major-General Robert Mood, said on Friday. Russia dug in further against Western pressure to discuss a post-Assad Syria, and France's foreign minister said Paris was considering whether to equip rebels with communications equipment to encourage a "stronger revolt". …
U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan is holding out hope that Syria’s government and opposition will abide by terms of a cease-fire plan that he brokered, as a Tuesday deadline for Damascus to begin pulling its forces out of urban areas came without a cessation of attacks. The deal brokered by Annan said Syria’s government must [...]
<!– As clashes between Syrian government forces and rebel fighters spill over the border into Turkey and Lebanon, the Obama administration has again condemned the Assad regime for the continuing violence. Meanwhile, the United Nations secretary general has made a final demand for the government to halt its attacks on civilians, as a deadline draws [...]
<!– Representatives of more than 80 nations and the Syrian opposition met in Istanbul on the weekend to maintain the pressure on President Bashar al Assad to end the violence in his country. The group, which calls itself the Friends of Syria, called on the UN-Arab League envoy, Kofi Annan, to give the Syrian leader [...]
(CNN) — Even though Syria has signed off on a U.N.-backed peace initiative, activist groups said there’s no evidence yet that the regime is carrying out the plan on Wednesday. At least 15 people, including two military defectors, were killed on Wednesday as security forces fired shells and rockets, staged raids, and clashed with resistance [...]
Syrian rights activists say government forces have assaulted several rebel strongholds, as Arab nations made a new diplomatic effort to end Syria’s year-long conflict. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Wednesday forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad tried to storm the central town of Rastan, triggering a battle with rebels that killed three [...]
By Khaled Yacoub Oweis AMMAN | Wed Mar 21, 2012 8:18pm EDT AMMAN (Reuters) – The U.N. Security Council, including Russia and China, threw its weight on Wednesday behind efforts by Kofi Annan to end the bloody conflict in Syria, providing a rare moment of global unity in the face of the year-long crisis. In [...]
Armed Syrian defectors took their uprising into the heart of a heavily guarded and wealthy district of Damascus on Monday, clashing with security forces in what activists and residents called the most intense fighting in such a strategic area since the protests against President Bashar al-Assad began a year ago. More related to this story [...]
Syria says twin car bombings in Damascus on Saturday have killed at least 27 people. State media reports say nearly 100 people were wounded in the blasts, which occurred minutes apart near a police security building and an intelligence center. Television footage and photos have shown smoke billowing from the explosion sites, twisted steel and [...]
Syria‘s President Bashar al-Assad – whose armed forces are in the midst of a bloody crackdown on opponents of his rule — has called parliamentary elections for May. The elections – set to take place on 7 May – were announced under a new constitution passed last month. However, Assad’s opponents say the constitution is [...]
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UK Prime Minister to Lobby President GoodLuck for Gay People in Nigeria
The Britain Prime Minister, Mr David Cameroon whilst reacting to questions from a Nigerian, Name, Bisi, living in Britain, who asked for his reaction to a bill approved by Nigerian lawmakers last month banning same-sex marriage – setting jail terms of up to 14 years for offenders – and making it illegal to form gay [...]
Death Of Nans Senate President And Four Others In Auto Crash Erc Condoles With Nans And Students
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Condoms, narcotic drugs flood Boko Haram camps
More of the dirty sides of the insurgents’ lifestyle are being revealed as troops continue to stumble on strange and bizarre objects such as several used and unused condoms as well as charms and amulets of various shapes in the captured terrorists camps. Defence spokesman, Brigadier-General Chris Olukolade, who made the revelation, said that [...]
Clarifying Nigeria’s Debt Position
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Governor Yari: An Excellent Performer in search of “Result-Oriented SSG”
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Latest Jobs in NigeriaRussia’s Putin torpedoes G8 efforts to oust Assad
By Andrew Osborn and Maria Golovnina ENNISKILLEN, Northern Ireland | Tue Jun 18, 2013 4:10pm EDT ENNISKILLEN, Northern Ireland (Reuters) – Russia’s Vladimir Putin derailed Barack Obama’s efforts to win backing for the downfall of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad at a G8 summit on Tuesday, warning the West that arms supplied to the rebels could [...]
Taliban Step Toward Afghan Peace Talks Is Hailed by US
If the talks begin, they would be a significant step in peace efforts that have been locked in an impasse for nearly 18 months. American officials have long pushed for such talks, believing them crucial to stabilizing Afghanistan after the 2014 Western military withdrawal. But it was unclear what immediate actions led the Taliban to [...]