Middle East

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian forces shot dead four civilians on a bus on Wednesday and fighting raged near Damascus, dissidents said, as international pressure mounted on President Bashar al-Assad to honor U.N.-backed ceasefire pledges to order his troops back to barracks.

BEIRUT — Samir Geagea was bending down to pick a flower, he said, when he heard the sound of gunshots. From a hilltop a kilometer away, a sniper drew a bead on the political leader, a former warlord, sending a bullet past his head and another by his torso.

UNITED NATIONS, April 24 (Reuters) - The U.N. peacekeeping chief told the Security Council on Tuesday it will take a month to deploy 100 unarmed military observers to Syria, envoys said, though international mediator Kofi Annan argued that a few monitors on the ground can make a difference. 

(Reuters) - The European Union adopted new sanctions against Syria on Monday because of the continued bloodshed in the country despite a 10-day ceasefire, the EU's council of foreign ministers announced.  The new measures announced by the ministers, representing EU governments, would restrict exports to Syria of two types of merchandise: luxury products and certain goods that could be used for repression.

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian troops armed with heavy machine guns killed dozens in the central city of Hama Monday, activists said, just a day after chanting protesters welcomed a visit by a U.N. team sent to observe a shaky cease-fire.  The day's violence, the city's worst in months, added a dangerous new aspect to the U.N. team's work: that the Syrian regime might exact deadly revenge against opponents who feel empowered by the observers' presence to spill into the streets.  Observance of the truce, which was supposed to begin April 12, has been spotty at best.

United Nations ceasefire monitors were touring towns near the Syrian capital on Monday, an official said, as the European Union slapped new sanctions on the regime of Bashar al-Assad.  Neeraj Singh, spokesman for an eight-member advance team of UN observers deployed in

BEIRUT — As Syria’s revolution drags into its second year amid few signs that a U.N.-mandated cease-fire plan will end the violence, evidence is mounting that Islamist extremists are seeking to commandeer what began as a non-ideological uprising aimed at securing greater political freedom.  Activists and rebel soldiers based inside Syria say a small but growing number of Islamist radicals affiliated with global jihadi movements have been arriving in opposition strongholds in recent weeks and attempting to rally support among disaffected residents.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon said Thursday that President Bashar al-Assad was not fulfilling his commitment to a ceasefire and pressed the Security Council to approve an expanded observer mission in Syria.  His remarks came as France also called for a more robust UN mission, warning that Syria was headed for civil war, and as the United States demanded tougher UN sanctions and an arms embargo on President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian troops shelled a rebel-held neighborhood and sent reinforcements to border areas as the opposition called for fresh protests Friday after the United Nations accused Syrian President Bashar Assad of failing to honor a peace plan that went into effect a week ago.  The latest violence came hours after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called Thursday for the U.N. Security Council to adopt an arms embargo and other tough measures against Syria during a meeting in Paris of Western and Arab diplomats.

BEIRUT/UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Syria and the United Nations signed an agreement on Thursday on terms for hundreds of observers to monitor a ceasefire, but fierce diplomatic wrangling lies ahead to persuade the West the mission can have the authority and power to ensure peace.  A handful of U.N. observers are already in Syria monitoring a week-old truce tha