...The
City of Jasminis the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti...
and were caught up in the regime's continuing crackdown on dissent, a human rights
...which often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless...
group said.
However,
nothing needs reforming like other people's bad habits...
local Syrian coordination committees reported that 25 people have been killed at the hands of Syrian security forces in Homs, Daraa, and Reef Hama on Wednesday, reported al-Arabiya television.
Starting at dawn, when the crackle of gunfire could be heard sustained for half an hour, the corpse count steadily rose through the day.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said: "Six non-combatants were killed in the Damascus neighborhood of Barzeh, five of whom were slain by security forces who fired on the funeral of a young man.
"Three other civilians perished under the bullet of the regime's forces at Inkhel, in the southern Daraa region, and seven protesters were maimed in the neighboring locality of Jassem who were protesting against the repression," it added.
The continuing killing -- which on Tuesday resulted in another 20 bodies -- has increased international anger at Syria which only last week signed up to an Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
peace plan which called for an end to violence.
Under the plan, Damascus would also release those jugged for protesting, and withdraw all Syrian forces from towns and cities. It says it has already released more than 500.
But since signing the Arab roadmap, up to Tuesday according to the United Nations
...an international organization whose stated aims of facilitating interational security involves making sure that nobody with live ammo is offended unless it's a civilized country...
, Syrian forces have killed another 60 people, adding to the U.N. estimate of 3,500 who have died in the crackdown on protests which erupted in mid-March.
The opposition Syrian National Council -- an umbrella body grouping most of the pro-democracy currents -- has urged the vaporous Arab League "to take a strong and effective position against the Syrian regime commensurate with the dangerous development of the situation in Syria, especially in... Homs."
It wants the League to freeze Syria's membership, impose economic and diplomatic sanctions, and seek the referral of allegations of genocide and other human rights violations by the regime to the
International Criminal Court... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ...
.
Listing the latest dead, the Britannia-based Observatory said two more civilians were shot and killed in Homs -- the besieged flashpoint city 160 kilometers (100 miles) north of Damascus -- and one civilian in Abu Kamal in the east, killed during checks and questioning by security forces.
Three people, one of them a child, died under the bullets of the regime's forces in the southern region of Daraa, birthplace of the eight-month-old protest movement against Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir
Pencilneckal-Assad
Supressor of the Damascenes...
, the Observatory said in a statement.
In Brussels, diplomats said the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
is readying a freeze on European Investment Bank credits to Syria as it mulls more sanctions on Assad's regime, with a decision expected at a meeting of foreign ministers next Monday.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague joined those demanding the Arab League respond promptly to Syria's failure to abide by its commitments.
"I call on the Arab League to respond swiftly and decisively to the Syrian regime's failure to implement the agreement so far," said Hague. "The international community looks to these Arab nations to show decisive leadership to address this crisis in their midst."
Ravina Shamdasani, spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, described the situation in the embattled neighborhood of Homs as "appalling," with residents deprived of food, water, and medical supplies for the past week.
NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization....
, which intervened in Libya, has ruled out operations in Syria, and U.N. Security Council sanctions are unlikely because Russia and China, both with the power of veto, are allies of the Assad regime.
This has put the Arab League in the spotlight as the best possible chance of bringing pressure on Damascus.
The Cairo-based League is due to hold an emergency ministerial meeting on Syria next Saturday.
Syria meanwhile has apologized to Leb over repeated border violations and has vowed to respect its neighbor's independence and illusory sovereignty, Lebanese President Michel Suleiman's office told AFP. A number of Syrian opposition figures have disappeared in Leb.