Damascus (Syria)

Syria's opposition umbrella group, which most Western and Arab powers opposed to the Damascus regime have recognised, met Sunday in Istanbul in a bid to name a prime minister-in-exile, one of its leaders said.

Anisa Makhluf, the mother of President Bashar al-Assad, has left the war-torn country and joined her daughter in Dubai, Syrian expatriates in the United Arab Emirates and an activist said on Sunday.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem has rejected the idea that President Bashar al-Assad will be ousted, telling state television that those who demand his removal want only bloodshed in the country.

Syrian Kurds urged the opposition on Saturday to halt a siege against them by Islamist rebels, as the UN condemned the killing of dozens of children across the country over the past week.

Syria's foreign ministry on Saturday decried a petition by 58 countries calling for a war crimes case against Damascus, in a letter to the president of the United Nations Security Council.

Fierce clashes raged Friday in a majority Kurdish city of Syria and near Damascus, as UN rights chief Navi Pillay piled pressure on the Security Council to probe war crimes in the 22-month conflict.

Armed men opened fire on Friday in the north Lebanese city of Tripoli on the convoy of a pro-Damascus minister, wounding some of his bodyguards, a security official told AFP.

Tired of failed forecasts about their country's bitter conflict that has left more than 60,000 people dead, some Syrians have turned to fortune tellers and astrology to try to predict what lies ahead.

Rebels bogged down in Syria's former commercial hub of Aleppo are waging an assault on regime forces defending its international airport, seeing it as the key to seizing the whole city.

More than 100 civilians have been killed in a new "massacre" in Syria, a watchdog said Thursday, as Russia slammed the United States for blaming deadly blasts at a university campus on the Damascus regime.

More than 100 civilians have been killed in a new "massacre" in Syria, a watchdog said Thursday, as Russia slammed the United States for blaming deadly blasts at a university campus on the Damascus regime.

Rebels trying to break a months-long deadlock in their battle for Syria's second city Aleppo say they are cutting supply routes ahead of simultaneous assaults on regime bases.

Desperate and unable to provide for his wife and four daughters, a Syrian refugee who swapped deadly violence in Damascus for destitution in Lebanon hanged himself on Tuesday.

An air raid south of Damascus on Thursday killed at least 11 civilians, among them seven children, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

A Syrian army assault killed more than 100 civilians, including women and children, on farmland on the outskirts of the central city of Homs, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported Thursday.

Twin car bombs killed at least 22 people in the Syrian city of Idlib on Wednesday as universities nationwide held a day of mourning for 87 people killed in explosions on the student campus in second city Aleppo.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed no change in Iran's staunch "cooperation" with Damascus, in talks with visiting Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halaqi, reports said on Wednesday.

Universities were closed across Syria on Wednesday to mark a day of mourning called after twin blasts tore through an Aleppo campus while students were writing exams, killing at least 87 people.

Twin blasts ripped through university buildings in Syria's second city Aleppo on Tuesday killing at least 82 people and wounding scores more, on the first day of exams for students.

Twin blasts ripped through the university campus in Syria's second city Aleppo on Tuesday killing at least 82 people and wounding scores more, the provincial governor said.