Syria: Has the regime turned a corner against manifestations?

As days of brilliant spring gradually turn hot and muggy, Damascus consensus is that the protest movement was seriously burned. The Facebook group activist Syrian revolution 2011 extinguish an order for a general strike across the Syria Wednesday for "mass demonstrations" and the closure of all schools, universities, shops and restaurants, "not even taxis." But no there was no strike apparent Wednesday morning in central Damascus.

The mucky market was filled with veiled women grocery and intrepid boys tattered jeans yelled out price for their goods. The battered yellow taxis swiveled past big green bus brimming with children in school uniform, their sweaty brows and eyes filled with boredom. Damascus resumed his life regular, apparently unconscious of the Syria has been the subject of the attention of the world for more than two months. (See the photos of these events in Syria).

The Syria government fiercely occurred after demonstrators - reinforced by the eviction of two long despots - to called Egypt and Tunisia - power at the end of the regime of President Bashar Al Assad. On Wednesday, after long insistence, the United States slapped sanctions on the Government dEl-Assad for the human rights violations. Shares of Washington may be too late - if sanctions had no chance of success at all.

Events in Egypt and the Tunisia have been strengthened after the sympathy of brutality increased police and army for the demonstrators, source of inspiration for thousands more flocking to the cause. It is not the same in Syria. Even as the Suppression of the Government grew more threatening, most of the sources reached by the ratio of time that the rate of participation in street demonstrations is significantly smaller than in the past few weeks. Fear in anti-Government supporters is that the violence in Syria seems to work. In an interview with the Syrian newspaper al-Watan published on Wednesday, Al-Assad stated that the Syria has now "out of the crisis." In the streets of Damascus, many observers believe that they are suitable.

Indeed, many activists are in prison or too afraid to assemble. Stages and public buildings using improvised prisons as police arrested thousands of demonstrators, according to Syrian human rights organizations. A Syrian student, who said that two of his classmates have disappeared, said time than anyone else to protest or documenting the arrest of risk of torture and demonstration. "You could walk along the street and never go where you go,", launches slightly, as if the horror of his statement was tolerable in a joke. (See how public places helped to mold the Arab spring.)

Omnipresent secret service of the Syria has always succeeded in tapping calls, using neighbors to spy on each other and reading of emails. A Korean student who studied Arabic here, explains that during a long telephone call that he had with his parents in Korea the dead line and voice of a gruff man slaughter po "To speak in English, please," the mysterious voice asked politely.

Observers here that the regime has fostered a culture of paranoia to deter people more civil disobedience, contributing to the failure of the Wednesday strike. During the recent tumult, an unprecedented number of people disappeared - about 8,000 according to local defence of the human rights - and militant groups are petrified to communicate by telephone.

Fear made it impossible to judge the mood among the Syrians. To speak of politics is taboo and denounce the regime can lead to prison. Many people said they fear that unrest could cause sectarian strife, as in the neighbouring countries in the Lebanon and Iraq. Some Syrians of middle class say they fear losing prosperity brought by the President, who opened the country to foreign investment when he came to power in 2000. If the President fled, they say, the economy would be paralyzed by populist socialist political demands. (See "the rebellion of hunger: brutal tactics of the Syria.")

A Syrian journalist, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals, said that pro-Government rhetoric is primarily the lies told by people to protect themselves. "Everyone hates the Government, throughout the world." They are simply too afraid to say, "she said when asked why people continue to say that they support the Government." She believes that the anti-Government movement, now battered and bruised, is weighing it is possible to continue to protest when the army is prepared to use real bullets constantly against demonstrations. "I think the President will leave soon, but no one wants what happens now.".

For those who still have the demonstration, violence is guaranteed. Armed with assault rifles, wooden clubs, the civilian secret police, or mukhabarat, have established positions in areas around the capital key, preventing the same from the numerous protests and increased security measures confined people to their neighbourhoods, or even their homes.

Radwan Ziadeh, Syrian dissident and researcher Washington-based invited to the Institute of studies of the Middle East at George Washington University, said State security is much more brutal than that of Hosni Mubarak, the President stripped of the Egypt. "[The Assad Government] a lot of experience with brutality," he said in time. Western observers in Damascus agreed that the intensive use of indiscriminate violence since the start of the insurgency in Syria has managed to discourage many join the demonstrations. Groups say between 700 and 850 human rights people have been killed so far. (See the Syria video rebel).

Residents of Homs, one of the cities most restive of the Syria, said that the army is using parts of the city shell tanks and that the police is entered breaking into homes the. Percolate similar rumors in other cities throughout the country, but the Government's refusal to allow the majority of foreign Syria journalists and imposed communication failures make virtually impossible corroborate the reports. Ziadeh insists that the army is now all the cities in Syria. He said that the Duma, a suburb on the outskirts of Damascus, more than 100,000 people were demonstrating a few weeks ago. "Now you see someone," he said.

To justify the brutal repression, the Syrian Government casts recent disorders as an uprising by criminal gangs and "terrorist extremist groups" rather than a popular movement for a vast change against an authoritarian regime. The news agency, SANA, regularly publishes articles appoint "rioters", which themselves have turned the authorities in exchange for amnesty.

The machine gun in Homs reports and the bombing of the nearby city of Tel Kelakh filtered Wednesday, at least evidence that, despite the repression, that the Government still had to impose order on the Syrians, who have not given up for protest. "There less large number," dissenting Ziadeh admits, but every day, they continue to protest. ?

Islamists in Pakistan to protest against the bin Laden raid (Reuters) United States

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - most influential Islamist party urged his followers to organise demonstrations of mass Friday to demand their Government withdraws its support of the war on activism after commandos killed U.S. Osama bin Laden, near Islamabad.

Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), one of the greatest political parties religion of the country, said that in the United States had violated the sovereignty of key ally Pakistan by sending its own forces in the town of garrison of Abbottabad to kill the al-Qaeda Chief.

Pakistan's support is essential to U.S. efforts against Islamic militants and also in the fight against the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan to fight.

"Even if there was no sympathy for the Americans, which would be dissipated after the way they were crushed and violated our sovereignty and our independence,"JI leader Syed Munawar Hasan told Reuters on Thursday.""

"We called everyone to organize peaceful demonstrations Friday in very large scale," he said. "Our first demand is... Pakistan should withdraw from the war against terrorism."

Anti-Americanism runs high in Pakistan, despite the billions of dollars in aid for nuclear weapons, poor country. Religious parties of Pakistan did not traditionally well at the ballot box, but they exert considerable influence in a country where Islam is more radicalized.

The war of the United States against militancy is unpopular in Pakistan, because of the perception of the civil dead against the attacks of drone against the suspected militants along the Afghan border.

But many people also criticize radical interpretation of Islam al-Qaeda and suicide bombers that lead his disciples and analyst Hasan Askari Rizvi said that any protests are likely to be more anti-états-Unis than Laden favour.

"I do not think that they (religious parties) will draw big crowds in gatherings." These events will put unlikely any large pressure on the Government to change course, "he says.

For the moment there some public protests in Pakistan against bin Laden killing early Monday to Abbottabad, 50 km (31 miles) northeast of Islamabad. A more violent activist of Pakistan groups, Lashkar-e-Taiba, held special prayers for the Chief of al-Qaeda and called for his death "martyrdom."

The fact that bin Laden was killed in Pakistan, after seemed y lived for several years, has embarrassed as many people in the Government and powerful country's spy agency.

"In Pakistan and its security apparatus became something of a laughing stock, with the media around the world highlighting the discovery of the man most wanted in the world to a military Academy in leading walking distance."," The News wrote in an editorial Thursday.

Some Pakistani saying that they were too concerned about the difficulties of living in a country with a troubled economy and chronic shortages of power to join with any type of events.

"There is no electricity, no gas, with the rise in inflation, making ends meet is difficult every day.".

"If our country was not mired with economic difficulties at this stage, perhaps us would require more answers from the Government or the United States, but now I no longer have big problems," said Sara Ahmed, an employee of the Government in the port of Karachi.

(Other reports by Zeeshan Haider in ISLAMABAD and KARACHI, mounting by Miral Fahmy Ahmed Sahar)

Honduras removes all charges against the former President (AP)

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - A Honduran Court rejected the last two remaining charges Monday against the former President Manuel Zelaya, removing a key obstacle to return in the country.

The decision also could pave the way for the return of the country to the Organization of American States, who have expelled Honduras after the coup of June 2009 ousted Zelaya.

In a statement in Washington, Secretary General of the OAS Jose Miguel Insulza said that "this puts an end to uncertainty on the legal status of the former President."

"The main condition for the return of the Honduras the Organization has been met," he wrote in the statement. "I will immediately begin the consultation with the Member States to examine their will to call an assembly to consider the issue."

Honduras was expelled from the OAS and subject to diplomatic isolation after the coup. Most of the recovery relations after Lobo assumed his functions.

A Court of special appeals panel dismissed the charges of fraud and falsification of documents filed against Zelaya after the coup.

The Court said the criminal charges could be improperly overloaded civil law and should be rescinded. Federal prosecutors said that they call you the decision of the Court, with 60 days to file the appeal.

In March, a judge has suspended arrest warrants for related charges, which Zelaya claims are politically motivated.

Zelaya has already said that he would return to the Dominican Republican, where he lives, because he feared for his life. In an interview with the Radio Globo Honduran radio station in March, Zelaya claimed "there are people who want to liquidate me and are still alive, and they have great power.". He added that his enemies include powerful businessmen but gave no other details.

Zelaya did not immediately following the actions of the court Monday.

Campaign Zelaya to rewrite the constitution, possibly to allow his re-election, anger elite of business Honduras in 2009. The military deposed him and he stole the country under threat when he ignored an order from the Supreme Court to cancel a referendum on the constitutional review.

Roberto Micheletti, a former leader of the Congress, took power provisionally, and former President of the National Congress Porfirio Lobo won the end of 2009 Presidency in an election scheduled before the coup. Lobo replaced Micheletti following January.

In April, Lobo met with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and Colombian leader Juan Manuel Santos in Cartagena, Colombia, where the three agreed that the abandonment of the charges against Zelaya could help the Honduras to return to the Organization of American States. Venezuela and left allies objected to return of the Honduras.

Libyan, fight against spills in Tunisia (The Christian Science Monitor)

Dehiba, Tunisia - the civil war of the Libya in the South of the Tunisia Friday as scores of troops loyal to the bursting of the colonel Muammar Qathafi across the border and in a town nearby. The incursion came after the failure of the loyalists to return to a remote border post, which has become a rebel lifeline.

Two Libyan Government rockets landed in the Tunisian city of Dehiba and angry residents attack one of the Libyan military vehicles with stones, causing it and its anti-aircraft gun to overturn, killing the driver.

The presence of the armed forces blasting their guns in a neighbouring country would have been an international incident nowhere elsewhere. But the ebb and flow of this conflict - and the porous desert border between the Libya and the Tunisia - means that the Tunisian authorities could do little to stop the incursion. The military Tunisia and the border police is removed entirely from their border posts during the heaviest fighting late Thursday.

Uplift Libya: 5 steps the world takes

Rebel flag was raised again to that position on Friday morning, the final result of an attack by the forces of Colonel Gaddafi three-pronged began Thursday afternoon. The battle was initially loyalist victory - and a farm of their green flag for the first time since the rebels took control here a week ago.

Battle at the border.

But a fierce battle that stretched into the night saw loyalist troops surround and finally forced to flee, with 162 entering Tunisia with 18 vehicles.

The Tunisian army disarmed the Libyans, but then escorted back to a point of illegal crossing frequented by smugglers. The Loyalists surrendered their weapons and should resume their fight.

"Dehiba is very important for the [anti-Qathafi] revolutionaries for resupply - they are battling for the corner," said Samir Abdelmounem, a Tunisian doctor who treated the injured rebels and loyalists Qathafi both Dehiba hospital.

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"And this population feels great solidarity with [the rebels], as they are family," explains Dr. Abdelmounem. The Tunisians "hate Qathafi soldiers, they have a horror of them".

Tunisian soldiers have been posted from the hospital, he said, because "people wanted to come here and finish their".

Two Dehiba homes, a few kilometres from the border, were hit by Libyan rockets. Stray bullets struck a Libyan refugee boy in the foot and injured a Tunisian man.

Surprise attack

Rebels said that they were surprised at the attack by the forces of Qathafi and said that they had hired local guides in the difficult mountainous desert and provide details of force rebel and location.

"Even the Nalutis [local sections of the nearest Libyan town of Nalut]" were surprised: how come this way? ", says a rebel named Wajdi who works on the Tunisian side of the border."

"The rebels learned something this.". We will never leave this low area once again, "said Wajdi." Or they will depend on NATO aid: Wajdi has been in direct contact with NATO during the fighting, providing details in real time of possible targets.

"I was talking to their live... and nothing," said Wajdi. "" "". "Unfortunately provide us the information, but we continue long wait for a response."

As he spoke, a column of black smoke rose from the Libyan side of the border, where rebels burn clothing and personal effects of LOYALISTS fleeing Qathafi. A Loyalist dead had his toes tied together, apparently to prevent him to flee before his death.

For the months of two and a half years, rebel in remote mountains of Western the Libya, which are dominated by ethnic Berbers that have always challenged rule Qathafi, took up arms to join the anti-Government revolution.

Crucial passage for the rebels

This crossing has played an important role. Capture of rebels it a week ago has been a blow to Tripoli and stimulate their supply of long-hampered, leading to a boost in the fight against the rebels.

Members of the Tunisian National Guard thought some Qathafi Loyalists who crossed Friday were intended to tackle a Libyan refugee on the edge of the Dehiba camp.

Failed, but there was drama at Dehiba hospital, where wounded soldiers Qathafi 12 have been taken, with three rebel wounded. Doctors were struck by the fact the loyalist troops seemed so young, and that two have been traumatized while they tried to flee to the arrival and had to be captured by the Tunisian soldiers.

Hospital staff immediately separated the rebels and loyalists in two different wings of the building. Abdelmounem has explained: "it is therefore that we have not any more problems we already have".

Uplift Libya: 5 steps the world takes