Syrian tanks enter coastal town in new crackdown

Syrian tanks in a city coastal Mediterranean Saturday in an escalation of the repression by President Bashar al-Assad, just a day after clashes with the demonstrators hostile to the Government left at least 30 deaths in all the countries, activists said.

Details on the deployment of troops in Banias, which saw weeks of demonstrations demanding a change of regime, were rare as lines of telephone and communication with the city and the surrounding area have been cut.

But activists in contact with the inhabitants of the city, said soldiers deployed to Banias before dawn.

Activist said tanks in the area of the sea and were stationed in at least three villages Sunni just to the South of Banias, adding that the soldiers were research door to door and arrests in the district of al-Marqab about a mile Southeast of the city and in the villages of Bayda and Basatin more to the South.

Banias, which has a major oil refinery and is the main point of Syrian oil export, has a potentially explosive mixture of religious groups and sects. It is divided between Sunni Muslims and Alawites - the sect of the ruling Assad family and numerous personalities.

Several other activists reported off the coast of the Banias gunboats. They said that the city, which had become a main focus of anti-Government protests, is now fully besieged. The talks of activists on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

The deployment of Banias came a few hours after the clashes Friday with anti-government demonstrators killed 30 people across the country, according to a rights activist Syrian leader.

In this image of citizen journalism on a mobile phone and acquired by the AP, hostile demonstrators to the Syrian Government meet in the coastal town of Banias, Syria, Friday, may 6, 2011. The forces of Syrian security have opened fire on the demonstrators Friday, killing at least 16 people as thousands joined protests across the country, calling to end the regime of President Bashar Assad, witnesses and activists said. (AP photo) Close

The move raises fears of an operation military large-scale Banias, similar to that conducted in the southern city of Dara flash point.

Dara, near the Jordanian border, has been under siege since April 25, when the Syrian authorities cut electricity lines and the telephone and deployment of tanks and snipers to crush dissent there.

The army announced the end of an 11-day military operation Thursday, but residents have since said troops still remain in the streets. Some 50 people have been reported, killed at Dara in the course of last 10 days.

Syria uprising was triggered by the arrest of adolescents who scribbled anti-Government graffiti on a wall in Dara. Demonstrations quickly spread across the nation of some 23 million people.

More than 580 civilians and 100 soldiers have been killed since the start of the revolt, say rights groups.

The United Nations, said Saturday he sent a team in Syria to investigate the situation, and the European Union should impose sanctions on Syrian officials next week. The two actions are important blows dEl-Assad, a British reformer educated, self-styled, who tried to bring back the Syria in his 11 years in power integrate global.

In Washington, the spokesman for the Department of State Mark Toner said that to the United States urging the Syrian Government to stop of "violence against innocent citizens who are simply demonstrating and trying to state their aspirations for a more democratic future."

Protests Friday, extends over the nation, the capital of the Mediterranean coast and the arid Northeast.

Rallies were held in major areas, including the capital Damascus and its suburbs, Banias on the coast and Qamishli in the Northeast.

An activist of the human rights said Associated Press that 30 people were killed Friday, the demonstrators.

Media State the Syria said 10 soldiers and police officers were killed in the central city of Homs and 25 others were injured in Hama.

The bloodshed was the last spasm in what became a weekly cycle of mass followed by a swift crackdown and deadly protests.

But pressure was mounting on El-Assad, which emphasizes that the disorders are a foreign conspiracy carried out by "terrorist groups".

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Zeina Karam is available at http://twitter.com/zkaram

Workers enter the Japan reactor nuclear building

Workers in one of the buildings damaged reactor at the nuclear plant disaster of Japan Thursday for the first time since it was rocked by an explosion in the days after a devastating earthquake, the country's nuclear security agencysaid.

The plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., said workers are connecting ventilation equipment to the unit 1 in an attempt to absorb the radiation from the air inside the building. The work should take about four or five days.

The utility must lower the levels of radiation within the reactor before the key step of the installation of a cooling system is eliminated by the earthquake on March 11 and the subsequent tsunami that leaves the people of more than 25,000 dead or missing along the northeast of the Japan Coast.

Workers were unable to enter the buildings of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power reactor, about 140 km northeast of Tokyo, since the first days after the tsunami. Explosions of hydrogen to four of the buildings of the complex six-reactor in the early days destroyed some of their roofs and walls and dispersed radioactive debris.

In April, a robot recorded readings of radioactivity of approximately 50 millisieverts per hour building reactor of unit 1 - for workers to enter realistically a too high level.

The decision to send workers was made after the robots last Friday raised fresh data that showed radiation levels were sufficiently safe for workers to enter in some regions, said Taisuke Tomikawa, a TEPCO spokesman.

Two workers entered the reactor building autour from 11: 30 pm (0230GMT) for about 25 minutes. They were exposed to 2 millisieverts during this time, said Tomikawa.

A dozen workers split into teams had to enter the building on a rotation for short periods limit exposure to radiation.

"It is an effort to improve the environment inside the reactor building," he said.

Workers were equipped with protective and a reservoir of mask and air set similar to those used by the scuba divers, according to an official of the industrial and nuclear safety agency.

Before the building of the reactor, the utility erected a temporary tent designed to prevent radioactive air to escape.

TEPCO has a plan to bring the integrating plant a cold judgment within six to nine months.

Japanese authorities have more than double the legal limit of exposure to radiation from nuclear workers since the beginning of the crisis to 250 millisieverts per year. The United States nuclear industry workers are allowed to an upper limit of 50 millisieverts per year. Doctors say irradiation sets 1,000 millisieverts and includes nausea and vomiting.

Radiation leaks from the Fukushima plant has forced 80,000 people living within a radius of 12 miles (20 kilometres) out of their homes. Many live in gymnasiums and community centers.

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Associated Press Writer Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.