AMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian government forces attacked opponents of President Bashar al-Assad in cities and towns across the country on Tuesday and Arab officials confirmed that regional governments would be ready to arm the resistance if the bloodshed did not cease.

The western city of Homs, heart of the uprising against Assad’s 11-year-rule, suffered a bombardment of pro-opposition neighbourhoods for the 11th day running. At least six people were reported killed.

AMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian government forces attacked opponents of President Bashar al-Assad in cities and towns across the country on Tuesday and Arab officials confirmed that regional governments would be ready to arm the resistance if the bloodshed did not cease.

The western city of Homs, heart of the uprising against Assad’s 11-year-rule, suffered a bombardment of pro-opposition neighborhoods for the 11th day running. At least six people were reported killed.

AMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) – An Arab League proposal to boost support for the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and to send in foreign peacekeepers drew a guarded international response on Monday and showed little sign of halting the bloodshed soon.

Russia, Assad’s close ally and main arms supplier, said it could not support a peacekeeping mission unless both sides ceased the violence first.

AMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) – Sporadic rocket and gunfire broke a respite in Syrian government attacks on opposition-held districts of Homs city on Sunday as Arab League officials in Cairo discussed ways to halt the crackdown and shift President Bashar al-Assad from power.

The activist Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said four people were been killed in Baba Amro on Sunday morning and at least 34 rockets had rained down on the neighbourhood.

AMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) – Traumatized residents straggled from their homes in Homs city on Sunday after Syrian forces eased a week-long bombardment that has killed hundreds and caused a humanitarian crisis.

A few families were allowed to leave mostly Sunni Muslim opposition districts where people had been trapped indoors for days by relentless artillery and sniper fire, residents said.

AMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian forces unleashed new tank and rocket bombardments on opposition neighborhoods of Homs on Saturday while diplomats sought U.N. backing for an Arab plan to end 11 months of bloodshed in Syria.

Activists said seven people were killed in the latest attacks in a week-long government siege of Homs, a battered city at the heart of the uprising to oust President Bashar al-Assad.

AMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) – At least 28 people were killed in two bomb attacks in Syria’s second city Aleppo on Friday while in besieged Homs, opposition neighborhoods endured another day of bombardment by President Bashar al-Assad’s troops.

The Aleppo bombings were the worst violence to hit the country’s commercial hub since the uprising against the Assad family’s 42-year dynastic rule began 11 months ago.

AMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian forces bombarded opposition-held neighborhoods of the city of Homs with rocket and mortar fire on Thursday, activists said, as divided world powers struggled to find a way to end the violence.

The United Nations chief condemned the ferocity of the government assault on Homs, heart of a revolt against President Bashar al-Assad that broke out nearly a year ago and is getting bloodier by the day.

London (Reuters) – Texas-based singer Tom Russell has led a picaresque life, from teaching criminology in war-torn Nigeria to playing strip joints in Vancouver’s red-light district.

He’s lived in Spain and Norway, written songs for Johnny Cash, driven a cab and followed bullfighters in Mexico.

MADRID, Nov 21 (Reuters) – Spanish
Prime Minister elect Mariano Rajoy was under pressure
on Monday to give rapid details of his policies to overcome the
worst economic crisis for generations as his
overwhelming election victory did little to calm the nerves of
investors .

Rajoy’s conservative People’s Party (PP)
notched up the biggest election victory in 30 years on Sunday,
with angry voters savaging the outgoing Socialists for a crisis
that has pushed unemployment in Spain to more than 20 percent,
the highest in the European Union.