CAIRO (Reuters) – The Arab League approved economic sanctions on Syria on Sunday to try to force Damascus to halt an eight-month crackdown on protests against President Bashar al-Assad that Qatar said may prompt international intervention.

Anti-Assad activists said there was no respite from the crackdown and security forces had killed at least 24 civilians, many in a town north of Damascus that has become a focus for protests demanding Assad’s removal. Others were killed in raids on towns in the province of Homs.

CAIRO, Nov 27 (Reuters) – Arab states voted on Sunday to
impose economic sanctions on Syria immediately, in response to
President Bashar al-Assad’s failure to halt a violent crackdown
on an eight-month uprising against his rule.

Qatar said that if Arab nations failed to resolve the
crisis, other foreign powers might intervene.

CAIRO (Reuters) – Arab ministers, spurred to action by worsening violence in Syria, were meeting in Cairo on Sunday to plan how to enforce sanctions on President Bashar al-Assad’s government after it failed to implement a regional peace plan.

Ministers told the Arab League’s economic and social council to draw up measures after Damascus ignored a deadline to let in Arab monitors and take other steps to end the government crackdown on an eight-month uprising against Assad’s rule.

CAIRO (Reuters) – The Arab League, stung into action by months of bloodshed in Syria, met opponents of President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday, a day after violence in his country claimed 69 more lives.

The League, which has voted to suspend Syria’s membership from Wednesday, asked Syrian opposition groups to draw up their plans for a power transition, as a prelude to a wider gathering on Syria’s future planned by the Cairo-based body.

CAIRO (Reuters) – The Arab League has asked Syrian opposition groups to submit their vision for a transition of power ahead of a bigger conference on Syria’s future, a League official and a member of the opposition said on Tuesday.

The League agreed on Saturday to start talks with Syrian dissidents after a majority of its 22 members voted to suspend Syria’s membership of the pan-Arab body from Wednesday over its violent response to protests against President Bashar al-Assad.

CAIRO (Reuters) – The Arab League suspended Syria and called on its army to stop killing civilians in a surprise move on Saturday that some Western leaders said should prompt tougher international action against President Bashar al-Assad.

Hours after the League’s decision, hundreds of Assad supporters armed with sticks and knives attacked the Saudi Arabian embassy in Damascus and Turkish and French consulates in the city of Latakia, residents said.

CAIRO (Reuters) – The Arab League called on Syria’s army to stop the killing of civilians on Saturday and said it was suspending Syria from the regional body in a surprise move that turns up the heat on President Bashar al-Assad.

The League will impose economic and political sanctions on Assad’s government and has appealed to its member states to withdraw their ambassadors from Damascus, said Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim.

CAIRO (Reuters) – Protesters lay burial shrouds outside the Arab League’s headquarters in Cairo on Saturday to symbolise the thousands killed in Syria’s uprising and shame Arab governments into action to try to stop the violence.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has pressed ahead with a military crackdown on the unrest despite an Arab peace plan brokered on November 2 and his opponents hope an indignant Arab League will now suspend Syria’s membership.

BENGHAZI (Reuters) – Businessman Yunis Saleh El-Hadad has lived the life of a rebel for eight months, fighting alongside other Libyans who were willing to sacrifice everything to free themselves and their families from the cruelty of dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Sleeping wherever he could at night clutching his rifle and surviving on food handouts from supporters, Hadad led an armed troop of about 100 rebels in the revolt against Gaddafi, fighting on despite being shot twice and injured by a missile.

BENGHAZI, Libya, Oct 24 (Reuters) – Libya’s new rulers
declared the country freed from Muammar Gaddafi’s 42 years of
one-man rule, saying the “Pharaoh of the times” was in history’s
garbage bin and a future of democracy and reconciliation
beckoned.

But as thousands in Benghazi on Sunday heard the authorities
announce “liberation”, Gaddafi’s rotting body, unburied and on
public display in Misrata, was casting a shadow over the nation
he once dominated.