QAA, Lebanon — Syria has accepted a peace plan by U.N. envoy Kofi Annan that includes a cease-fire by the Syrian government, but the bloodshed persisted Tuesday as intense clashes between government troops and rebels spilled across the border into Lebanon, officials said.
Syrian troops did not physically cross the border, according to two Lebanese security officials, but bullets whizzed across the frontier into a rural, sparsely populated area around the Lebanese village of Qaa.
The U.N. says more than 8,000 people have been killed in Syria’s uprising, which began last March with mostly peaceful protests against the regime.
A diplomatic push to end the crisis has largely failed, but Ahmad Fawzi, a spokesman for Mr. Annan, said Tuesday that the Syrian government has accepted the envoy’s six-point plan to end the bloodshed. The plan includes a cease-fire and inclusive talks about a political solution.
Syrian opposition members reacted with skepticism.
Brotherhood eyes fielding presidential candidate
CAIRO — Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood was debating Tuesday whether to field a candidate in upcoming presidential elections, a much-anticipated decision that would signal whether the fundamentalist group intends to escalate or defuse rising tensions with the nation’s other political players.
The Brotherhood has emerged as the most powerful political group since Hosni Mubarak was ousted last year, capturing nearly 50 percent of the seats in Egypt’s first post-uprising parliamentary elections.
Its increasing grip on power has fueled concerns among liberals and secularists of the Islamist group’s intentions and whether it aims to govern alone, controlling both the parliament and the presidency.
More than 100 members of the Brotherhood’s senior legislative council were meeting Tuesday to decide whether to field a presidential candidate, according to a statement on the group’s website.
For months, the Brotherhood pledged not to contest the presidency, but officials from the group recently reconsidered, opening the door to a possible presidential run.
Israel’s largest party to choose leader
JERUSALEM — Israel’s largest party, relegated to the opposition after 2009 national elections, was choosing its leader Tuesday in a rematch between a former peace negotiator and a one-time defense chief who directed Israel’s tough response to the last Palestinian uprising.
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