By Mark Mix
Home day care providers would be forced into unions
In a symbolic blow to embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad, senior Arab diplomats said Sunday that they will transfer Syria's seat in their main regional group to opposition forces.
Syrian rebels knocked down army defenses and moved in on the country's second-largest airport Wednesday, reportedly killing more than 40 soldiers and bringing them closer to what could be their biggest conquest since the beginning of the civil war.
A council formed to create a united government that could rule in place of Syrian President Bashar Assad has lost credibility, as its second attempt at unifying the war-torn nation fell flat over the weekend.
Syrian rebels fully captured a northern town near the Turkish border on Tuesday after weeks of siege and heavy fighting.
Syria's opposition agreed Sunday to unite against Syrian President Bashar Assad and elected a cleric as its first leader after four days of marathon talks in Qatar.
Syrian anti-government groups struck a deal Sunday under intense international pressure to form a new opposition leadership that will include representatives from the country's disparate factions fighting to topple President Bashar Assad's regime, activists said.
Twin suicide bombings shook a southern Syrian city on Saturday, killing at least 20 regime troops, an activist group said.
A former Syrian air force general who was also the country's first astronaut said Tuesday that only about one-third of Syria's fighter pilots are carrying out the daily bombing raids of rebel strongholds because President Bashar Assad's regime cannot count on the loyalty of the rest.
A senior Egyptian police officer was shot and seriously wounded Tuesday in the second recent attack of its kind on security forces in the country's turbulent northern Sinai region.
The Obama administration is pushing this week to create a new Syrian opposition council that would have more legitimacy in the uprising against President Bashar Assad and prevent al Qaeda terrorists and other "bad actors" from hijacking the revolt, according to a U.S. official involved in the initiative.
The Syrian army promised to observe a four-day cease-fire for a Muslim holiday starting Friday, while rebels claimed to have taken control of new areas in the key battleground of Aleppo.
Syrian warplanes on Tuesday struck a strategic rebel-held town in the country's north in an attempt to reopen a key supply route, activists said, as a U.N.-proposed cease-fire meant to start this week appeared increasingly unlikely to take hold.
Turkey's prime minister sharply criticized the U.N. Security Council on Saturday for its failure to agree on decisive steps to end Syria's civil war, as NATO ally Germany backed the Turkish interception of a Damascus-bound passenger jet earlier in the week.
British police are investigating Wednesday whether a British man and woman arrested on suspicion of supporting terrorism offenses in Syria were part of a group that held two veteran war journalists hostage in Syria in July.
Christians in Syria say they are coming under increasing pressure to choose sides in the 18-month-old civil war that has engulfed their country, as Syria's foreign minister, in a speech Monday, accused some members of the U.N. Security Council of supporting "terrorism."
