A large explosion has rocked a stronghold of the Shiite militant Hezbollah group in the Lebanese capital Beirut, sending black smoke billowing into the sky and causing an unknown number of casualties, security officials said.

Syria’s President Bashar Assad said his opponents have “used up all their tools” and failed to overthrow his regime. The remarks came as Western-backed Syrian opposition figures gathered in Turkey for talks on electing a new leadership.

Syrian troops pushed into a rebel-held town near the Lebanese border yesterday, fighting house-to-house and bombing from the air.

Syrian authorities have beefed up security measures in Damascus as rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad urged supporters to mark the second anniversary of the country’s uprising by stepping up attacks against the regime.

Syrian rebels are closely monitoring the regime’s chemical weapons sites but do not have the means to seize and secure them, their newly elected military commander has told the Associated Press.

An Islamist faction of Syrian rebels captured an infantry base in the northern city of Aleppo, its fighters said, as rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad advance on the country’s largest city.

Clashes have been reported near the airport of the Syrian capital, Damascus, as internet and mobile phones continued to be cut off for a third day.

Two large explosions shook Syria’s southern city of Daraa today, causing multiple casualties and heavy material damage, the country’s state-run news agency and activists said.

Eleven thousand Syrians have fled the country in the past 24 hours, the UN says.

France’s president has vowed his country will stand against instability in Lebanon, two weeks after the assassination of a senior Lebanese intelligence official sparked clashes between pro- and anti-Syrian groups.

Calm has returned to the streets of Lebanon’s capital after troops launched a major security operation to quell fighting touched off by the assassination of a top anti-Syrian intelligence chief.

Syrian president Bashar Assad has insisted his regime will not fall and also lashed out at Gulf countries, which he accused of using their enormous oil wealth to try to drive him from power.

Syrian jets have fired on Lebanese territory in one of the most serious cross-border violations since the country was plunged into turmoil 18 months ago.

Syrian activists have claimed rebels shot down a government warplane over the northern province of Idlib on Thursday, the second time in a week that opposition fighters claimed to have brought down an aircraft in the escalating civil war.

A Syrian government official warned the United States today that military intervention in Syria could lead to regional turmoil as regime forces bombed a northern village and stormed a rebel-held Damascus suburb, killing dozens of people.

A bomb ripped through the third floor of the state TV building in Damascus today, damaging several offices and wounding at least three employees, Syrian TV said.

Militants have downed an Iraqi army helicopter and killed nearly a dozen security forces in overnight clashes in what appeared to be an al-Qaida surge to retake one of its former strongholds in Iraq.

At least 10 people have been injured when a suicide car bomb exploded in a Damascus suburb and damaged one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines.

Syrian troops have heavily shelled a rebel-held neighbourhood in the flashpoint central city of Homs as the military appeared to be readying to storm the area, activists said.

Syrian troops are shelling the rebel-held neighbourhood of Khaldiyeh in the central city of Homs, according to activists.

The United Nations secretary general has warned that the danger of civil war in Syria is imminent, with “catastrophic” consequences for the region.

At least seven people were killed and 22 others injured in gun battles between pro- and anti-Syrian groups in northern Lebanon today, security officials said, as activists reported fresh shelling in a region in central Syria where a massacre last week left more than 100 people dead.

At least 32 children and more than 60 adults were killed in fighting in the centre of Syria yesterday, the head of the UN observer team in the country said tonight.

Syrian forces unleashed a barrage of artillery on the battered city of Homs for hours before dawn today, killing more than 200 people in what appeared to be the bloodiest episode in the 11-month-old uprising, activists said.

Syrian troops backed by dozens of tanks have massed outside a virtually deserted town near the Turkish border, preparing to move in against protesters.

Syrian security forces have fired live ammunition to disperse a funeral march for some of the 37 people killed a day earlier in the single bloodiest day of the country's three-week anti-government uprising.

Syrian security agents tightened security and made sweeping arrests today as President Bashar Assad tried to cut off two weeks of deadly pro-democracy demonstrations which are threatening his family’s ruling dynasty.

Syria’s Cabinet resigned en masse today hoping to help quell the wave of protests that is now threatening President Bashar Assad’s 11-year rule.

Troops fired tear gas at thousands of Syrian protesters today as president Bashar Assad faced down the most serious unrest of his 11 years in power.

Twelve people have been killed in violence rocking a seaside Mediterranean city in Syria.

Syrian security troops have stormed a protest sit-in near the capital Damascus, arresting about 200 people in the midnight raid, according to activists.

Iranian security forces stormed a series of opposition offices today, rounding up at least seven prominent anti-government activists in a new crackdown against the country’s reformist movement, opposition websites and activists reported.

Two prominent critics of the Iranian government have been arrested after clashes overnight in Tehran.

The European Union today condemned the bombing in Iraq of one of Shiite Islam’s holiest shrines, an attack that set off a wave of sectarian violence.

Iraqi police and soldiers fanned out today to enforce an extraordinary daytime curfew in Baghdad and three provinces in a bid to halt the wave of sectarian violence that has killed about 120 people since the bombing of one of Shiite Islam’s holiest shrines.

Iranians love Danish pastries, but now when they look for the flaky dessert at the bakery they have to ask for “Roses of the Prophet Mohammad.”

A suicide bomber detonated his explosives near one of Shiite Islam’s holiest shrines today, killing almost 50 people.

A suicide bomber who detonated his explosives near one of Shiite Islam’s holiest shrines killed more than 40 people today.

An explosion near one of Shiite Islam’s holiest shrines killed at least five people, and the death toll was expected to rise, Iraqi police said today.

Militiamen loyal to rebel Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr removed their weapons from the revered Imam Ali Shrine in Najaf today as a two-week-old uprising centred on the holy site appeared to be drawing to an end.

Protected by about 100 guards, Iraq’s interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi has visited the war-shattered city of Najaf, calling on Shiite militants to lay down their weapons after days of fierce clashes with US forces.

Iraq’s interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi made an unannounced visit to the war-torn city of Najaf today, calling on militants to lay down their weapons after days of fierce clashes with US forces.

Diplomatic efforts to end a standoff between US troops and an anti-American cleric in one of the holiest cities in Shiite Islam pressed forward today and an Iraqi leader said he saw “flexibility” on the side of the charismatic cleric, who heads a militia with several thousand members.

At least 143 people were killed when simultaneous explosions ripped through crowds of worshippers today at Shiite Muslim shrines in Baghdad and Karbala on the holiest day of the Shiite calendar.