GUNMEN in plainclothes are randomly shooting people in the streets of the besieged Syrian city of Hama and families are burying their loved ones in gardens at home for fear of being killed themselves if they venture out to cemeteries, residents said.

Syrian security forces opened fire in the central city of Hama injuring an Olympic boxing champion and at least 20 others as the government drive continued to crush pro-democracy uprising activists.

Militants launched mortar shells into Israel and Israeli jets bombed targets in Gaza today, just as Israeli and Palestinian leaders held peace talks in Jerusalem with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Defendants in the new trial of Saddam Hussein today insisted that the military was attacking only Iranian troops and Kurdish rebels when it launched the Anfal campaign in the 1980s in which tens of thousands of Kurds were killed.