Syrian president Bashar Assad has declared a general amnesty for prisoners in the country, state media reported.

A suicide truck bomb attack on a government checkpoint on the edge of the city of Hama in central Syria has left 30 dead, according to state media and activists.

Eight women and girls have been killed in intense government shelling in the southern Syrian province of Daraa, activists said today.

Syrian rebels have shot down a military helicopter in the country’s east, killing eight government troops on board.

Israel’s military has deployed a rocket defence system to the north of the country following reported Israeli airstrikes in neighbouring Syria targeting weapons believed to be destined for Lebanon’s Hezbollah militants.

Syrian warplanes bombed rebel areas near Damascus today as President Bashar Assad’s troops battled opposition fighters for control of the road linking the capital to the country’s largest airport.

Russia’s deputy foreign minister has said that Syrian President Bashar Assad is increasingly losing control and the opposition may win, according to the Itar-Tass news agency.

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

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A car bomb killed 13 people in central Damascus yesterday as President Bashar al-Assad told an international mediator seeking a truce in Syria’s civil war that the key to any political solution was to stop arming rebels.

Fires sparked by clashes between government troops and rebels raged through the medieval marketplace of Aleppo today, destroying hundreds of shops lining the vaulted passageways where foods, fabrics, perfumes and spices have been sold for centuries, activists said.

Two massive explosions rocked the heart of Damascus today, striking near the army and air force command headquarters and sending huge columns of thick black smoke over the Syrian capital.

Two Syrian journalists have been killed in the capital according to reports today from Syrian state news agency Sana and an Arab satellite station.

Heavy explosions shook the Syrian capital today and helicopters circled overhead as rebels appeared to be renewing their offensive in the city, witnesses and activists said.

Gunmen have attacked the headquarters of a pro-Syrian government TV station, killing three employees, it was reported.

Turkey’s president has said his country will take “necessary” but unspecified action against Syria, a day after Damascus said it had brought down a Turkish military plane that had entered its airspace.

Syria said it shot down a Turkish military plane that entered Syrian air space, while Turkey vowed to “determinedly take necessary steps” in response.

Two people were killed and 15 others injured in street battles between pro- and anti-Syrian groups in the Lebanese capital overnight as the spiralling conflict in neighbouring Syria spilled across the border.

A member of Syria’s security forces has been killed and three others injured by a roadside bomb in the central province of Hama, the official news agency said today.

At least nine people have been killed and nearly 100 others wounded after two suicide bombers blew up cars rigged with explosives near a military compound and a hotel in north-western Syria, state media said.

Attackers have fired rocket-propelled grenades at the Central Bank and a police patrol in the Syrian capital, Damascus, the state news agency said today.

At least 27 people were killed and 140 others injured when twin suicide car bombs struck intelligence and security buildings in the Syrian capital today, according to state media.

The UN humanitarian chief entered the shattered Syrian district of Baba Amr, where activists accuse regime forces of trying to cover up evidence of execution-style killings and reprisal attacks following a bloody military siege.

Syria yesterday flatly rejected UN charges of crimes against humanity, even as monitors said troops killed dozens of civilians in the heaviest shelling of the protest city of Homs for days.

Syrian soldiers killed 19 people in fighting to retake Damascus suburbs from rebels, activists said, a day after the Arab League suspended its monitoring mission in Syria because of mounting violence.

Six soldiers were killed and another six were injured when a bus carrying troops on a road south of the Syrian capital Damascus was ambushed by “terrorists”, the country’s state-run news agency said.

At least 14 people were killed today when a string of explosions struck a police truck transporting prisoners in a tense area of north-western Syria, the country's state-run news agency and an opposition group said.

Violence has erupted in the restive Syrian city of Homs, killing at least five people as tank shells slammed into an area that has turned into one of the main centres of both protest and reprisal during the seven-month uprising, activists said.

Syrian security forces killed seven people as they opened fire to disperse thousands of protesters rallying against the country's regime on the first day of a Muslim holiday that marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, activists said.

SYRIAN security forces pursuing anti-government protesters stormed several towns and villages, killing at least six people — including a child — and wounding many others during raids and house-to-house searches, activists said.

Syrian president Bashar Assad came under a new barrage of international pressure with the Turkish foreign minister urging him to stop killing protesters and US officials saying the Obama administration is preparing to explicitly demand his departure.

Syrian president Bashar Assad replaced his defence minister with the army chief of staff in the midst of a brutal military crackdown on a five-month-old uprising, the state-run news agency said.

The marriage of a 13-year-old girl was prevented after her schoolmates marched in protest and lodged a police complaint in Satkhira town in southwestern Bangladesh.

Syria’s president promised to do what he could to ease tensions in neighbouring Iraq during a landmark visit by the country’s president Jalal Talabani, just days after US president George Bush accused Syria of backing Iraq’s uprising.

Fears rose in Indonesia today that the bodies of perhaps tens of thousands of victims will never be found. Entire villages have been swept to sea.

As foreign military cargo planes touched down in Indonesia today with emergency aid, fears rose that the bodies of perhaps tens of thousands of victims will never be found. Entire villages have been swept to sea.