Syria truce holds but 6 killed in protests

Syrian forces used live fire, tear gas and clubs to beat back tens of thousands of protesters who took to the streets across the country yesterday in powerful and often jubilant displays of defiance.

But a UN-brokered truce largely held up without the widespread, bloody offensives that have pushed the nation toward civil war.

Activists said security forces killed at least six people, a lower-than-usual toll. The rallies, described as some of the largest in months, stretched from the suburbs of Damascus to the central province of Hama, Idlib in the north and the southern province of Daraa, where the uprising began in Mar 2011.