Up to 150 dead in two days of violence

Security forces pursuing anti-government activists and army defectors shot dead at least 47 people in Syria, pushing the toll for two days of violence to nearly 150 even as the regime prepared to allow in foreign monitors under an Arab League plan aimed at stopping the bloodshed.

Syrian state television showed pictures of military manoeuvres and said they were meant to show its forces are ready to “repulse any aggression the enemies of our nations might think about”.