By Jane Sutton GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein urged the Pentagon on Wednesday to stop force-feeding hunger-striking prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and called the practice "out of step" with medical ethics and international norms. Feinstein, a California Democrat who chairs the Senate intelligence committee, sent a letter to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, saying the Guantanamo force-feeding policy was also out of synch with policies in the civilian federal prisons.

OTTAWA - The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) is about to launch a 48-hour emergency appeal for Syria. The goal is to help the four million children affected by the two-year-old civil war that the UN says has killed 93,000 people. The agency will start a special appeal to Canadians on Thursday asking for donations at www.unicef.ca to raise funds for immunizations, clean drinking water, education and psycho-social support to help children through the emotional trauma of the crisis.

Syrian troops and rebels were locked in fierce clashes on Wednesday night outside the Damascus district of Qabun as the army tried to storm the area, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. At least two rebel fighters have been killed, with others wounded, the Britain-based group said. "The district has come under continuous, heavy shelling over the last few hours, killing at least two civilians and wounding others," the Observatory said.

WASHINGTON - Already reeling from a pair of scandals, the Internal Revenue Service is drawing new criticism over plans to hand out millions of dollars in employee bonuses. The Obama administration has ordered agencies to cancel discretionary bonuses because of automatic spending cuts, but the IRS says it's merely following legal obligations under a union contract. The agency is about to pay $70 million in employee bonuses, said Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, a senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over the IRS.