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Syria rebels fight on as peace talks pressure mounts

Agence France-PresseMay 26, 2013 00:00
A meeting of Syria's fractured opposition headed into an unscheduled fourth day Sunday, while on the ground rebels kept up their resistance to a Hezbollah-backed government assault on a strategic central town. Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Saturday pledged "victory" in Syria over the rebels and stressed it was in his militant anti-Israeli group's own interest to defend the Assad regime.

Syrian opposition struggles for unity as battle rages

May 25, 2013 08:30
By Khaled Yacoub Oweis ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Syria's opposition resumed talks on Saturday aimed at closing their fractious ranks, as government forces launched a fierce onslaught on a rebel-held border town to try to gain the upper hand in the civil war. A failure of the opposition to unite could weaken the hand of Russia and the United States, co-sponsors of a proposed peace conference on the war, which has killed 80,000 and threatens to spill over borders and whip up wider sectarian violence.

Flights between S. Korea, China rise 19 pct by April

Yonhap News AgencyMay 25, 2013 21:49
SEOUL, May 26 (Yonhap) -- Flights between South Korea and China have been increasing robustly in recent years, as airlines seek to capitalize on the growth potential of the Chinese market. Korea Airports Corp. said Sunday that the number of flights between South Korea and China jumped 18.8 percent in the first four months of this year, rising to 8,495 from 7,150 last year. The number of passengers on the South Korean-Chinese flights also went up 14.7 percent from 851,487 to 976,655, the corporation said.

Syrian opposition: 45 Lebanese militants killed in Qusayr

Agencia EFEMay 25, 2013 18:00
Cairo, May 25 (EFE).- Syria's opposition said Saturday that roughly 45 Lebanese-based Hezbollah militants, who were supporting Syrian government forces in an attack on the western border town of Qusayr, were killed in combat with the rebels. Activist Emar al-Qusayr, who is based in that region, told Efe via Internet that the Free Syria Army rebels killed the Hezbollah combatants and repelled their attempt to push into the town.

Syrian opposition in knots over Muslim Brotherhood

Agence France-PresseMay 25, 2013 15:43
A Saudi-led bid to dilute the Muslim Brotherhood's influence over Syria's main opposition has thrown the group into disarray, dissidents said Saturday, with some even warning that the power tussle is "killing" the group. Syria's main opposition National Coalition has been meeting for three days in Istanbul. Among key items on its agenda was a debate on whether it should hold peace talks with the regime under a US-Russia mooted initiative dubbed Geneva 2.

Syria rebels fight on as peace talks pressure mounts

Agence France-PresseMay 25, 2013 15:41
Syrian rebels kept up resistance Saturday to a Hezbollah-backed assault on a strategic central town as pressure grew on the opposition to attend a peace conference after the regime agreed to do so. The main opposition National Coalition has met in Istanbul for three days trying to overcome deep divisions over Russian and US proposals to convene a conference to which representatives of President Bashar al-Assad would be invited without any formal precondition for him to step down.

Hezbollah chief promises 'victory' in Syria conflict

Agence France-PresseMay 25, 2013 15:34
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Saturday vowed "victory" in Syria, where militants of his powerful Lebanese Shiite movement are fighting alongside regular troops against rebels trying to topple the regime. "I say to all the honourable people, to the mujahedeen, to the heroes: I have always promised you a victory and now I pledge to you a new one" in Syria, he said at a ceremony marking the 13th anniversary of Israel's military withdrawal from Lebanon.

Hezbollah, Syrian government forces advance in border town

May 25, 2013 10:00
By Erika Solomon BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian government forces and the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah launched a fierce campaign to seize more rebel territory in the border town of Qusair on Saturday, sources on both sides of the conflict said. Rebels fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad said additional tanks and artillery had been deployed around opposition-held territory in Qusair, a Syrian town close to the Lebanese border.

Syria opposition says kidnapped bishops 'in good health'

Agence France-PresseMay 25, 2013 14:17
Two Orthodox bishops kidnapped in Syria last month are "in good health," though there is no news on their whereabouts, an opposition official told reporters Saturday in Istanbul. "Two or three days ago, a doctor visited the two bishops. They are in good health," said Abdul Ahad Steipho, member of the main opposition's National Coalition and of its committee established to follow up on the kidnappings. Steipho added that his committee's attempts to enter into direct telephone contact with the kidnappers or the bishops have so far failed.

30 dead in Lebanon Sunni-Alawite clashes

Agence France-PresseMay 25, 2013 14:16
Firefights in northern Lebanon between Sunni Muslims and Alawites -- the Shiite offshoot sect to which Syrian President Bashar al-Assad belongs -- have killed 30 people, a security source said on Saturday. Rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and machineguns have all been used in six days of clashes in the port city, in the deadliest violence to rock the country for years. Most of the fighting has been between residents of the Sunni district of Bab el-Tebbaneh who support the rebels battling to topple Assad and people in the Alawite area of Jabal Mohsen who back him.
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