In the news:
Originally published February 9, 2012 at 10:07 PM | Page modified February 10, 2012 at 6:30 AM
Suffering deepens in hard-hit Syrian city
World leaders seemed stymied in efforts to halt the bloodshed in Syria.
Los Angeles Times
Related development
Egyptian unrest: The Muslim Brotherhood on Thursday demanded that Egypt's military rulers cede control of the government, stepping closer to a long-anticipated confrontation between the ruling generals and the Islamist-dominated Parliament. The Brotherhood called for the military to allow the replacement of the current prime minister and Cabinet with a new coalition government formed by Parliament, which would amount to an immediate handover of power. The Brotherhood, a formerly outlawed Islamist group, now dominates Parliament.
Swiss funds: Hafez Makhlouf, a cousin of Syria's President Bashar Assad, has won a legal bid to unfreeze $4 million held in bank accounts in Switzerland, overturning a last-ditch effort by Swiss prosecutors to block the release of the funds. Makhlouf had been added to a Swiss government sanctions list in response to Syria's crackdown on opposition protesters.
Seattle Times news services
BEIRUT — Diplomats on Thursday were seeking new approaches to remedy the worsening conflict in Syria as opposition activists reported that government shelling and attacks had killed more than 100 more people, most of them in Homs.
After almost a weeklong siege, residents of Homs' Babr Amro neighborhood described scenes of blood-spattered field hospitals, bodies left unburied, families huddled in residences to avoid gunfire and shortages of medicine, food, water and electricity.
"We want to evacuate our wounded and we can't," said a Babr Amro resident reached by Skype, who said he was among 20 people hiding in a single room.
Residents expressed fears of an impending ground assault by Syrian troops.
The Local Coordinating Committees, an opposition coalition, estimated Thursday's death toll was at least 131, including 110 in Homs.
There was no way to confirm the reported casualty counts as media access to Syria is limited. The opposition has repeatedly called for international assistance.
World leaders seemed stymied in efforts to halt the bloodshed, which has played out graphically in amateur videos widely distributed on the Internet.
"It's quite clear that this is a regime that is hellbent on killing, murdering and maiming its own citizens," said British Prime Minister David Cameron during an official visit to Stockholm, reported London's Telegraph newspaper.
In New York, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon assailed the "appalling brutality" unfolding in Homs — "with heavy weapons firing into civilian neighborhoods" — and warned that the carnage was "a grim harbinger of worse to come."
The U.N. and the Arab League were considering sending a joint observer mission to Syria, Ban said. Diplomats have been seeking alternatives since Russia and China on Saturday blocked a U.N. Security Council resolution that included a call for President Bashar Assad to relinquish power.
