The United States will ask the UN atomic watchdog to report Syria to the UN Security Council over its alleged illicit nuclear activity, according to a draft resolution obtained by AFP on Monday.

Syrian security forces shot dead at least five people, including a child, as pro-democracy protests swept the country on Friday after weekly prayers, with demonstrators calling for more freedom in def

Syria has been accused of torturing activists to force them to reveal their passwords to Facebook websites that have sustained the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.

However, amateur video

Syrian forces raided the hotbed city of Banias on Saturday and killed at least three protesters, activists said as President Bashar al-Assad's opponents proposed he offer elections to end the crisis.

Hundreds of Syrian soldiers in combat gear broke into houses and made arrests overnight in the Damascus suburb of Saqba, scene of a mass demonstration against the president last week, a resident said

Syrians prepared on Saturday to bury scores of people killed in a "day of rage" against the regime, with activists vowing a week of new protests as the United States and Europe imposed sanctions on Damascus.

Thousands of soldiers backed by tanks and snipers moved in before dawn to the city where Syria's anti-government uprising began, causing panic in the streets when they opened fire indiscriminately on

The United States has ordered embassy families and some staff out of Syria as it has hardened its tone on Damascus's crackdown on protests without calling for President Bashar al-Assad to go.

Syria's southern town of Daraa came under sustained gunfire from troops on Tuesday as a military assault on the epicentre of pro-democracy protests raged into a second day, a rights activist said.

At

Syrian forces shot dead at least 38 people when they moved in to disperse thousands who took to the streets for ‘Good Friday’ protests to test long sought-after freedoms, sources said.

A day after Pr