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Aoun: No Settlement Has Been Reached Yet over Administrative Appointments

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun stated on Tuesday that no appointment has yet been reached over the appointments of top civil servants.

He said after the Change and Reform bloc’s weekly meeting: “An agreement over this issue has not been reached with President Michel Suleiman.”

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102 Civilians, 5 Troops Dead as Thousands Rally in Damascus

Syrian security forces killed 102 civilians across the country on Tuesday, among them 35 in a "massacre" in the central region of Hama, as five regime soldiers were killed in fighting with deserters in the restive southern province of Daraa, activists and a rights group said.

Thirty-seven civilians were killed in the central province of Hama, among them 35 in a massacre in the town of Halfaya, and 50 civilians were killed in the central opposition bastion Homs, among them 26 in the besieged neighborhood of Baba Amr, the Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, said.

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Hurt UK Journalist Flees Homs to Lebanon, French Reporter Fate Unclear

Wounded British journalist Paul Conroy has been smuggled safely out of the besieged Syrian rebel city of Homs and crossed into Lebanon, officials said on Tuesday.

But there was uncertainty over the fate of French reporter Edith Bouvier, who was first reported to have also escaped before that was denied.

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125 Civilians Killed in Syria, Including 68 in Homs Region 'Massacre'

Syrian security forces and pro-regime gunmen killed 125 people across the country on Monday, among them 68 in a "massacre" in the rebel central province of Homs, activists and a rights group said.

"Sixty-eight civilians were killed today in the western countryside of Homs, in a rural area between the villages of Ram al-Enz and Ghajariyeh, and were taken to the state hospital in the city of Homs," said Rami Abdul Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

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Jumblat Slams Syria Vote as 'Theatricals Held over Human Remains'

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat has slammed the referendum held in Syria on a new constitution for the revolt-hit country, noting that a Yemen-style solution was the best to resolve the crisis.

“Wretched are those days when constitutional theatricals are being held over the remains of bodies and amid the roar of cannons and the sound of bullets,” Jumblat said in a weekly column in his party’s al-Anbaa newspaper to be published Tuesday.

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Ghosn Meets Ahmadinejad, Iran Says Strengthening Lebanese Army Part of Its Strategic Policy

Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn stressed Sunday that “Lebanon’s people, army and resistance are an invincible fortress in the face of Israel,” noting that the Lebanese "will never forget that Iran stood by them in great difficulties," during talks with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Tehran.

Ghosn also said that Israel would fear Iran's reaction, should it consider moving in a hostile way against any regional country.

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55 Civilians, 14 Soldiers Killed in New Syria Violence

Syrian regime forces killed 55 civilians in clashes and shelling across the country Sunday, while at least 14 soldiers loyal to President Bashar Assad also died, activists and a rights group said.

Twenty-three people were killed in the central opposition bastion of Homs, nine in the central province of Hama, seven in the southern province of Daraa, 11 in the northwestern province of Idlib, three in the Damascus neighborhood of Kfarsouseh and two in the restive suburbs around Damascus, the Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, said.

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Syrians Vote in Referendum on New Constitution amid Boycott, Violence

Syrians were voting on Sunday on a new constitution in the face of opposition calls for a boycott and deadly violence that Washington has said made the exercise "laughable."

The new text ends the legal basis for the five-decade stranglehold on power of the ruling Baath party but leaves huge powers in the hands of President Bashar al-Assad.

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3 Lebanese Sentenced to Death for Spying for Israel

Three Lebanese were sentenced to death by the Military Court on Friday for spying for Israel, a judicial source said.

The tribunal "condemned to death Moussa Ali Moussa, who was found guilty of having contacted the Israeli enemy and passing on information," the source said.

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Saudi FM Walks Out of Syria Meeting, Urges 'Consensual or Forced Transition'

Saudi Arabia's delegation on Friday walked out of the "Friends of Syria" international meeting held in Tunisia to protest what it called "the meeting's inefficiency."

“Focusing on humanitarian aid is not enough and the only solution is a consensual or forced transition of power,” head of the delegation, Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said.

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