Officers narrow down search of Savernake Forest in Wiltshire and say further searches will take place in daylight Police searching for Sian O’Callaghan have said they are “very close” to identifying her whereabouts. Officers have narrowed down a search of Savernake Forest in Wiltshire after a day spent trawling through dense woodland and more analysis of mobile phone records. Detective Superintendent Steve Fulcher, who is leading the inquiry, said further searches, involving specialist sniffer dogs, would take place in daylight and that the public’s help was no longer needed. Fulcher said: “We have made good progress in narrowing the search using a number of technologies and techniques and I believe we are getting very close to identifying Sian’s whereabouts. “Searches will be limited by available daylight but we will be further assisted by specialist dog teams who arrive tomorrow and resume the search as soon as daylight permits. While I still want anyone with information to contact police I am not asking for any more public assistance with searches at this time.” A force spokeswoman refused to expand on the statement and declined to say whether the statement meant police believed O’Callaghan – or her body – was actually in the forest. O’Callaghan, 22, disappeared after leaving Suju nightclub at about 2.50am on Saturday to walk the half mile home to the flat she shared with her boyfriend, Kevin Reape. Analysis of O’Callaghan’s mobile phone records suggests that around 30 minutes after she left the club her phone was somewhere in the 4,500-acre Savernake Forest, near Marlborough, 12 miles from Swindon. Hundreds of members of the public helped the police search the forest on Tuesday and as many as 1,000 had been preparing to join the search for office administrator O’Callaghan again. Coach parties had been organised and some taxi drivers were offering free lifts out to the site. However police requested that people stay away after narrowing the search area down. Chief Superintendent Steve Hedley, area commander for Swindon, said earlier in the day that further analysis of mobile phone records had produced several “hot spots” that specialist search teams were examining. Colleagues of O’Callaghan told how she was in good spirits and looking forward to the weekend before she disappeared. Liz Watson, operations director at industrial storage company Dexion, said: “We are all very worried about her at the moment and hope that further developments of her whereabouts will come to light soon.” Crime Steven Morris guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Officers narrow down search of Savernake Forest in Wiltshire and say further searches will take place in daylight Police searching for Sian O’Callaghan have said they are “very close” to identifying her whereabouts. Officers have narrowed down a search of Savernake Forest in Wiltshire after a day spent trawling through dense woodland and more analysis of mobile phone records. Detective Superintendent Steve Fulcher, who is leading the inquiry, said further searches, involving specialist sniffer dogs, would take place in daylight and that the public’s help was no longer needed. Fulcher said: “We have made good progress in narrowing the search using a number of technologies and techniques and I believe we are getting very close to identifying Sian’s whereabouts. “Searches will be limited by available daylight but we will be further assisted by specialist dog teams who arrive tomorrow and resume the search as soon as daylight permits. While I still want anyone with information to contact police I am not asking for any more public assistance with searches at this time.” A force spokeswoman refused to expand on the statement and declined to say whether the statement meant police believed O’Callaghan – or her body – was actually in the forest. O’Callaghan, 22, disappeared after leaving Suju nightclub at about 2.50am on Saturday to walk the half mile home to the flat she shared with her boyfriend, Kevin Reape. Analysis of O’Callaghan’s mobile phone records suggests that around 30 minutes after she left the club her phone was somewhere in the 4,500-acre Savernake Forest, near Marlborough, 12 miles from Swindon. Hundreds of members of the public helped the police search the forest on Tuesday and as many as 1,000 had been preparing to join the search for office administrator O’Callaghan again. Coach parties had been organised and some taxi drivers were offering free lifts out to the site. However police requested that people stay away after narrowing the search area down. Chief Superintendent Steve Hedley, area commander for Swindon, said earlier in the day that further analysis of mobile phone records had produced several “hot spots” that specialist search teams were examining. Colleagues of O’Callaghan told how she was in good spirits and looking forward to the weekend before she disappeared. Liz Watson, operations director at industrial storage company Dexion, said: “We are all very worried about her at the moment and hope that further developments of her whereabouts will come to light soon.” Crime Steven Morris guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Officers narrow down search of Savernake Forest in Wiltshire and say further searches will take place in daylight Police searching for Sian O’Callaghan have said they are “very close” to identifying her whereabouts. Officers have narrowed down a search of Savernake Forest in Wiltshire after a day spent trawling through dense woodland and more analysis of mobile phone records. Detective Superintendent Steve Fulcher, who is leading the inquiry, said further searches, involving specialist sniffer dogs, would take place in daylight and that the public’s help was no longer needed. Fulcher said: “We have made good progress in narrowing the search using a number of technologies and techniques and I believe we are getting very close to identifying Sian’s whereabouts. “Searches will be limited by available daylight but we will be further assisted by specialist dog teams who arrive tomorrow and resume the search as soon as daylight permits. While I still want anyone with information to contact police I am not asking for any more public assistance with searches at this time.” A force spokeswoman refused to expand on the statement and declined to say whether the statement meant police believed O’Callaghan – or her body – was actually in the forest. O’Callaghan, 22, disappeared after leaving Suju nightclub at about 2.50am on Saturday to walk the half mile home to the flat she shared with her boyfriend, Kevin Reape. Analysis of O’Callaghan’s mobile phone records suggests that around 30 minutes after she left the club her phone was somewhere in the 4,500-acre Savernake Forest, near Marlborough, 12 miles from Swindon. Hundreds of members of the public helped the police search the forest on Tuesday and as many as 1,000 had been preparing to join the search for office administrator O’Callaghan again. Coach parties had been organised and some taxi drivers were offering free lifts out to the site. However police requested that people stay away after narrowing the search area down. Chief Superintendent Steve Hedley, area commander for Swindon, said earlier in the day that further analysis of mobile phone records had produced several “hot spots” that specialist search teams were examining. Colleagues of O’Callaghan told how she was in good spirits and looking forward to the weekend before she disappeared. Liz Watson, operations director at industrial storage company Dexion, said: “We are all very worried about her at the moment and hope that further developments of her whereabouts will come to light soon.” Crime Steven Morris guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Officers narrow down search of Savernake Forest in Wiltshire and say further searches will take place in daylight Police searching for Sian O’Callaghan have said they are “very close” to identifying her whereabouts. Officers have narrowed down a search of Savernake Forest in Wiltshire after a day spent trawling through dense woodland and more analysis of mobile phone records. Detective Superintendent Steve Fulcher, who is leading the inquiry, said further searches, involving specialist sniffer dogs, would take place in daylight and that the public’s help was no longer needed. Fulcher said: “We have made good progress in narrowing the search using a number of technologies and techniques and I believe we are getting very close to identifying Sian’s whereabouts. “Searches will be limited by available daylight but we will be further assisted by specialist dog teams who arrive tomorrow and resume the search as soon as daylight permits. While I still want anyone with information to contact police I am not asking for any more public assistance with searches at this time.” A force spokeswoman refused to expand on the statement and declined to say whether the statement meant police believed O’Callaghan – or her body – was actually in the forest. O’Callaghan, 22, disappeared after leaving Suju nightclub at about 2.50am on Saturday to walk the half mile home to the flat she shared with her boyfriend, Kevin Reape. Analysis of O’Callaghan’s mobile phone records suggests that around 30 minutes after she left the club her phone was somewhere in the 4,500-acre Savernake Forest, near Marlborough, 12 miles from Swindon. Hundreds of members of the public helped the police search the forest on Tuesday and as many as 1,000 had been preparing to join the search for office administrator O’Callaghan again. Coach parties had been organised and some taxi drivers were offering free lifts out to the site. However police requested that people stay away after narrowing the search area down. Chief Superintendent Steve Hedley, area commander for Swindon, said earlier in the day that further analysis of mobile phone records had produced several “hot spots” that specialist search teams were examining. Colleagues of O’Callaghan told how she was in good spirits and looking forward to the weekend before she disappeared. Liz Watson, operations director at industrial storage company Dexion, said: “We are all very worried about her at the moment and hope that further developments of her whereabouts will come to light soon.” Crime Steven Morris guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
MPs back president’s move to suspend constitution, ban street protests and give security agencies greater powers of arrest Yemen’s parliament has approved a sweeping set of emergency laws giving broader powers of arrest and censorship to the president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, despite growing calls from opponents demanding he quit to make way for a military-backed democratic transition. The emergency law, last evoked during Yemen’s 1994 civil war, suspends the constitution, allows for greater media censorship, bans street protests and gives security agencies arbitrary powers to arrest and detain suspects without judicial process. The approval of the emergency laws came as talks between oil giant Saudi Arabia and Major General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, a top Yemeni commander who abandoned the president on Monday, failed to yield a clear transition of power. Only 161 of the 301 members of parliament attended the vote, with those present approving the 30-day emergency law through a chaotic show of hands. Opposition MPs, along with dozens of members of Saleh’s General People’s Congress, boycotted the session, rejecting its “unconstitutional” measures. The imposition of emergency rule comes as a rift emerges between the regime and a cohort of military commanders, tribal chiefs, politicians and diplomats who have joined together to demand that Saleh, who has been running the country for 32 years, step down. Thousands of protesters camping in the streets adjoining Sana’a University dismissed the emergency law as irrelevant and continued chanting for Saleh’s immediate resignation. “The idea of banning protests when tens of thousands are already camped out on the streets is ridiculous,” said Adel Suwabi, a 23-year-old medical student who has been co-ordinating the protest movement on Facebook. “Our numbers grow every day regardless of what Saleh announces.” The protesters are debating whether to march on the presidential palace on Friday, which they have dubbed “departure Friday”. The palace is being guarded by tanks from the Republican guard, which moved into key positions across the capital on Monday after Ali Mohsen sent troops from his 1st armoured division to protect protesters. Muhammad Qahtan, spokesman for the Islamist-led opposition coalition Joint Meeting Parties, which also includes Socialist and Nasserite parties, said protesters were ready to lay down their lives on Friday. “We will march to the president’s palace with open chests and you [Saleh] can kill whoever you like to kill,” Qahtan told reporterslocal press on Wednesday. “We are not afraid of another massacre,” he said, referring to a bloody crackdown by security forces against unarmed protesters last Friday in which gunmen, whom the opposition alleges were soldiers from units commanded by Saleh’s son, opened fire into the crowd, killing dozens of people. Saleh said a special investigation would look into the killings and a number of arrests had been made. Saleh lashed out on Wednesday at the JMP, accusing them of threatening the country’s stability. “They [the JMP] do not realise their national responsibilities and the potentially devastating repercussions of their practices against the country,” said Saleh, addressing a group of loyal military officers from Yemen’s central security at a brigade camp in Sana’a. The day before he accused a group of defected generals of trying to mastermind a coup against him and said that in doing so they risked dragging the country into “a bloody civil war”. Yemen’s opposition also turned down a tentative offer on Tuesday by the embattled president to step down by the end of the year. Analysts say Saleh’s recent shows of defiance suggest he may be in it for the long haul. Saleh’s calling of the parliament vote shows “he’s still adhering to some gestures in the direction of democracy,” said Gregory Johnsen, a Yemen expert at Princeton University. “This suggests he intends to hang around and survive the crisis.” Since February, Saleh has repeated promises for a new constitution, called for the formation of a unity government and said he will not seek to extend his term when it expires in 2013. The opposition movement has dismissed those offers and insists he must step down. Late on Wednesday night the interior ministry shut down the al-Jazeera office in Sana’a and revoked the accreditation of its correspondents after putting out a statement warning foreign media to exercise maximum accuracy and professionalism while covering the situation in Yemen. “The ministry will regrettably withdraw the licence of any correspondent or foreign outlets found abusing his profession,” Saba, the government news agency, quoted a source from the information ministry as saying. Yemen Middle East Arab and Middle East unrest Censorship Protest Human rights Tom Finn guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …MPs back president’s move to suspend constitution, ban street protests and give security agencies greater powers of arrest Yemen’s parliament has approved a sweeping set of emergency laws giving broader powers of arrest and censorship to the president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, despite growing calls from opponents demanding he quit to make way for a military-backed democratic transition. The emergency law, last evoked during Yemen’s 1994 civil war, suspends the constitution, allows for greater media censorship, bans street protests and gives security agencies arbitrary powers to arrest and detain suspects without judicial process. The approval of the emergency laws came as talks between oil giant Saudi Arabia and Major General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, a top Yemeni commander who abandoned the president on Monday, failed to yield a clear transition of power. Only 161 of the 301 members of parliament attended the vote, with those present approving the 30-day emergency law through a chaotic show of hands. Opposition MPs, along with dozens of members of Saleh’s General People’s Congress, boycotted the session, rejecting its “unconstitutional” measures. The imposition of emergency rule comes as a rift emerges between the regime and a cohort of military commanders, tribal chiefs, politicians and diplomats who have joined together to demand that Saleh, who has been running the country for 32 years, step down. Thousands of protesters camping in the streets adjoining Sana’a University dismissed the emergency law as irrelevant and continued chanting for Saleh’s immediate resignation. “The idea of banning protests when tens of thousands are already camped out on the streets is ridiculous,” said Adel Suwabi, a 23-year-old medical student who has been co-ordinating the protest movement on Facebook. “Our numbers grow every day regardless of what Saleh announces.” The protesters are debating whether to march on the presidential palace on Friday, which they have dubbed “departure Friday”. The palace is being guarded by tanks from the Republican guard, which moved into key positions across the capital on Monday after Ali Mohsen sent troops from his 1st armoured division to protect protesters. Muhammad Qahtan, spokesman for the Islamist-led opposition coalition Joint Meeting Parties, which also includes Socialist and Nasserite parties, said protesters were ready to lay down their lives on Friday. “We will march to the president’s palace with open chests and you [Saleh] can kill whoever you like to kill,” Qahtan told reporterslocal press on Wednesday. “We are not afraid of another massacre,” he said, referring to a bloody crackdown by security forces against unarmed protesters last Friday in which gunmen, whom the opposition alleges were soldiers from units commanded by Saleh’s son, opened fire into the crowd, killing dozens of people. Saleh said a special investigation would look into the killings and a number of arrests had been made. Saleh lashed out on Wednesday at the JMP, accusing them of threatening the country’s stability. “They [the JMP] do not realise their national responsibilities and the potentially devastating repercussions of their practices against the country,” said Saleh, addressing a group of loyal military officers from Yemen’s central security at a brigade camp in Sana’a. The day before he accused a group of defected generals of trying to mastermind a coup against him and said that in doing so they risked dragging the country into “a bloody civil war”. Yemen’s opposition also turned down a tentative offer on Tuesday by the embattled president to step down by the end of the year. Analysts say Saleh’s recent shows of defiance suggest he may be in it for the long haul. Saleh’s calling of the parliament vote shows “he’s still adhering to some gestures in the direction of democracy,” said Gregory Johnsen, a Yemen expert at Princeton University. “This suggests he intends to hang around and survive the crisis.” Since February, Saleh has repeated promises for a new constitution, called for the formation of a unity government and said he will not seek to extend his term when it expires in 2013. The opposition movement has dismissed those offers and insists he must step down. Late on Wednesday night the interior ministry shut down the al-Jazeera office in Sana’a and revoked the accreditation of its correspondents after putting out a statement warning foreign media to exercise maximum accuracy and professionalism while covering the situation in Yemen. “The ministry will regrettably withdraw the licence of any correspondent or foreign outlets found abusing his profession,” Saba, the government news agency, quoted a source from the information ministry as saying. Yemen Middle East Arab and Middle East unrest Censorship Protest Human rights Tom Finn guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …MPs back president’s move to suspend constitution, ban street protests and give security agencies greater powers of arrest Yemen’s parliament has approved a sweeping set of emergency laws giving broader powers of arrest and censorship to the president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, despite growing calls from opponents demanding he quit to make way for a military-backed democratic transition. The emergency law, last evoked during Yemen’s 1994 civil war, suspends the constitution, allows for greater media censorship, bans street protests and gives security agencies arbitrary powers to arrest and detain suspects without judicial process. The approval of the emergency laws came as talks between oil giant Saudi Arabia and Major General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, a top Yemeni commander who abandoned the president on Monday, failed to yield a clear transition of power. Only 161 of the 301 members of parliament attended the vote, with those present approving the 30-day emergency law through a chaotic show of hands. Opposition MPs, along with dozens of members of Saleh’s General People’s Congress, boycotted the session, rejecting its “unconstitutional” measures. The imposition of emergency rule comes as a rift emerges between the regime and a cohort of military commanders, tribal chiefs, politicians and diplomats who have joined together to demand that Saleh, who has been running the country for 32 years, step down. Thousands of protesters camping in the streets adjoining Sana’a University dismissed the emergency law as irrelevant and continued chanting for Saleh’s immediate resignation. “The idea of banning protests when tens of thousands are already camped out on the streets is ridiculous,” said Adel Suwabi, a 23-year-old medical student who has been co-ordinating the protest movement on Facebook. “Our numbers grow every day regardless of what Saleh announces.” The protesters are debating whether to march on the presidential palace on Friday, which they have dubbed “departure Friday”. The palace is being guarded by tanks from the Republican guard, which moved into key positions across the capital on Monday after Ali Mohsen sent troops from his 1st armoured division to protect protesters. Muhammad Qahtan, spokesman for the Islamist-led opposition coalition Joint Meeting Parties, which also includes Socialist and Nasserite parties, said protesters were ready to lay down their lives on Friday. “We will march to the president’s palace with open chests and you [Saleh] can kill whoever you like to kill,” Qahtan told reporterslocal press on Wednesday. “We are not afraid of another massacre,” he said, referring to a bloody crackdown by security forces against unarmed protesters last Friday in which gunmen, whom the opposition alleges were soldiers from units commanded by Saleh’s son, opened fire into the crowd, killing dozens of people. Saleh said a special investigation would look into the killings and a number of arrests had been made. Saleh lashed out on Wednesday at the JMP, accusing them of threatening the country’s stability. “They [the JMP] do not realise their national responsibilities and the potentially devastating repercussions of their practices against the country,” said Saleh, addressing a group of loyal military officers from Yemen’s central security at a brigade camp in Sana’a. The day before he accused a group of defected generals of trying to mastermind a coup against him and said that in doing so they risked dragging the country into “a bloody civil war”. Yemen’s opposition also turned down a tentative offer on Tuesday by the embattled president to step down by the end of the year. Analysts say Saleh’s recent shows of defiance suggest he may be in it for the long haul. Saleh’s calling of the parliament vote shows “he’s still adhering to some gestures in the direction of democracy,” said Gregory Johnsen, a Yemen expert at Princeton University. “This suggests he intends to hang around and survive the crisis.” Since February, Saleh has repeated promises for a new constitution, called for the formation of a unity government and said he will not seek to extend his term when it expires in 2013. The opposition movement has dismissed those offers and insists he must step down. Late on Wednesday night the interior ministry shut down the al-Jazeera office in Sana’a and revoked the accreditation of its correspondents after putting out a statement warning foreign media to exercise maximum accuracy and professionalism while covering the situation in Yemen. “The ministry will regrettably withdraw the licence of any correspondent or foreign outlets found abusing his profession,” Saba, the government news agency, quoted a source from the information ministry as saying. Yemen Middle East Arab and Middle East unrest Censorship Protest Human rights Tom Finn guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Mouse sperm were grown using a technique that could also help preserve the fertility of boys undergoing cancer treatment Scientists have grown sperm in the laboratory in a landmark study that could help preserve the fertility of cancer patients and shed fresh light on male reproductive problems. Fertility experts called the work a “crucial experimental advance” towards the use of lab-grown sperm in the clinic and a stepping stone to the routine creation of human sperm for men who cannot make the cells normally. Though the procedure would be illegal in Britain under current legislation, sperm grown in the laboratory, if proven safe, could be used to help infertile men have children through standard IVF treatments. The procedure could also benefit boys with cancer who are too young to produce sperm but are at risk of being made infertile by radio- or chemotherapy. While men can have their sperm frozen before cancer treatment, the latest research suggests boys could have testicular tissue removed and kept in cold storage for use in later life. Japanese researchers cultivated small pieces of tissue from the testes of baby mice on a gel bathed in nutrients. After several weeks they collected viable sperm from the tissue. The sperm appeared to be completely healthy and were used in IVF treatments to produce 12 live mouse pups that went on to have young of their own. Seven of the mice were born after sperm heads were transferred into 23 eggs using a technique called round spermatid injection, and another five were born after 35 eggs were fertilised using intracytoplasmic sperm injection (Icsi), a common IVF procedure. Importantly, the scientists retrieved healthy sperm from tissue that was cultivated after being frozen for up to 25 days, suggesting that cold storage did not harm the cells. The work, reported in the journal, Nature, is the most successful attempt yet to grow mammalian sperm from testicular tissue in the laboratory . “One of the problems I face, as a urologist, is that we do not have any effective ways to treat patients suffering from male infertility due to defective or insufficient sperm production,” said Takehiko Ogawa, who led the study at Yokohama City University Graduate School of Medicine . “Most of these problems are for unknown reasons.” Using the technique, he said, scientists will be able to study the process of sperm production in detail and help elucidate the glitches that cause infertility. In an accompanying article, Marco Seandel and Shahin Rafii at the Weil Cornell Medical College in New York said the work was “a crucial experimental advance along the thorny path to the clinical use of sperm” grown in the lab. They warn, however, that the fertility of mouse pups born from the lab-grown sperm was a “crude indicator” of their health, and that subtle genetic changes in the sperm “could be pivotal for the wellbeing of subsequent generations”. Allan Pacey, a senior lecturer in andrology at Sheffield University, said: “It is not totally clear how sperm are formed and why in some men it doesn’t work properly. This could help discover new drugs or treatments to stimulate infertile men to produce more or better sperm. It also may help preserve the fertility of some males.” The study, he said, was “a small but important step in understanding how sperm are formed which may, in time, lead to us being able to routinely grow human sperm in the laboratory.” “It is clearly important to make sure that any sperm produced are safe and give rise to healthy offspring when used, and that they in turn have healthy offspring. We need to be cautious with this kind of work,” he added. Reproduction Medical research Biology Fertility problems Cancer Health Health & wellbeing Ian Sample guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Brian True-May had been reinstated by TV company after apologising for saying show was ‘last bastion of Englishness’ The co-creator of Midsomer Murders, Brian True-May, is to step down from his role at the end of the current series after he sparked a race row by suggesting there was no place in the programme for ethnic minorities . True-May, the co-creator and producer of Midsomer Murders which began on ITV in 1997, described the show as the “last bastion of Englishness” and said it “wouldn’t work” if ethnic minorities appeared on screen. The programme’s production company All3Media, which launched an investigation into his comments in an interview with the Radio Times earlier this month, said True-May had been “reinstated” as producer of the show. But ITV said it understood True-May would step down from his role at the end of the current production run. Midsomer Murders returns to ITV on Wednesday with a new leading man, Neil Dudgeon, replacing its former star John Nettles who quit after 82 episodes last month. All3Media, in a statement on its website, said: “Brian True-May has been reinstated as the producer of Midsomer Murders. Brian apologises if his remarks gave unintended offence to any viewers.” An ITV spokesman said: “We welcome the apology from Brian True-May and understand that he will step down from his role on Midsomer Murders at the end of the current production run.” True-May told last week’s edition of Radio Times: “We just don’t have ethnic minorities involved. Because it wouldn’t be the English village with them. It just wouldn’t work. “Suddenly we might be in Slough. Ironically, Causton (one of the main centres of population in the show) is supposed to be Slough. And if you went into Slough you wouldn’t see a white face there. “We’re the last bastion of Englishness and I want to keep it that way.” ITV said at the time that it was “shocked and appalled” at the sentiments which were “absolutely not shared by anyone at ITV”. Midsomer Murders, based on the books by Caroline Graham, was launched in 1997 and has featured 251 deaths, 222 of which were murders. •
Continue reading …
• Six die in assault on mosque in southern city of Deraa • Activists call for mass demonstration on ‘Dignity Friday’ Syrian police launched an assault on a neighbourhood sheltering anti-government protesters, fatally shooting at least nine in an operation that lasted nearly 24 hours, witnesses said. At least six were said to have been killed in an early morning attack on the al-Omari mosque in the southern agricultural city of Deraa, where protesters have taken to the streets to calls for reform and political freedoms. An activist in contact with people in the city said police shot three other protesters in the city centre after dusk. Inspired by the wave of pro-democracy protests around the region, the uprising in Deraa and at least four villages nearby has become the biggest domestic challenge since the 1970s to the Syrian government, one of the most repressive in the Middle East. Security forces have responded with water cannon, teargas, rubber bullets and live ammunition. The total death toll now stands at 16. Democracy activists used social-networking sites to call for massive demonstrations across the country on Friday, a day they dubbed Dignity Friday. An activist in Damascus in contact with people in Deraa said six had died in the raid on the mosque. A witness in the city said five people had been killed, including a woman who looked out of her window to see what was happening during the operation, which began after midnight and lasted for about three hours. Heavy shooting rattled the city until at least the early afternoon, when bursts of semi-automatic gunfire could be heard echoing in its old centre. State TV said an “armed gang” attacked an ambulance and security forces killed four attackers and wounded others and was chasing others who fled. It denied security forces had stormed the mosque, but also showed footage of guns, AK47s, hand grenades, ammunition and money it said had been seized from inside. Mobile phone connections to the city were cut and checkpoints throughout Deraa were manned by soldiers in camouflage uniforms and plainclothes security agents with rifles. Anti-terrorism police wearing dark blue uniforms were also on the streets. The witness said hundreds of anti-terrorism police had surrounded the mosque. The unrest started with the arrest last week of a group of students who sprayed anti-government graffiti on walls in Deraa. Syria Arab and Middle East unrest Middle East guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …