Greece intercepts Gaza-bound American activists (Reuters)

ATHENS/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Greece prevented a boat of U.S. activists from sailing on Friday to join a flotilla of pro-Palestinian campaigners planning to challenge Israel's sea blockade of the Gaza Strip.

The small flotilla of activists from the United States, France and Canada was due to leave at least a week ago, but the departure has been constantly put back amid allegations of sabotage.

The Greek coastguard intercepted the boat soon after it left the port of Perama, near Piraeus, for the open sea, one of the activists said.

"We are just here, two miles off Piraeus," said U.S. activist Ann Wright, aboard the ship. "We've been stopped by the coastguard. Their ship maneuvered in front of us and they are now talking to the captain. They want us to turn around," she told Reuters by phone.

Some hours later the vessel started heading back to the Greek shore, said a coastguard official who declined to be named.

Wright said the mission had wanted to sail to the Greek island of Crete but the coastguard would not allow them.

Greek authorities said earlier on Friday that ships destined for Gaza -- which involves transit through international waters -- were prohibited from leaving Greek ports.

But another activist said the coastguard's interception was illegal and would not deter the rest of the flotilla, which is expected to leave in the following days.

"The interception does affect us but we believe it is illegal and unreasonable," Vangelis Pissias told Reuters. "We are determined to continue. How can they be doing this?"

Israel says its blockade of Gaza is aimed at stopping weapons from reaching the enclave's rulers, Hamas -- an Islamist group that is branded a terrorist organization by the West.

Palestinians and their supporters say the naval blockade is illegal and constitutes collective punishment for Gaza's 1.5 million residents.

Israel has urged foreign governments not to let the latest convoy get under way. On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked allies, including Greece, for taking steps to block the activists.

A spokeswoman for the campaigners said the flotilla would set sail from Greece by the middle of next week.

"Israel is doing its very, very best to make sure we don't get out of port," spokeswoman Greta Berlin said, speaking by telephone from Greece where some of the ships are moored.

"We want to move the boats by July 5 to get to our rendezvous point no later than July 6 or 7 ... We will go with what we have," she said adding that nine boats were now hoping to take part in the mission against original plans for up to 15.

Irish activists accused Israel on Thursday of sabotaging their boat in Turkey, stopping it from sailing to Gaza.

Israel has denounced the flotilla as a provocation, but has denied allegations that it sabotaged either the Irish boat or a Swedish vessel that reported propeller damage after berthing in a Greek port.

Just over a year ago, Israeli marines stormed another pro-Palestinian flotilla that had set sail from Turkey and approached Gaza. Nine activists died in the onboard clashes, provoking an international outcry.

(Additional reporting by Deborah Kyvrikosaios and Yiorgos Karahalis; Writing by Ingrid Melander, George Georgiopoulos and Ori Lewis)

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Syria activists meet, call for change to avert crisis (Reuters)

AMMAN (Reuters) – Syrian activists called on Monday for sweeping political changes that could end 41 years of Assad family rule in a rare meeting in Damascus allowed by the authorities under pressure from a three-month popular uprising.

"The solution to this crisis has to address its root causes. This regime must be toppled and replaced with a democratic system," said leading Syrian writer Michel Kilo, who spent three years as a political prisoner.

The meeting at a Damascus hotel includes noted critics of President Bashar al-Assad who are respected in opposition circles, as well as some supporters of Assad.

Organizers said the gathering had approval from a senior aide to Assad, who has sent troops to crush protests across the country while promising dialogue in an effort to contain an uprising for political freedoms that has posed the gravest threat to his rule since he succeeded his father 11 years ago.

Other speakers in the conference, attended by 150 people in a Damascus hotel, adopted a softer tone but said demands of street protesters after decades of autocratic rule must be met.

Syrian writer Louay Hussein, who was also a political prisoner, said repression in the last four decades have undermined Syria as a whole while emphasizing that peaceful means must be found to meet popular demands.

Hussein said the meeting would try to explore "ending the state of dictatorship, and a peaceful and safe transition into a desired country, one of freedom, justice and equality."

Monther Khaddam, an academic from the coastal city of Latakia, said a wider national dialogue is needed but that intellectuals were "behind street demands until the end."

Organizers of Monday's conference described it as a platform for independent figures searching for a way out of the violence

Main opposition figures had said the meeting could give political cover to Assad, with human rights groups saying that security forces have killed over 1,300 civilians and imprisoned 12,000 since the uprising began in southern Syria.

Economist Aref Dalila, a major figure behind the gathering, pulled out at the last minute, saying that he did not want to participate in a conference that could be used by the authorities while mass killing and arrests continue.

(Reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis)

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Syrian activists to meet to chart way out of crisis (Reuters)

AMMAN (Reuters) – Some of Syria's most prominent intellectuals will meet in Damascus on Monday to seek a way out of the country's crisis, but anti-government activists said the meeting could give political cover to President Bashar al-Assad.

The planned meeting at a Damascus hotel includes noted critics of Assad who are respected in opposition circles, as well as some people known as supporters of Assad. The gathering appears to have approval from the government.

Assad has sent troops to crush protests across the country, while promising a national dialogue in an effort to contain an uprising for political freedoms which have posed the gravest threat to 41 years of family rule begun under his father.

Rights group say 1,300 civilians have died in the three-month uprising. The government says 250 security force members have died, and blames armed militants for provoking unrest.

Rights groups said security forces shot dead five civilians on Saturday, two at funerals which turned into protests and three during a campaign of arrests in Damascus and Quseir town near the Lebanese border. That followed mass protests on Friday, when activists said security forces killed at least 15 people.

PLATFORM

Organizers of Monday's conference described it as a platform for independent figures searching for a way out of the violence.

"There is no one officially from the regime or from the opposition, but the intelligentsia have a duty to meet and call for an end to military repression, release of political prisoners and establishment of political freedoms," opposition figure Aref Dalila told Reuters by telephone from Damascus.

"Most participants are demanding in total seriousness a move to a democratic system," said Dalila, a leading economist who was jailed for eight years after criticizing a telecoms contract awarded to a cousin of Assad.

Writer Louay Hussein, another high-profile opposition activist attending the meeting, said the aim was "to discuss the situation that is threatening the country and move in a safe and peaceful way into a democratic and civic state that achieves equality and justice for all citizens without discrimination."

But an activists' group called the Coordination Union of the Syrian Revolt denounced the conference as an attempt to "bestow legitimacy" on the regime. In Istanbul, where 150 Syrian youth activists concluded a two day opposition conference on Sunday, delegates also criticized the planned meeting.

"We respect the past of people like Mr Dalila and Mr Hussein, but the fact the conference will go ahead while killings continue is a whitewash for the regime. Whatever they decide will have no bearing for protesters on the ground," said Iyad Qarqour, an activist elected to the executive committee.

Dalila and Hussein were both among a group of four activists who met an Assad adviser two months ago to discuss a national dialogue. After that meeting the four said no dialogue could be held while protesters continued to be killed and security forces were arresting and torturing Syrians in their thousands.

Assad's repression of the protests has triggered Western condemnation and a gradual escalation of U.S. and European Union economic sanctions against Syrian leaders. Authorities in Damascus blame the violence on armed militant groups.

Despite strong rhetoric against Assad from Western leaders, there has been little suggestion they plan to go beyond economic sanctions to tougher action such as the military intervention launched against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

(Editing by Dominic Evans and Peter Graff)

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Chinese activists silent after release

Activist Hu Jia and his wife, Zeng Jinyan, pose in their home on the outskirts of Beijing in 2007.Hu Jia's wife says in a Twitter post that he is safe and needs to restAi Weiwei declines to answer questions from reporters outside his homeArtist Guo Jian says police visit him regularly and agents shadow him in the streetsActivists say the Chinese government is targeting dissidents, intellectuals and artists

Beijing (CNN) -- Chinese authorities released prominent human rights activist Hu Jia Sunday, days after freeing renowned dissident artist Ai Weiwei.

"A sleepless night -- Hu Jia arrived at home at 2:30. He's safe and I'm very happy," Zeng Jinyan, Hu's wife, said in a Twitter post Sunday morning. "He needs to rest for a while."

Hu, 37, denounced China's human rights record in a series of articles ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics and was later sentenced to 3.5 years in prison for "inciting to subvert state power." Ai, the conceptual artist turned government critic, was released Wednesday on bail after authorities detained him for nearly three months for tax evasion, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The seemingly positive news, however, has been dampened by the noticeable silence of both once-outspoken activists.

While Ai declined to answer questions from reporters outside his home early this week, police Sunday guarded entrances to Hu's apartment compound and patrolled surrounding streets. Zeng, his wife, appeared unreachable via phone or the internet.

Zeng told CNN Friday that authorities started 24-hour surveillance on her several days before Hu's expected return. In an interview last December, she predicted a virtual prisoner's life for the couple in their housing complex, called Freedom City.

"Hu Jia told me that he won't change, and police told him they may put him under house arrest in that case," she said. "I'm prepared for it."

"As long as there's no democracy or the rule of law in China, our situation won't change at all."

Last year's Nobel peace laureate Liu Xiaobo, also a rights activist, was convicted of the same crime as Hu. Liu is still serving an 11-year jail term.

Activists say the Chinese government, worried about potential uprisings inspired by the Arab Spring, has been increasingly tightening its grip on freedom of expression, targeting not only political dissidents but also intellectuals and artists.

Guo Jian said he has noticed such chilling effects from his studio at the Songzhuang art village, not far from Hu's home.

The veteran artist has been working on a startling installation piece that shows the very symbol of state power being bombed and razed. In the still-untitled diorama, model warplanes hang by thin threads fly over a miniature Tiananmen Square. The heart of Beijing is dotted with bulldozers and tanks, with the iconic Tiananmen Gate and Chairman Mao's mausoleum smashed and half-destroyed.

"The police have sent someone to say, don't show your work or don't let other people know about it," he said. "They're really worried about what I'm doing."

Guo, 48, says for the first time in his 20-year career, police now visit him regularly and plainclothes agents sometimes shadow him on the streets.

Pointing to his unfinished diorama, Guo says the authorities' outdated mentality and methods -- silencing perceived dissent through intimidation and detention -- only reinforce the message in his work: the potentially explosive consequences of suppressing people's voices for too long.

While he feels heartened by the release of fellow-artist Ai and activist Hu, Guo remains concerned about the current crackdown and doesn't see it ending anytime soon.

"Even though we got someone back, the fear is there," he said.

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Syrian forces kill 15 protesters, activists say (Reuters)

AMMAN (Reuters) – Syrian security forces shot dead at least 15 people on Friday after tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets demanding the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad, witnesses and activists said.

"Tell the world Bashar is without legitimacy," shouted several thousand protesters in the Damascus suburb of Irbin, the chants audible in a phone call to a witness at the protest.

The Local Coordination Committees, a main activists' group, said it had the names of 14 civilians killed in the merchant city of Homs, the impoverished town of Kiswa south of Damascus and in the residential district of Barzeh in the capital.

Another protester was shot dead in the town of Qusair, a rights group said.

Syrian state television blamed the killings in Barzeh on armed men who authorities say are behind the violence in the three-month uprising, and said members of security forces were wounded. Syria has expelled most foreign journalists making it hard to verify witness accounts or official statements.

"The security police first used teargas then they started shooting from rooftops when shouting against Assad continued," a Barzeh resident who gave his name as Hussam said by phone. "Three youths were killed and I saw two bodies shot in the head and the chest."

In the central cities of Homs and Hama, protesters shouted "the people want the downfall of the regime," while in Deraa, cradle of the uprising, people waved banners rejecting Assad's promise in a speech this week to launch a national dialogue.

Deraa protesters chanted slogans urging people in Damascus, which has seen fewer demonstrations than rural protest centers, to follow their lead. "People of Damascus, here in Deraa we toppled the regime," they chanted.

Protests also erupted in western coastal cities and eastern provinces near Iraq. Syrian troops swept to the northern border with Turkey on Thursday, prompting another 1,500 refugees to flee across the frontier into camps which Turkish officials say now host more than 11,000 refugees.

Syrian television said on Friday army units were "completing their deployment" in border villages. It said there had been no casualties during the operation and that soldiers were greeted with traditional welcomes of flowers and rice by residents.

Assad's repression of the protests, in which Syrian rights groups say more than 1,300 civilians have been killed, has triggered Western condemnation and a gradual escalation of U.S. and European Union economic sanctions against Syrian leaders.

Syrian authorities blame Islamist militants and armed gangs for killing more than 200 police and security personnel.

On Friday the European Union announced extended sanctions against Syria, including against three commanders of Iran's Revolutionary Guard accused of helping Damascus curb dissent. Syria denies Iran has played any role in tackling the unrest.

Four Syrian officials were also targeted, bringing to 34 the number of individuals and entities on the list which already includes Assad and his top officials.

Despite strong rhetoric among against Assad from Western leaders, there has been no suggestion they plan to go beyond economic sanctions to tougher action such as the military intervention launched against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

WASHINGTON WORRIED

The United States, which has also imposed targeted sanctions on Syrian officials, said a reported Syrian army move to surround and target the town of Khirbat al-Joz just 500 meters (yards) from the Turkish border was a worrying development.

"Unless the Syrian forces immediately end their attacks and their provocations that are not only now affecting their own citizens but (raising) the potential of border clashes, then we're going to see an escalation of conflict in the area," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.

The crackdown has caused a crisis in Assad's once-warm relations with Turkey, which has become strongly critical.

Clinton said she had discussed the situation with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, and President Barack Obama had discussed it with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.

Davutoglu, who said Erdogan would speak to Assad on Friday, talked to Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem on Thursday and Ankara summoned the Syrian ambassador.

In an apparent easing of Ankara's criticism, Davutoglu said Assad's speech contained "positive elements in it as signals of reform," but said it was important that action followed.

At the border, only a few Syrian troops were visible on Friday, some occupying a building on a hill overlooking the border, directly across from the Turkish village of Guvecci.

Three Syrian soldiers were manning a sand-bagged machinegun post on top of a house in the Syrian border village of Khirbat al-Joz. Camps on the Syrian side of the border fence appeared deserted and no more refugees were crossing.

The United States has steadily sharpened its rhetoric toward Assad, saying he is losing credibility and must either implement promised reforms or get out of the way.

Protests have grown in northern areas following military assaults on towns and villages in the Jisr al-Shughour region of Idlib province, west of Aleppo, that sent more than 10,000 people fleeing across the 840-km (520-mile) border with Turkey.

Syrian television said hundreds of people were heading back to Jisr al-Shughour. A refugee who said he was at Yayladagi camp said on Thursday a delegation of notables from the city told people it was safe to go back, but that refugees told them there would be "no return until the fall of the (Assad) regime."

Syria, a mostly Sunni nation of 20 million with Kurdish, Alawite and Christian minorities, is vulnerable to sectarian tensions. Assad belongs to the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, and his opponents say he increasingly relies on loyalist Alawite troops and irregulars known as 'shabbiha'.

(Additional reporting by Omer Berberoglu and Umit Bektas in Guvecci, Turkey, Simon Cameron-Moore and Ibon Villelabeitia in Ankara, Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman, Andrew Quinn in Washington; Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

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Bahrain opposition activists jailed for life

Bahrain's Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa said he was seeking a national dialogue with protesters last month.Defendants are forcibly taken out of court after the verdictThe verdicts come after human rights groups have urged Bahrain to stop the trials"This court does not meet international standards for human rights," an activist says

(CNN) -- A Bahrain court sentenced eight Shiite opposition activists to life imprisonment after finding them guilty of plotting to overthrow the country's Sunni royal family, state media said Wednesday.

They were among 21 people who were tried and convicted on terrorism-related charges in connection with the anti-government protests in the country, the Bahrain News Agency said.

Soon after the judge read the verdict, the defendants protested loudly -- prompting officials to forcibly remove them from the courtroom.

Zainab al-Khawaja, a spectator, disputed her father's life sentence by yelling "God is Great" and was arrested.

Most defendants hauled before Bahrain's special military court are facing blatantly political charges, and trials are unfair.
--Joe Stork, Human Rights Watch.

Rights groups have urged Bahrain to halt the special military court proceedings, with Human Rights Watch deeming them a violation of international law.

"Most defendants hauled before Bahrain's special military court are facing blatantly political charges, and trials are unfair," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.

In a meeting earlier this month with U.S. President Barack Obama last week, Bahrain's Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa pledged he is seeking national dialogue with the protesters.

Bahrain's crackdown contradicts statements the prince made, Human Rights Watch said.

Bahraini human rights activist Nabeel Rajab also said he disapproved of the trials.

"This court does not meet international standards for human rights and for fair trials. The people were sentenced for expressing their opinion and for opposing the government," Rajab said. "This goes against the government saying it wants a dialogue."

Bahrain is one of several Middle Eastern and North African countries embroiled in anti-government protests. The ruling royal family -- Sunnis in a majority-Shiite nation -- accuses protesters of being motivated by sectarian differences and supported by Iran.

Also on trial in Bahrain are dozens of doctors and nurses who are accused of taking control of a hospital during the anti-government protests, storing weapons and keeping people prisoner.

The doctors, their lawyers and international human rights activists say the defendants were tortured to extract confessions against a background of demonstrations in the kingdom.

From CNN's Jenifer Fenton

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PR activists demand hate crime charges amid deaths (AP)

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Activists are demanding that a series of killings of gays, lesbians and transgenders in Puerto Rico be treated as possible hate crimes, saying there is an alarming rate of violence against these groups on the U.S. island.

In the last year and a half, at least 18 such people have been killed, three of them just this week, but authorities refuse to treat the cases as bias crimes, Pedro Julio Serrano, founder of the gay rights group Puerto Rico for Everyone, said Thursday.

"It seems they have declared open hunting season against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and transsexual people," he said.

A 2002 hate crime law in Puerto Rico covers crimes based on sexual orientation or gender identity, but it has only been invoked in one case. If someone is found guilty of a hate crime they automatically face the maximum sentence for the underlying offense. If the offense is murder, it means life in prison.

The island's attorney general created a special committee last year to investigate hate crimes, and the government recently appointed prosecutor Janet Parra to oversee hate crimes. Police are expected to name a liaison with the gay and lesbian community.

Neither Parra nor Police Chief Jose Figueroa Sancha returned messages seeking comment.

"These are tentative steps," Serrano said. "With the level of violence that we have, we have to take bigger steps."

The most recent victim, Carlos Alfredo Gomez, a transsexual known as Carlota, was shot to death Tuesday by someone driving along a street where he worked as a prostitute, police have said. No one has been arrested.

In late April, another transsexual, Francheska Gonzalez, was severely beaten by a man while leaving a gas station in the suburb of Rio Piedras.

"He began yelling insults at me," she said, adding that he hit her so hard he broke the implant in her right breast.

The suspect faces a June 29 hearing for an assault charge. Gonzalez wants him to be charged with a hate crime.

Late last year, two young men dressed in women's clothing were shot in the head and apparently run over by a car in the southern city of Juana Diaz. Also last year, the naked and battered body of a transgender woman, Ashley Santiago, was found in her home in the northern town of Corozal.

In a November 2009 case that sparked vigils in New York and Chicago, gay teenager Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado was found decapitated and partially burned in Cayey. The suspect has been charged with first-degree murder.

The Human Rights Campaign, a Washington-based group, issued a statement Wednesday urging Puerto Rico's government and police to create a plan to address crimes against gays and lesbians.

"The alarming rate of violence ... cannot be tolerated," the group said.

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Syria forces killed 70 protesters Friday: activists (Reuters)

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian forces killed at least 70 protesters Friday, activists said, one of the bloodiest days since the start of an 11-week revolt against the authoritarian rule of President Bashar al-Assad.

Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets on Friday in defiance of security forces determined to crush the uprising, and some activists said the death toll could hit 100.

Rami Abdulrahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said at least 60 people were killed in Hama, where Assad's father Hafez crushed an armed revolt 29 years ago by killing up to 30,000 people and razing parts of the city.

A political activist in Hama said tens of thousands of people were attending the funerals of dead protesters on Saturday, and that more protests were planned later in the day.

"Anger is very high in the city, people will never be silent or scared. The whole city is shut today and people are calling for a three-day strike," the activist, who gave his name as Omar, told Reuters by phone from the city.

"We expect protests after the evening prayers."

Residents and activists said that security forces and snipers fired at demonstrators who thronged Hama Friday.

On top of the casualties there, Syrian human rights group Sawasiah said one person was killed in Damascus and two in the northwestern province of Idlib. Seven people were killed in the town of Rastan in central Syria, which has been under military assault and besieged by tanks since Sunday.

Rights groups say security forces have killed more than 1,000 civilians during the uprising, provoking international outrage at Assad's ruthless handling of the demonstrators.

Assad has tried brute force and political concessions, often simultaneously, to quell protests. The tactic has so far failed to stop the revolt against 41 years of rule by the Assad family, members of the minority Alawite sect in mainly Sunni Syria.

In Deraa, birthplace of the revolt, hundreds defied a military curfew and demonstrated Friday, two residents said.

Syrian forces fired on demonstrations in the eastern city of Deir al-Zor and in Damascus' Barzeh district. Activists and residents said thousands marched in the northwestern province of Idlib, the Kurdish northeast, several Damascus suburbs, the city of Homs and the towns of Madaya and Zabadani in the west.

"It is worth noting that Hama and Idlib, where the biggest demonstrations occurred, used to be the stronghold of the Muslim Brotherhood," said one activist who declined to be named.

"The number of people who took to the streets could be a message from the (Muslim) Brotherhood to the regime that: "now we are taking part in the revolution in full weight.""

ACTIVIST FREED

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Washington was "deeply concerned" by reports that Internet service and some mobile phone networks had been shut down in much of Syria.

"We condemn any effort to suppress the Syrian people's exercise of their rights to free expression, assembly and association," she said in a statement. "Attempting to silence the population cannot prevent the transition currently taking place... the Syrian people will find a way to make their voices heard."

Syrian authorities released a prominent activist Saturday who had been in jail since 2008, Abdulrahman said.

Ali Abdallah, in his 50s, had criticised Syria's ally Iran. He was a member of the Damascus Declaration, a rights movement named after a document calling for a democratic constitution and an end of the Baath Party's five-decade monopoly on power.

Syrian authorities blame the violence on armed groups backed by Islamists and foreign powers, and say the groups have fired on civilians and security forces alike. Authorities have prevented most international media from operating in Syria, making it impossible to verify accounts of the violence.

Activists say there have been some instances of citizens resisting security forces with personal weapons, and of security police shooting soldiers who refused to fire at protesters.

Assad has sent in tanks to crush demonstrations in some flashpoints but has also offered some reforms, such as an amnesty for political prisoners and a national dialogue -- measures dismissed by opposition figures as too little too late.

The United States, the European Union and Australia have imposed sanctions on Syria, but perhaps because of reluctance to get entangled in another confrontation after Libya, their reaction has been less vehement than some activists had hoped.

(Additional reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis, editing by Tim Pearce)

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Syrian activists gather in Turkish city

(CNN) -- As Syria weathered more bloodshed this week, the Bashar al-Assad regime faced more political pressure and derision from two important corners -- members of the country's fledgling opposition movement and America's top diplomat.

Hundreds of Syrian activists gathering in the Turkish city of Antalya called on al-Assad to step down and hand over power to his vice president with the goal of organizing general elections. They also declared its support for the "Revolution in Syria" and elected a 31-member council aimed at assisting the protest movement.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, speaking in Washington, repeated President Barack Obama's recent tough words to al-Assad in his policy -- embrace democracy or get out.

"The legitimacy that is necessary for anyone to expect change to occur under this current government is -- if not gone -- nearly run out," Clinton said.

"The international community has to continue to make its strongest possible case and call for specific action, not just an amnesty, but the release of political prisoners, an end to unjust detentions, let human rights monitors into the country."

Since mid-March, Syria's government has undertaken a fierce crackdown against demonstrations that have demanded reforms of al-Assad.

Human Rights Watch accused Syria on Wednesday of carrying out a "systematic" series of abuses against protesters in Daraa province. In a report detailing abuses toward protesters, it called on the United Nations to investigate.

Since Sunday, at least 43 people have been killed, when government forces entered Homs province to end protests against government rule, said Rami Abdel Rahman, president of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

A witness in Rastan, who identified himself as a protest organizer named Abu Abdullah, said there was heavy artillery fire and that shelling had destroyed about 20 homes and several mosques.

Abdullah said the fighting has been nonstop since troops cut off the town on Sunday. He said he carried the body of a 16-year-old boy killed in the attack on the city.

"He was just walking in the street when he was shot," he said.

CNN has not been granted access into Syria and is unable to independently verify the accounts.

Syria has denied the allegations, but there is growing international criticism of the regime, and opposition members are trying to mount a stronger movement.

Security forces have killed more than 887 across the country since the protests started in mid-March, Human Rights Watch said in a report.

That number does not include security personnel the government claims died in attacks from "armed groups."

Precise "numbers are impossible to verify given the information blockade imposed by the Syrian government," the rights group said.

The Syrian crisis was center stage in Antalya on Thursday, where hundreds of activists from Syria and the international diaspora gathered at a hotel to discuss ways to support the uprising.

Dozens of regime supporters picketed the gathering, and Turkish police were out in force in Antalya, ensuring that the pro-government demonstrators could not reach the opposition conference venue.

Conference organizers say their main goals are to organize committees aimed at supporting protesters inside Syria, communicating with the media, and lobbying foreign governments. Their aim, they say, is to help unite the opposition both inside and outside Syria.

In Washington, the rhetoric toward Bashar al-Assad's regime heated up as it has around the world. On Wednesday, for example, Australia's foreign minister said Syria's actions should be referred to the International Criminal Court.

The United States has taken steps, including sanctions and executive orders, to put pressure on the regime, Secretary of State Clinton said. While the United States is trying to deal with the issue, Syria hasn't spurred the same kind of international unity that the Libyan crisis has, she said.

"Right now the attitude of the international community is not as united as we are seeking to make it. We do not yet have the agreement by some of the other members of the Security Council. We certainly have nothing resembling the kind of strong action the Arab League took with respect to Libya.

"So every day that goes by, not only do we see the outside pressure growing in a public effort to try to end the violence and bring this terrible chapter to an end, but privately we continue to do everything we can with like-minded countries," she said.

The killing of a Syrian teen during the recent military siege in the southern province of Daraa has enraged people across the world, including Clinton.

"The tragedy of the young boy, Hamza Ali al-Khateeb, symbolizes for many people around the world the total collapse of any effort by the Assad government to work with their own people," Clinton said.

She said al-Assad hasn't called for an end of violence and isn't "engaged seriously" in reform.

"When we find ourselves in these situations we have to do a very clear-eyed, calculated assessment of what influence we have, and who are our partners in trying to bring about that influence. Although there are general trends in the Middle East and North Africa, each country is a specific case onto itself," Clinton said.

U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, a Democrat from Minnesota who is a Muslim, said on Thursday "the world will not forget" the regime's actions and called on people to stand against the regime's human rights violations.

The majority of people in Syria are Sunni Muslims but the regime is dominated by Alawites, whose faith is a spin-off of Shiite Islam.

CNN's Elise Labott, Ivan Watson and Salma Abdelaziz contributed to this report

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Syrian forces kill 13 in besieged town: activists (Reuters)

ANTALYA, Turkey (Reuters) – Syrian forces killed at least 13 civilians in the central town of Rastan Thursday, activists said, in the latest attempt to quell a revolt against the 11-year rule of President Bashar al-Assad.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Assad's legitimacy had "nearly run out" and called for a more united international response to the crackdown in Syria.

Syria's exiled opposition, meeting in Turkey, urged Assad to resign immediately and hand power to the vice president until a council is formed to oversee a transition to democracy.

"The delegates have committed to the demands of the Syrian people to bring down the regime and support the people's revolution for freedom and dignity," said a communique issued by 300 opposition figures after two days of talks in Antalya.

Security forces backed by tanks have laid siege to Rastan, a town of 60,000, since Sunday in an effort to crush protests.

The 13 dead were shot by snipers and troops who imposed a curfew, Ammar Qurabi, head of the Syrian National Organization for Human Rights, and lawyer Razan Zaitouna told Reuters.

Tuesday, shelling killed 41, including a four-year-old girl, Zaitouna said. At least 200 people have been arrested.

Syria has barred most international media, making it difficult to verify accounts of the violence.

Qurabi said some residents had occasionally used guns.

"There have been rare instances of people who have seen their parents, wives or children being killed, (people) taking their personal weapons and trying to resist. But they were smothered by the overwhelming and unjustifiable force being used by the authorities," he told Reuters at the meeting in Turkey.

He said his organization had the names of 1,113 civilians killed since anti-Assad protests erupted on March 18.

Syria blames the unrest on armed groups backed by Islamists and foreign powers. Assad has sent security forces and tanks to several flashpoints, including Deraa, Banias and Tal Kelakh, a border town near Lebanon, and now Rastan.

Four soldiers shot by "armed terrorist groups" in Rastan on Wednesday were buried Thursday, the state news agency said.

PRISONER RELEASES

While the crackdown on Rastan intensified, authorities began freeing hundreds of political prisoners after Assad issued a general amnesty, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

A blend of force and reformist gestures has failed to quell the movement against Assad. Instead it has provoked world condemnation and sanctions as the civilian toll rises.

Two U.N. special advisers, Francis Deng and Edward Luck, voiced alarm Thursday about the Syrian authorities' "systematic and deliberate attacks" against civilians in a joint statement and urged an investigation.

Rami Abdelrahman, the Observatory's director, said most of those released under the amnesty were protesters from the suburbs of Damascus, the cities of Banias, Homs and Latakia, as well as Deraa in the south and the eastern Hasaka region.

Rights groups estimate that more than 10,000 people have been rounded up since protests erupted in mid-March.

Kurdish leader Mishaal al-Tammo and human rights lawyer Mohannad al-Hassani, who were jailed in the last three years on charges of "weakening national morale," were freed Thursday, Adelrahman said.

Abbas Abbas, a 69-year-old leftist who had already spent 15 years as a political prisoner and was sentenced to seven years in jail earlier this year for the same charge, was also freed this week.

The amnesty does not seem to have covered teenage blogger Tal al-Molouhy, sentenced to five years in jail earlier this year on charges of revealing information to a foreign country, despite U.S. calls to release her, Abdelrahman said.

Molouhy had written Internet postings in which she said she longed for a role in shaping the direction of Syria.

Along with the amnesty, Assad has launched preparations for a national dialogue, but opposition figures, activists and protesters say this means little while repression continues.

Human Rights Watch said Wednesday witness testimony showed security forces were guilty of "systematic killings and torture" in Deraa. The New York-based group said the actions strongly suggested they qualified as crimes against humanity.

LOST LEGITIMACY

In Antalya, the meeting of exiled activists elected a 31 member consultative council representing a wide spectrum of the opposition to support the demonstrations and help raise international pressure against Assad.

"This is the first time that the opposition has met on this scale. The message is clear: the Syrians are united to achieve the national goal of peaceful democratic change," said Najib Ghadbian, a political science professor who was elected to the council.

At first wary of more instability in the region, Western powers have stepped up measures against Assad, imposing sanctions against him and senior figures in his government.

Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd urged the U.N. Security Council to consider referring the Syrian leader to the International Criminal Court.

"When you see such large-scale, directed action by a head of government against his own civilian population, including the murder of a 13-year-old boy and his torture, then the deepest questions arise in the minds of the people of the world as to whether any claims of legitimacy remains," Rudd said.

The death of Hamza al-Khatib, aged 13, who rights groups says was tortured and killed in custody, has drawn outrage around the world and spurred more protests in Syria.

Syrian authorities deny he was tortured, saying he was killed at a demonstration in which armed gangs shot at guards.

(Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed in Washington and Michael Perry in Sydney; writing by Yara Bayoumy in Beirut; editing by Angus MacSwan)

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NAACP, parents and activists at odds over Harlem charter schools

The NAACP and a New York City teachers' union are trying to stop 22 school closuresThe groups want to stop the expansion or co-location of 20 charter schools An NAACP official says the plan unfairly favors charters at the expense of regular schools But some, like activist Geoffrey Canada, say more charter schools are needed

(CNN) -- For decades, Harlem has been a hub of African-American culture and the NAACP. But this month, the issue of charter schools has turned the New York City neighborhood into a battleground between activists and the 101-year-old civil rights organization.

The strain was as clear as the signs and chants during a rally Thursday in Harlem -- "NAACP, Don't Divide Us, Unite Us!"

About 4% of New York City's roughly 1 million students currently attend charter schools -- which are paid with public funds but typically have different mandates, approaches and staffing arrangements that traditional schools. Another 50,000 students are on waiting lists.

A proposal to expand access to charter schools and allow charters to co-locate -- or be based in the same building -- as regular schools has turned some traditional allies against each other.

The rift accelerated in May, when the NAACP and the United Federation of Teachers -- a union of 200,000 New York City teachers and school staff -- filed a lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court. Besides asking to stop 22 school closings, the lawsuit urged halting the plan to expand or co-locate 20 charter schools.

On its website, the teachers' union calls the initiative illegal and claims it would give "charter school students more access to school facilities, including libraries, auditoriums and lunchrooms, than students in the public schools that would share the buildings."

While a teachers union opposing charter schools is hardly unprecedented, leaders of the local NAACP said they decided to step in and support the lawsuit in order to best ensure a level playing field for all New York City students.

Hazel Dukes, president of the NAACP's New York chapter, said the group is fighting for equal education for all -- similar to the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision on Brown v. Board of Education, which mandated equal education regardless of race.

"The facilities should be in good condition on both sides," said Dukes. "There should not be a 10 o'clock lunch hour and a 12 o'clock lunch hour. There should be one 12 o'clock lunch hour."

Yet Geoffrey Canada, a nationally renowned educator who is the president and CEO of Harlem Children's Zone, thinks more charter schools in New York City are the solution -- not the problem. That's why he joined parents Thursday calling for the NAACP and teachers' union to drop the lawsuit, or at least the part pertaining to charter schools.

Aisha Moore, who attended the rally, said the NAACP's stance is counterproductive if its goal is to support the rejuvenation of New York City schools.

"The NAACP has always backed minorities and African-Americans, so it's just surprising they're moving against us now," she said. "It's like moving backwards, when we should be pushing forward."

Keona Moore, a single parent whose daughter attends a charter school, said that the trickle-down effect of closing schools and limiting options could be devastating.

"I'm not going to put her in a failing public school," Moore said.

Zakiyah Ansari said that's where the efforts should be focused: on making sure no existing public schools are failing, not to create more charter schools at the expense of traditional ones. The mother of eight insisted that those rallying in Harlem on Thursday and those behind the lawsuit -- like herself -- have more in common than they might think.

"Now we're engaged with parents and having them come out in busloads to fight against other parents fighting for the same thing -- the right for a quality education," said Ansari, an organizer with the Alliance for Quality Education. "We're not asking for more."

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Activists warn G-8 against Web restrictions (AP)

PARIS – Internet activists and digital entrepreneurs warned Wednesday that if global leaders attempt to limit access to the Web, their restrictions will be bypassed and they will become irrelevant.

The stark message adds to growing resistance — from big name companies like Google and Twitter to anonymous Internet vigilantes who have attacked government censorship networks — against creeping laws that might one day restrict services many users now take for granted.

Leaders of the Group of Eight most powerful countries begin meeting in France on Thursday to discuss issues of global concern in the wake of the Arab uprising that have been described as the first Internet-enabled revolutions.

"G-8 governments should say very clearly for once that Internet access is a fundamental human right," said Jean-Francois Julliard, who heads free speech group Reporters without Borders.

Julliard said more than 60 countries now have some form of Internet censorship in place, and that number is growing.

Tony Wang, Twitter's general manager for Europe, said attempts to crack down on free expression are self-defeating.

He declined to discuss attempts in Britain to enforce the country's strict privacy law against users of the micro-blogging site. But Wang told a panel in Paris that "the response to bad speech should be more speech."

Earlier this year, Twitter teamed up with Google to create a service allowing Egyptians to post messages on the Internet even after the government had cut Web access in an effort to quell street protests.

"We take that open communication channel for granted at our peril," Google's regional policy director Susan Pointer said.

Support for unrestricted Web access also came from the U.S. government. Alec Ross, a special adviser to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, said Washington recently spent $28 million training democracy activists to use tools that allow them to bypass online filters.

With users become more sophisticated and technology allowing them to establish autonomous networks outside of government control, some at the meeting said authorities are fighting a losing battle.

"Government in many ways is absolutely going to, if not already has, become irrelevant," said Shervin Pishevar, the chief executive of California-based SGN, which invests in social and mobile gaming companies. "It's not going to be in control anymore with the technologies that are coming down the pipe."

That message may not be welcomed by all G-8 leaders. Their host, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, had convened Internet mavens in Paris on Tuesday to argue that the online world needs more real-world regulation.

Maurice Levy, tasked by Sarkozy with organizing what was billed as the first "e-G-8" conference, said participants hoped leaders would heed their objection to greater government interference.

"If it just changes (views) by two degrees it will be a huge victory," said Levy, the chief executive of France's ad agency Publicis Groupe SA.

Asked what she would tell the G-8, activist Nadine Wahab said the lesson from the successful uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia should be: "Leave the Internet alone."

"It doesn't belong either to companies, nor the governments nor the G-8," she said.

____

Frank Jordans can be contacted on Twitter at http://twitter.com/wirereporter

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Group: Bahraini activist's home attacked

The home of Nabeel Rajab is tear gassedThe attack follows a similar one in AprilRajab is president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights

(CNN) -- The home of prominent Bahraini activist Nabeel Rajab was attacked Saturday, the rights group he heads said.

The attack took place early Saturday morning while Rajab and his family were sleeping, said the Bahrain Center for Human Rights. Assailants launched teargas grenades into the house, breaking the window of Rajab's brother, the group said.

"We had very frightening moments rescuing my brother, his wife and his daughter as they were close to serious suffocation. This is an attempt to murder a member of my family to pressure me to stop my human rights activities," said Rajab, president of the Center.

"Thank God the teargas bombs fell on the tile and not the carpet, which could have caused a fire and could have killed the whole family while they were asleep," he said. "Please do whatever you can to stop the government from attacking me and my family who have nothing to do with my human rights work."

Saturday marked the second attack on Rajab's home in about a month. In April, assailants lobbed teargas over a high wall surrounding his and his mother's houses, Human Rights Watch reported. After that attack, the New York-based rights group called on the government of Bahrain to investigate, saying the attack appeared to target Rajab for his advocacy work.

Human Rights Watch said then that it knew of no entity other than Bahrain's security forces that would have access to the kind of grenades used in the April attack.

There was no immediate response to the Human Right Watch statement by the Bahraini government.

The country is ruled by the Al-Khalifa family, which has been in power since the 18th century. Many protesters are calling for the removal of the royal family, whom they blame for the country's high unemployment rate and for running a corrupt government that relies on torture and other harsh measures to clamp down on dissent.

On March 20, about 25 people in about a dozen cars pulled up to Rajab's house and took him to the offices of the Interior Ministry's investigative department. There, according to Rajab, he was beaten, blindfolded and interrogated about an armed suspect they believed he knew.

The government confirmed the arrest but provided no other details.

Rajab is one of hundreds of Bahrainis to be detained by security forces in recent months. The arrests, according to human rights activists, have often been violent and have taken place at night.

Bahrain, where the U.S. Navy anchors its Fifth Fleet, is a small, predominantly Shiite country governed by a Sunni royal family.

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Bahrain court adjourns trial of protest activists (AP)

MANAMA, Bahrain – Bahrain's special security court on Monday adjourned until next week the trial of 21 opposition leaders and political activists, mostly Shiites, accused of plotting against the state.

The suspects — 14 in custody and the others charged in absentia — are accused of attempting to overthrow the 200-year-old Sunni dynasty and of having links to "a terrorist organization abroad." That is an apparent reference to Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, which Bahrain's rulers have claimed was involved in the strategic island kingdom's Shiite-led protests earlier this year.

Authorities are seeking to prosecute opposition leaders and others after months of clashes and protests in Bahrain, which hosts the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet.

The 21 accused are being tried in a special security court set up under martial law. Last month, the court sentenced four people to death for killing two policemen during the unrest.

Among those on trial are Hassan Mushaima, the leader of Al Haq movement. He was among the first opposition leaders arrested after emergency rule was declared in March to quell weeks of anti-government protests.

Mushaima returned from self-imposed exile in late February and immediately joined in street protests that were inspired by revolts against autocratic leaders in Tunisia and Egypt. He and fellow Haq member Abdul Jalil al-Singace were among 25 Shiite activists on trial last year on charges of trying to overthrow the nation's Sunni rulers.

Also on trial are Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, the country's most prominent human rights activist; Ibrahim Sharif, a key Sunni leader in the kingdom's Shiite-led opposition; and Ali Abdul Emam, a blogger and founder of a popular discussion forum Bahrain-On-Line.

The defendants have entered not guilty pleas. The trial resumes Sunday.

The Bahrain News Agency also said on Monday the court has agreed to end solitary confinement for opposition leaders detained following the military crackdown in March.

Bahrain's majority Shiites, who have long demanded a greater political voice and rights, dominated the protests that began in February. They comprise about 70 percent of Bahrain's population, but are excluded from top government and security posts.

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Democratic Activists Plan Protest to Dump Trash at Boehner's Home Saturday

Trash overflows from dumpsters behind an apartment building. (AP)

Confronted with the possibility of a shutdown in basic services, a group of Facebook users in Washington, D.C., wants to take its aggression out on House Speaker John Boehner -- playing a dirty trick to make the point. 

Democratic activists, angry that Washington residents pay taxes but have no voting representation in Congress, have set up a Facebook page to urge protesters to dump their trash outside Boehner's home if the government shuts down Friday night. 

"Speaker John Boehner is ready to shut down the government, including DC city services like trash collection. Well, if he won't allow us to use OUR TAX DOLLARS to pick it up, maybe we should just BRING IT TO HIM," the Facebook page says.

Because much of the nation's capital is run on federal money, trash collection in the city would be halted if the government shuts down.

Democrats Jonah Goodman and Nolan Treadway organized the trash-dumping day. Goodman identifies himself as the lead designer for the Democratic National Committee's website until December and Treadway says he is the political and logistics director for the liberal group Netroots Nation.

So far, more than 5,600 people have committed to protesting at Boehner's house Saturday morning. But reaction from Facebook users has been mixed, judging by the comments on the page.

Amanda Sasser Klaus said she's taking her trash to the White House. 

User Galactic Stone, who lives in Florida, said he likes the idea and wants to know whether he can mail some trash to Washington for the effort.

"How fitting that a piece of garbage will receive garbage. LOL," Stone wrote.

Adel Thalos, however, objected to the proposal. "This is one of the most offensive actions I have come across. If you thugs actually go through with these disgusting actions, you should absolutely be arrested, fined and jailed. You are encouraging and condoning unlawful hate-filled actions. "

The organizers say that their protest isn't over a budget not getting passed in Congress but rather the lack of control that DC's local government has over its own affairs, which would be made painfully clear during a work stoppage.

"Fortunately, our mayor can exempt our police, firefighters and teachers but most of the rest of our local government will shut down because members of Congress won't give us autonomy to budget and spend our own money," they write. "We are protesting at Speaker Boehner's house because he has the power to put bills on the floor of the House he controls to fix this."

They are asking Boehner to support three bills pending in the House that would lift give DC more control over its budget.

When in Washington, Boehner resides on Capitol Hill, but his spokesman Michael Steel responded that protesters may have to travel farther.

"The speaker's house is in Ohio," he told FoxNews.com.

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