2 killed as Syrian forces hunt for defector

Syrian security forces searching for an alleged high-profile defector from President Bashar Assad’s regime killed two people after storming a northern village yesterday, raising the death toll from the past two days to at least 19, activists said.

A day earlier, security forces trying to crush almost six months of demonstrations against the authoritarian

leadership fired on thousands of marchers, killing 17 people, most of them in suburbs of the capital Damascus.

The crackdown has drawn international criticism and sanctions. The European Union announced Friday that it was banning oil imports from Syria, which will cost the embattled regime millions of dollars each day.

While Assad brushed off earlier condemnation as foreign meddling, the oil embargo is significant because Damascus gets about 28 percent of its revenue from the oil trade and sells fuel to France, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands. Some analysts believe Syria is getting financial assistance from Iran, which would cushion the EU blow.

The EU will do more, the bloc’s foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, said yesterday after meetings in Poland with top diplomats of member states. Ashton told reporters in Poland the ban on Syrian oil imports was an attempt to achieve a political outcome by economic means.

“And we will continue to put that pressure on, to look for ways of doing so, to try and support the people,’’ she said.

The United States has hit more than 30 Syrian officials, including Assad himself, with economic sanctions, banned any US import of Syrian oil or petroleum products, and frozen all Syrian government assets subject to American jurisdiction. But the United States has isolated Syria for decades and has little leverage with the regime.

Yesterday, US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland welcomed the EU oil import ban.

“The United States and our international partners will continue to add political and economic pressure in an effort to force President Assad to step aside and allow the Syrian people to effect a peaceful transition,’’ Nuland said.

The United Nations says some 2,200 people have been killed since March as protesters take to the streets every week, despite the near-certainty that they will face bullets and sniper fire. The regime is in no imminent danger of collapse, leading to concerns that violence will escalate.

In the Damascus suburb of Douma yesterday, thousands of mourners marched behind the body of a man killed by gunfire Friday. Mourners seen on video posted online by residents shouted “freedom’’ and “God is great.’’

Activists said troops yesterday raided a village near the town of Maaret al-Numan in the province of Idlib, killing two people.

The Local Coordination Committees activist network and the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported the deaths.

The Observatory cited a local activist saying troops taking part in yesterday’s raid in Idlib, an area close to the Turkish border, were searching for Adnan Bakkour, attorney general for the central Hama Province, who appeared in two videos Wednesday declaring his resignation.

Bakkour’s alleged resignation appeared to be a high-profile defection, but authorities said that terrorists had kidnapped him and forced him to make the recording. Bakkour denied that in one of the videos.

UPDATE 1-Clashes in Greece, parliament expected to approve bill(Photo-Video)

Greek police clashed with protesters outside parliament in the early hours of Thursday ahead of a vote expected to approve a final austerity bill needed to secure international aid and avert a debt default. The government of Prime Minister George Papandreou, which won a first vote on Wednesday by 155 to 138 votes, expects to pass the second and final bill covering 28 billion euros in tax hikes, spending targets and privatisations agreed as part of an EU/IMF bailout. Parliament resumes debate at 9:30 a.m. (0630 GMT) and

the decisive vote is not expected before 2 p.m. (1100 GMT). Before the debate, it had not yet been decided whether more than one vote would be needed to pass it. "I expect that the MPs who backed the mid-term plan will also vote for the implementation law," government spokesman Ilias Mosialos said in a television interview. World stocks rallied on Thursday for the third day running and the euro rose to its highest dollar level in 20 days on relief that Greece looked set to avoid the euro zone's first debt default. The optimism was mixed with concern though over whether the government will be able to implement the unpopular cuts in practice to meet a tight schedule imposed by the EU and the IMF. "There are still a lot of unanswered questions about the effective implementation of austerity measures, given the backdrop of increasing public anger in Greece," said Omer Esiner, chief market analyst at Commonwealth Foreign Exchange in Washington. Implementing the measures will be hard for the government, which has fallen behind the opposition in opinion polls and has faced heated criticism from its own deputies during the parliament debate. Unions, which paralysed the country for 48 hours earlier this week, have vowed to oppose privatisations and other austerity steps. Anger among the Greek population was underlined by violence which on Syntagma Square outside parliament as Wednesday's votes on the first bill were being counted. Doctors working with the demonstrators said they had treated at least 25 people for minor injuries and hundreds with respiratory problems at the adjacent Syntagma metro station. At least 40 police officers were hurt, the police union said. Hooded youths and police fought battles into the night, choking the city centre with tear gas and smoke from petrol bombs. The protesters set fire to the post office in the building where the Finance Ministry is located, and tried to set ablaze a bank. Across the square, the luxury King George Hotel was evacuated. Parliament must pass both bills for the European Union and International Monetary Fund to release a 12-billion-euro loan -- essential for Greece to meet debt payments in July -- under a 110-billion-euro bailout agreed in May 2010. The laws are also needed for talks on a planned second and longer-term bailout of about the same size, which will include some 30 billion euros in private-sector participation. Locked out of bond markets, Greece needs the extra cash to avert default and keep the debt crisis from spilling over to the rest of the euro zone. Papandreou, who reshuffled his cabinet earlier this month to secure support for the bills, said he was determined to push through reforms. "Today, I am more determined than ever," Papandreou said. "Now is the time to tackle everything that is wrong, with everything that hurts us, that holds us back." Thursday's vote enables individual budget measures and creates a privatisation agency. The conservative New Democracy opposition, which voted against the first bill, said it would support some of the measures in the second. "We will reject it in principle. However, we will support the privatisations mechanism as well as the articles on spending," said New Democracy deputy Yannis Vroutsis. Still, analysts said the real challenge will come after the bill is voted on and the international money secured. "The implementation law will also pass, without problems," said Costas Panagopoulos, head of ALCO pollsters. "The real question is whether Papandreou will use this vote to move forward with these crucial reforms."

EU pledges long-term support to Libyan opposition

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton has reiterated that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi must relinquish power. She was speaking from the rebel stronghold Benghazi, where she also promised to offer long-term support to the Libyan opposition.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said, "Gaddafi must leave. And we must have a future for Libya that belongs to the people of Libya and moves forward as they would wish."

Ashton also announced the opening of EU's office in Benghazi, an effort to support the opposition.

Catherine Ashton said, "By opening the office of the European Union, I bring the commitment of the European Union 27 Member States -- and all of the institutions -- in support of the people of Benghazi and of the people of Libya."

Ashton says she's held talks on key issues with the Libyan opposition National Transitional Council, and representatives of young people, media, and human rights organization during her visit in Benghazi.

Catherine Ashton said, "We don't just come for today but we are here for the long term. What the European Union can offer is support as you build the country of the future, your institutions your economy and your political life, we will be here to support you every step of the way."

Earlier after meeting the Transitional Council chairman Mustafa Abdul Jalil, Ashton said the EU would support the opposition in border management and security reform.

Jalil told reporters that the opposition would abide by all the conventions and international laws. They plan to mobilize all the Libyan people to rebuild the country.

Ashton visited Benghazi's Liberation Square soon after the EU delegation arrived on Sunday morning. Her visit came shortly after NATO bombed the capital Tripoli and Gaddafi's nearby compound late Saturday.