The Syrian cabinet decided on Monday to launch a public donation campaign to support the people of Gaza, the official SANA news agency reported.
In a weekly cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Mohammad Naji Ottri, the ministers vowed to bolster their country’s support campaigns and aid convoys to Gaza, which already amounted to 280 tons of aid in various kind.
They also underlined the efforts led by President Bashar al-Assad to end the Israeli aggression on Gaza, break the siege, and open crossing points to deliver food, medicine, medical supplies and …

A US court has convicted a Syrian-born arms dealer for plotting to sell arms, including anti-aircraft rockets, to Colombian rebels.
Monzer al-Kassar was found guilty for conspiracy to murder US officers, to export anti-aircraft weapons, to support Colombia’s Farc rebels, and for money laundering by the New York court on Thursday.
“[This] puts an end to his ability to command a global munitions empire that armed and funded terrorist organisations for decades,” Michele Leonhart, the acting administrator for the US Drug Enforcement Agency, said.

Beirut: An investigation into a remote Syrian site bombed by Israel 14 months ago has provided no conclusive answers so far, but uncovered a fresh mystery: trace amounts of radioactive material found at the site.
A report published on Wednesday by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said satellite imagery from the location near Dair Alzour suggested that the construction site “appears to have been similar” to the layout of a nuclear reactor.

The 38-year-old farmer was watering his maize in the scrubby vastness of eastern Syria when four Black Hawk helicopters swooped in low over the palm trees, heading from the border with Iraq formed by the Euphrates River.
It was late afternoon. The light was fading and the chill of the desert winter night was setting in. The helicopters, following their leader in a disciplined arc, hovered just above the one-storey concrete and mud homes of the village of Sukariyeh before the attack began.

Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert wants to resume indirect peace negotiations with Syria, his spokesman has said.
Four rounds of talks were held earlier this year, through Turkish mediators, but were suspended when Mr Olmert resigned over corruption allegations.
Mr Olmert is expected to remain caretaker prime minister until after elections due in February.

Dubai – Syria has frozen its ties with Iraq following a cross-border attack by US forces on a Syrian village, the Dubai-based al-Arabiya news network reported Friday.
It said the Iraqi charge d’affaires had been summoned to the Syrian Foreign Ministry in Damascus and told that economic cooperation was being frozen, as was cooperation between security services.

The Syrian ambassador to the United States lashed out at the Bush administration following a deadly suspected U.S. military raid inside Syria last Sunday. Ambassador Imad Moustapha called the raid a criminal, terrorist attack against innocent civilians. VOA correspondent Meredith Buel has details from Washington.

BAGHDAD – The deadly U.S. raid into Syria may complicate efforts to win approval for a new U.S.-Iraqi security deal by drawing attention to a fact many Iraqis detest — that they can’t control everything American forces might do.
Syrian officials say U.S. troops and helicopters launched the raid Sunday inside Syrian territory close to the Iraqi border, killing eight people.
The U.S. command in Baghdad would not comment, but a U.S. military official said American special forces targeted the network that smuggles fighters and weapons into Iraq. The official spoke …