Residents back in Yemen city after months of fighting

A view of the old Sanaa city in Sanaa January 14, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Mohamed al-Sayaghi

ADEN, Yemen (Reuters) - Hundreds of people displaced by months of fighting in southern Yemen returned to their home city on Saturday as armed Islamist militants and government troops looked on, residents said, in what many hoped could be a step towards ending the conflict.

"The army controls the east of Zinjibar and the Ansar al-Sunna hold the western part of the city," Khalid al Saeed said, referring to a group which the government says is linked to al Qaeda.

"Both sides had agreed with our request to return. The army told us to avoid some areas where there are land mines," Saeed said, adding that there was widespread destruction during eight months of fighting.

Thousands of Yemenis have held protests demanding an end to the fighting that has forced them to flee their homes in the south, holding several 50 km (31 mile) marches from the port city of Aden to Zinjibar, capital of southern Abyan province where the militants have seized swathes of territory.

The southern fighting is one of many challenges facing the impoverished state, which has also been rocked by nearly a year of protests against the 33-year rule of outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The United States and top oil exporter Saudi Arabia are both concerned about the growing chaos in the country, which is close to oil shipping routes.

In continued unrest, gunmen believed the be from al Qaeda shot dead a pro-government tribesman outside the city of Lawdar in Abyan province on Saturday, a security official told Reuters.

DEADLINE PASSES

In the capital, a 48-hour deadline given to armed opponents and backers of Saleh to withdraw after months of street fighting passed but there was little change in the armed face off, residents said.

A committee tasked with overseeing the demilitarisation of the capital reiterated on Saturday its demand on rival forces to withdraw, and thanked those which had pulled back, state news agency Saba reported.

Tribal fighters led by Saleh's opponents and Republican Guard troops commanded by the veteran leader's son are still deployed in several areas of Sanaa, including the northern district of Hasaba, scene of some of the heaviest fighting.

In late December, militants shot in the air to stop a march to Zinjibar by activists among the displaced who were calling on both sides to lay down their arms in the south and demanded the government open the Aden-Zinjibar coastal highway, a key trade route closed during the conflict.

Saudi Arabia has backed a Gulf Arab peace plan to resolve the anti-Saleh uprising, under which the president handed power to his deputy. A presidential election is scheduled for February.

But the fighting against the Islamist militants in the south has continued, forcing about 97,000 people to flee. More than 300,000 others have been displaced by a conflict in the north, according to U.N. estimates.

(Reporting by Mohammed Mukhashaf in Aden and Mohammed Ghobari in Sanaa; Writing by Firouz Sedarat; Editing by Peter Graff)

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Anthony says she became pregnant after passing out at party

 

Casey Anthony (C) smiles at Defense Counsel Cheney Mason and Dorothy Clay Sims, before her sentencing at the Orange County Courthouse in Orlando, Florida, July 7, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Joe Burbank/Pool

By Barbara Liston

ORLANDO, Fla (Reuters) - Casey Anthony, the Florida mother acquitted last year in the death of her toddler daughter, told a psychologist she may have become pregnant with Caylee after she blacked out at a party in 2004, a deposition released on Wednesday showed.

The deposition showed Anthony made the remarks to William Weitz, a psychologist who interviewed her and administered mental health tests to determine her mental status at the behest of the defense while she was in jail awaiting trial.

"At the party, she felt that she may have been - that she blacked out," Weitz testified, according to the deposition. "She believes ... that she was impregnated during that time."

Weitz, who ultimately concluded that Anthony suffered from no mental disease or defect, said she claimed to have no memory of the sexual act, and that she said she believed her drink may have been spiked.

Anthony, 25, was acquitted in July in the death of 2-year-old Caylee but was found guilty of repeatedly lying to detectives trying to find out what happened to the toddler who was last seen alive in June 2008.

A nationwide search for Caylee ended six months later when her remains were found in woods near the Anthony home.

While she was awaiting trial, Anthony's defense team had her evaluated by two mental health experts. Their reports and sworn statements, which were never submitted as evidence, were sealed by the judge until the conclusion of the trial.

Several hundred pages of depositions released on Wednesday showed that mental evaluations of Anthony found her to be surprisingly cheerful and content.

EATING AND SLEEPING WELL

Psychiatrist Jeffrey Danziger testified in a deposition that Anthony's demeanor didn't fit the circumstances of a mother who had lost her daughter, was suspected and then accused of her murder and incarcerated in jail. Danziger said Anthony was eating and sleeping well and reading books.

Her attitude was "as if we were discussing someone who had a parking ticket," Danziger said. He also testified that he had never seen anyone facing murder charges or the loss of a child who showed such a lack of emotion.

But like Weitz, Danziger concluded that Anthony suffered from no mental disease or defect. Weitz testified that Anthony exhibited less stress on a mental health test than a normal person who had not experienced a trauma.

Both experts said Anthony had told each of them that her father, George Anthony, and brother had sexually molested her in the past, and that her father possibly drowned Caylee in the backyard pool and disposed of her remains.

The judge ruled at trial that no evidence of abuse was ever presented. George Anthony's lawyer, in a statement issued on Wednesday, said his client was aware of the statements and that no new information was disclosed on Wednesday.

"As he has repeatedly said prior to the trial, during the trial and after the trial, he never molested any member of his family including Casey Anthony and he had nothing to do with the death of Caylee Marie Anthony including what happened to her remains after she allegedly drowned," the lawyer, Mark Lippman, wrote.

Danziger, in his deposition, said he had lost sleep and lost weight knowing that he might have to testify about, and thus spread, Anthony's unsupported allegations.

Anthony currently is serving a one-year probation at an undisclosed location in Florida on check fraud charges.

(Editing By Cynthia Johnston)

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Nigeria heads of State and Government knocked churches after Islamists attack

1 of 8. In a view, the scene of a bomb explosion at the Theresa Catholic Church is St. at Madalla, Abuja, outside Nigeria's capital Abuja, December 25 2011. Islamist militant group Boko Haram said that it placed bombs that exploded on Christmas day in churches in Nigeria, one of which killed at least 27 people on the fringes of the capital.

IMG credit: Reuters/Afolabi Sotunde

By Felix Onuah and Camillus Eboh

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria there is no competent leaders and former military ruler, one said heads of Government to address the security issues, on Monday, after Christmas bomb attacks on churches by Islamist fighters, more than two dozen people killed.

Muhammadu Buhari, a northern lights, lost to incumbent Goodluck Jonathan, said in a statement in the Nigerian daily the last presidential election in April, that the Government was only slowly responding and shown indifference to the bombings.

The Boko Haram Islamic sect which aims, Sharia law over Africa's most populous country to impose responsibility for three Church bombs claimed the second Christmas in a row it led massacre on Christian houses of worship.

Security forces blamed the sect for two explosions in the North and fear grows that Boko Haram trying to ignite a sectarian civil war in a country split evenly between Christians and Muslims exist side by side for the most part in peace.

"How on earth would the Vatican and speak the British authorities, before the Nigerian Government to attacks in Nigeria, which have led to the death of our citizens?" Buhari, said in the statement by punch newspaper published.

"This is clearly a mistake of the leadership at a time, which must to ensure Government the people the ability to ensure the safety of life and property," said Buhari.

He said the Government more than had to spend more on security to deal with the problem.

Jonathan, would a Christian from the South, is fighting the threat of Islamic militancy, as the attacks "unhappy", but said Boko Haram "be (roughly) forever." "It will be to stop one day."

Pope Benedict on Monday condemned the attacks as "absurd" gesture and prayed that "the hands of the violent end."

The Pope, speaking from his window overlooking St Peter's square in Rome, said, that violence brought only pain, destruction and death.

COORDINATED ATTACKS

The attacks, which clashes between security forces and Boko Haram came a few days after which killed at least 68 people, evidence of more coordination and strategy of the group, which could be sounding the alarm bell in Nigeria and Western capitals.

St. Theresa Catholic Church in Madala, a satellite town, about 40 km (25 miles) from the Centre of the capital Abuja, was packed, when the first explosion exploded Gates after Christmas mass.

A few hours later, mountain of fire and miracles were reported at the Church in the Central, ethnically and religiously mixed city of Jos and in a church in Gadaka in the Northern State of Yobe State blasts. Residents said many wounded at Gadaka, but there were no immediate further details.

A suicide bomber killed four officials of the State security service in one of the other attacks in northeastern Damaturu was announced by the police. Residents heard two loud explosions and shots in the city.

Reuters reporter at the Church near the city of Abuja saw that the front roof had been destroyed, as several houses nearby had. Five cars were burnt out still smoldering. There were scenes of chaos as shocked disbelief staring people in the rubble.

"" Mass just gone and people were noise from the Church, and suddenly I heard a loud noise: "Gbam!" Cars were on fire and bodies strewn everywhere ", said veneciay minke Reuters."

Father Christopher Bard, Assistant pastor of the Church, said: "the officials counted me said they have collected 27 make so far." Police closed off area around the Church. Thousands of angry youths, you set roadblocks burn on the motorway from Abuja results in predominantly Muslim Northern Nigeria.

Police and military trying to dispel it by burning life shot into the air with tear gas.

"We are so angry!" Kingsley Ukpabi cried vehicles, as a queue of the OWL behind his flaming barrage lined up.

VIOLENCE CREDIT SPREADS

Boko Haram - in the Hausa language in Northern Nigeria speaking means "Western education sin" – is modeled loosely on the Taliban movement in Afghanistan.

The low level insurgency to the limited largely to Nigeria, but there are several parts to the North, Centre and Abuja fell this year.

Last Christmas Eve, a series of bomb blasts to Jos killed 32 people and other people died in attacks on two churches in the North-East.

A wounded man whose Beine were almost crushed into pieces by the explosion of security services on a stretcher in close to an ambulance was loaded at the Church near the city of Abuja.

"I will survive," he said in a quiet voice.

The explosion in Jos, a powder keg of ethnic and religious tensions occurred deadly clashes between Muslims and Christians have a spree shooting of militant, accompanied the fire was exchanged with the local police, Charles Ezeocha, Jos task force spokesman said.

"We have lost a policeman and we have four arrests." I believe that we get further information and work on it can use, "he said." Police found four other explosive devices in Jos, which disabled them, he added.

The White House condemned "This senseless violence and tragic loss of life at Christmas."

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also condemned the attacks and expressed his condolences "the people of Nigeria and the members of the."

"The Secretary-General once again calls for an end to all acts of sectarian violence in the country and reaffirms its belief that this use of violence can justify not an end,", a statement said published by his Office.

(Additional reporting by Tim cocks in Lagos, Tife Owolabi and Buhari Bello in Jos, Mike Oboh in Kano, correspondent in Maiduguri and Philip Pullella in Vatican City;) Write by Tim cocks and BATE Borisov Felix; (Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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Market eyes Europe, DC after worst week in 2 months

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Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange November 18, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Shannon Stapleton

By Rodrigo Campos

NEW YORK | Fri Nov 18, 2011 5:08pm EST

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The worst week for U.S. stocks in two months ended with traders mostly sitting it out on Friday as they waited for politicians in Europe and the United States to tackle festering debt problems.

The Dow and S&P 500 were little changed and the Nasdaq composite index fell.

Friday's directionless market showed more exhaustion than relief as Europe remained investors' primary worry. Stocks found support after Italian and Spanish bond yields fell thanks to buying by the European Central Bank.

In the United States, doubts grew whether a bipartisan committee could come up with budget cuts and tax increases that Congress can agree on next week.

Financial shares, which have been among the most sensitive to euro zone financial strains, rose on Friday. The S&P financial index was up 0.5 percent. Morgan Stanley shares edged up 0.6 percent to $14.21 but fell more than 13 percent this week.

A major question has been whether the European Central Bank will find a way to act as a lender of last resort in the manner of the U.S. Federal Reserve. Speculation has grown the ECB could lend money to the International Monetary Fund to bail out some euro zone members.

"It's hard to see the ECB changing roles, but on the other hand the powers to be have to be very aware of the consequences if this gets out of control," said John Manley, chief equity strategist at Wells Fargo advantage funds in New York.

"I can't imagine it is allowed to go to a level that it causes serious harm to the marketplace."

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 25.43 points, or 0.22 percent, to 11,796.16. The S&P 500 dipped 0.48 point, or 0.04 percent, to 1,215.65. The Nasdaq Composite lost 15.49 points, or 0.60 percent, to 2,572.50.

For the week, the Dow fell 2.9 percent, the S&P dropped 3.8 percent and the Nasdaq lost 4 percent.

The S&P failed to rise above 1,225 after a drop below it on Thursday triggered massive selling, and it is now strengthening as technical resistance.

Little conviction characterized this week's market action as traders worried changes in governments in Greece and Italy failed to bring bond yields much lower.

Spain's likely new leader, center-rightist Mariano Rajoy, pleaded with financial markets for breathing room to start tackling the country's economic crisis if he wins power in a parliamentary election this weekend.

"If people don't see politicians standing behind change, markets are ready to force change," said Subodh Kumar, chief investment strategist at Subodh Kumar & Associates in Toronto.

While investors try to come to grips with how much of an impact the European crisis may have on the U.S. economy, data for the United States showed continued improvement.

A gauge of future U.S. economic activity rose more than expected in October, according to the Conference Board.

About 6.7 billion shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange, NYSE Amex and Nasdaq on Friday, below the current daily average of 8 billion shares.

Advancing stocks outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a ratio of about 13 to 10, while on the Nasdaq decliners beat advancers 1,259 to 1,226.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

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France draws fire after "alarm bells" warning

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France's President Nicolas Sarkozy arrives to deliver a speech on benefits fraud during his visit in Bordeaux, southwestern France, November 15, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Regis Duvignau

By Daniel Flynn and James Mackenzie

PARIS/ROME | Tue Nov 15, 2011 6:52pm EST

PARIS/ROME (Reuters) - France came under heavy fire on global markets Tuesday, reflecting fears that the euro zone's second biggest economy is being sucked into a spiraling debt crisis.

Global stocks and the euro fell as Italian bond yields climbed back to unsustainable levels on doubts that Italy's Mario Monti and new Greek leader Lucas Papademos, unelected technocrats without a domestic political base, can impose tough austerity measures and economic reform.

European Central Bank President Mario Draghi has predicted the 17-nation currency bloc will be in a mild recession by the end of the year, a view underlined by data showing the economy barely grew in the third quarter and faces a sharp downturn.

"The risks of a technical recession have increased and we expect the economy in Germany to shrink at least in one quarter," said Michael Schroeder of the German economic research institute ZEW.

On the markets, Italy's 10-year bond yield rocketed back above 7 percent, pushing its borrowing costs to a level that helped to trigger the fall of Silvio Berlusconi's government last week and is widely seen as unsustainable in the long term.

Spain's Treasury paid yields not seen since 1997 to sell 12- and 18-month treasury bills.

French 10-year bond yields have risen around 50 basis points in the last week, pushing the spread over safe haven German bonds to a euro-era high of 173 basis points.

French banks are among the biggest holders of Italy's 1.8 trillion euro public debt pile.

The urgency of resolving the debt crisis was underscored by a think-tank report saying that triple-A rated France should also be "ringing euro zone alarm bells" as it could not make rapid adjustments to its economy.

"THREAT TO THE WORLD"

Fears are growing in the United States that Europe's debt crisis is mushrooming into a wider systemic problem.

Alan Krueger, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said the European debt crisis was the leading risk to the U.S. recovery.

And U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Europe had a difficult task in boosting the creditworthiness of some of its economies while also boosting growth.

"That's a difficult balance and you can see they're struggling with it but I think they're gradually making progress," he told a conference sponsored by the Wall Street Journal. "This is absolutely within Europe's capacity to solve and it's within their ability.

"We are helping both directly and indirectly through a range of things you know about, financially, and we have a lot of useful lessons from our experience."

But Greek conservatives set themselves on a collision course with the European Commission, refusing its demand to sign a pledge to meet the terms of a bailout designed to save Greece from bankruptcy and safeguard the euro zone.

New premier Papademos looks certain to sail through a confidence vote Wednesday, but members of the New Democracy party, a key player in his crisis coalition, said they would not bow to "dictates from Brussels" to give written guarantees. New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras says he is opposed to measures that fail to help Greece grow its way out of trouble.

With the survival of the 17-state currency zone in its current form now at risk, EU governments have until a summit on December 9 to come up with a bolder and more convincing strategy, involving some form of massive, visible financial backing.

Geithner restated the U.S. view that the European Central Bank should play a bigger role, while acknowledging the objections of Germany, the EU's main paymaster, to any step that limits ECB independence or its mandate to fight inflation:

"There are lots of ways for the central bank to play a more effective supportive role in resolving this without violating the obvious constraints we respected here ... for (the central bank's) independence and making sure the central bank is not providing a direct source of financing for governments."

Peter Bofinger, a member of the group of economists who advise the German government, said that if the bloc's debt troubles threatened to rip apart the financial system, the ECB should in fact become the euro zone's lender of last resort.

Many analysts believe the only way to stem the contagion for now is for the ECB to buy up large quantities of bonds, effectively the sort of 'quantitative easing' undertaken by the U.S. and British central banks.

"If politics can't do it, then the ECB must do all it can to bring interest rates down to more reasonable levels," Bofinger said at Euro Finance Week.

LACK OF GROWTH

The debt crisis is likely to make matters worse in the next months with nations such as Italy, Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain forced to adopt unpopular spending cuts to stop the bond market driving them toward default.

Economists say there is no visible growth strategy in place to counter those austerity measures.

After a disastrous week for the euro zone's third biggest economy, Italy's Monti secured a breakthrough when Angelino Alfano, secretary of Berlusconi's People of Freedom (PDL) party, emerged from talks with Monti saying moves to form a government would succeed.

The prime minister-designate said he would present the results of his consultations to the president Wednesday, hinting he had cleared any obstacles to forming a government.

"I would like to confirm my absolute serenity and conviction in the capacity of our country to overcome this difficult phase," Monti said.

His technocrat-led cabinet have the job of speeding reform of pensions, labor markets and business regulation to put Italy's finances on a sustainable path. Italy must refinance 200 billion euros ($273 billion) of bonds by the end of April.

Germany and France posted solid growth in the third quarter, according to new data. But countries on the front line of the crisis fared much worse, for overall growth of just 0.2 percent. Analysts expected bleaker times in the core economies.

"Forward-looking indicators suggest that the euro zone economy is likely to drop back into recession in the fourth quarter and beyond," said Jonathan Loynes, chief European economist at Capital Economics.

(Additional reporting by Luke Baker in Brussels and Glenn Somerville and Lesley Wroughton in Washington; Writing by Peter Millership and Jon Boyle)

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Outcry after China road accident kills 18 children

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BEIJING | Wed Nov 16, 2011 8:00am EST

BEIJING Nov 16 (Reuters) - Eighteen nursery school children were killed when a coal truck slammed into their "drastically" overcrowded school van in northwest China on Thursday, local media reported, prompting an outcry about the country's deadly roads.

The collision on a rural road in Zhengning County, Gansu province, also killed the driver of the van and a teacher onboard, the Xinhua news agency said.

Another 44 people were hurt -- 10 of them seriously -- in the accident, one of the worst on China's roads for some time.

An initial investigation showed the van was "drastically overloaded", carrying 64 people instead of the nine passengers permitted, said Chinese state radio news.

Pictures on Chinese news websites showed the crumpled wreckage of the yellow van that was struck by the much larger coal truck on the way to the nursery.

Investigators were examining the cause, said news reports which left unclear whether the truck or van driver might be to blame.

Officials hurried to the scene to offer support and promised a crackdown on road hazards. But a flood of messages on Chinese web sites echoed with outrage about lax safety enforcement.

"The nursery school can't shirk responsibility for such serious overcrowding," said one comment on Sina's "Weibo" microblogging site.

Another said: "Why don't we protect children in the same way we protect our leaders?"

Chinese authorities have tried to crack down on dangerous driving but breakneck economic growth, and rapid expansion in the number of roads and drivers, creates many menaces, especially on poorly policed rural roads.

In 2010, Chinese police officially recorded 219,521 traffic accidents that led to deaths or injuries, including 65,225 fatalities, a fall of 3.7 percent on the previous year.

In a study published by the World Health Organisation in 2010, however, experts found that such official data seriously undercounted the number of road deaths in China, which they estimated to be almost twice the number reported by police. (Reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by Paul Tait)

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Dozens killed in Syrian city of Hims, deal day after Arab

2. November 2011 1 out of 3. Regierungsfeindliche demonstrators at the funeral of Sunni Moslem villagers killed, participate on Wednesday, in Hula in the vicinity of Hims.

Credit: Reuters/handout

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis and Mariam Karouny

AMMAN/BEIRUT | Wed, November 3, 2011 6: 03 pm EDT

Dozens died AMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) - in the Syrian city of Hims on Thursday, after reports of sectarian murders said activists, in an outburst of violence, this week, which threaten to ignite unrest between Sunni majority and the minority of Nusairier sect.

Tanks hit a major residential area in Homs for the second day, and there was no sign of troops leave cities under an Arab League agreement on bloodshed after seven months of protests against President Bashar al-Assad, whose Nusairier sect makes dominated.

A witness called rejected, said that he saw dozens of civilian facilities at the national hospital, which is under control of the security forces. The circumstances of her death were not clear.

"they were all men with gunshot wounds." A doctor told me that they came from all over Hims, ", he said."

Activists said another 19 people were killed, tank a bombardment of the District of Bab AMRO, hotbed of pro-democracy protests against President Bashar al-Assad and recordings by security forces in Homs.

There was no independent confirmation of the killings. They follow reports of local activists, the forces which held-loyal to Assad dead at least 11 Sunni Muslims to villagers at a roadblock province of Homs on Wednesday she is.

Nine Alawites have been pulled from a bus and killed the day before near the town of another activist said.

Harte Syrian media restrictions have made it hard to review the events on the ground, since a revolt against Assad began in March, inspired by other revolts in the Arab world.

Syria has killed more than 3,000 people, a plan of the Arab League decided army of towns, free political prisoners and talks with the opposition on Wednesday under pressure, a RAID set that says the United Nations.

The authorities blame the violence Islamic militants and armed gangs, they say, 1,100 soldiers and policemen have killed.

ISOLATION FEAR

Arab League Secretary General Nabil Elaraby informed the members of the main opposition party National Council on the plan in Cairo.

"We do not speak with the Secretary General a dialogue with the regime" Council Member Samir Nashar by Egypt's MENA News Agency was quoted after the meeting.

"We discussed, moved in negotiations with the authorities of a totalitarian to a democratic system, and demanded, that President Assad makes can be."

Assad's critics have his past, the offers of dialogue, some words you first must stop bloodshed dismissed and others say that only his resignation can end the conflict.

Paris Burhan Ghalioun, a leading member of the National Council, doubted that Syria the plan would be.

"The regime has accepted the Arab initiative for fear of Arab isolation, his weakness and lack of options." He wrote "But the adoption not means that it respect its clauses".

In Syria, some demonstrators Arab League, which said the initiative, but residents and activists remained in cities and security operations on celebrated especially in Homs troops.

Tanks fired heavy machine guns and flak Bab AMRO district of the city, a hotbed of protests and scene operations by the military against insurgents hiding there.

In other districts shot a city with one million, army, the sniper of roofs and soldiers Homs fired from checkpoints.

"We slept late there was night road rallies, to celebrate the Arab initiative." This morning we woke up rain and peel "Samer, an activist in Bab AMRO, said by phone."

EXPLOSIONS ROCK CITY

Another said the sound of the explosions was rocking the city and activists called on people in and around the Centre of Homs donations of blood for provisional hospitals.

Activists and residents army posted reinforcements at roadblocks in cities in the southern Hauran plain, where the troops in the air to disperse overnight triggered protests.

Early in the morning, an armored column fired machine guns in the air after al-Madiq Castle near the Roman ruins of Apamea has seen in the Ghab plain, the protests and has established itself as a refuge for army deserters, local activists.

In Damascus suburb of Harasta at least 120 demonstrators were arrested overnight after the celebration of the Arab League offer, a resident said.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said on Wednesday that it was Syria for better access to thousands of prisoners in pro-democracy protests arrested press.

Western sanctions and growing criticism from Turkey and Arab neighbors raised have pressure on Syria to stop the bloodshed.

"We are pleased, this agreement have and we will be even happier if she immediately implemented", said Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani of Qatar, leads a Committee of the Arab League behind schedule in Cairo agreed.

China, which has resisted sanctions against Syria along with Russia, u.n., welcomed the plan of the Arab League.

"This is an important step to the relaxation of the situation in Syria and the early start a political process with broad participation of all parties in Syria believe", said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei.

Despite the latest violence, Sami Baroudi, a political analyst at the Lebanese American University of Beirut, said it was too early to judge whether Syria would honor the agreement.

"It will take at least a few days to see if the intensity of violence is below or above going or staying at the same level", said Baroudi. "I would have not this initiative to the trash, because nothing happened immediately."

After the deal in Cairo was announced, the Syrian President to end again its call for the United States.

The Arab League has not exposed to Syria's membership or support international intervention, as it was overthrown against Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, the rebels supported by NATO.

(Additional reporting by Erika Solomon in Beirut;) (Edit by Sophie hares)

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