Tanks in the town of Syria, body in the street Adraa: witness - Reuters

Credit: Reuters is unable to verify independently of the content this video, which was obtained in a social media site. Tanks and soldiers are considered allegedly near Deraa, where mass protests took place Sunday in this still image taken of sequences social networking sites, downloaded on April 24, 2011 amateur video. Thousands of Syrians called for the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad Sunday at a funeral of demonstrators killed by security forces in the southern town of Nawa, 25 km (15 miles) North of the city of Deraasaid a witness. REUTERS/Social Media website via REUTERS TVBy Khaled Yacoub Oweis

AMMAN. Monday, April 25, 2011 4 pm EDT

AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian troops in tanks and armoured vehicles poured into the city of the South of Deraa and opened fire Monday, residents, said the latest bloodshed in a crackdown on the protests which have a strongly intensified these last days.

As the army tried to regain control of Deraa, where a month an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad has erupted last month, said activists forces also stormed the suburbs of Damascus in the Duma, which has seen large anti-Assad demonstrations.

Rights groups that the security forces have killed more than 350 civilians since the beginning of the disorders. One-third of the victims were killed in the course of three days as the magnitude and the scope of a popular revolt against El-Assad grew.

Assad lifted State of 48 years of the Syria of emergency Thursday, but activists say that violence the following day, when 100 people were killed during demonstrations across the country, showed that it was not seriously to respond to calls for political freedom.

Raids Monday on Deraa and the Duma showed that El-Assad, who took power when his father died in 2000 after having decided to Syria with a strong hand for 30 years, was determined to crush the opposition with force.

Residents said hundreds of soldiers Adraa arrived.

A witness told Reuters that he could see the body lying in a main street near the Omari mosque after eight tanks and two armoured vehicles deployed in the old quarter of the city.

"People are taking cover in homes." "I could see two-body near the mosque and nobody could come out and drag them later", the witness said.

Snipers were posted on government buildings and lattice of the army security forces had fired randomly at houses as the tanks moved in just after dawn prayers.

"They fired." Witnesses said that houses have become hospitals and have been five deaths so far, "an another Adraa resident named said Mohsen Al Jazeera, which has shown what appeared to be a cloud of black smoke over the city."

Tanks at the points of main entrance of the city were also bombing target in Deraa, said Mohsen. "People cannot pass from one street to another because of the bombing."

Foreign journalists have mainly been expelled from the country, making it impossible to verify the situation on the ground. Macabre images displayed on the Internet by protesters the past few days appear to show the troops firing on unarmed crowds. Officials have criticized armed violence groups.

"THE OUTRAGEOUS VIOLENCE."

Despite the deepening of his father Hafez Al-Assad's alliance with the Iran, back influence to the Lebanon and the support of militant groups Hezbollah and Hamas, Al-Assad has kept the front line of the Syria with calm Israel and held the indirect peace talks with the Jewish State.

Western criticism of repression Assad, muted initially developed, has recently passed. President Barack Obama urged Assad Friday to stop the "scandalous use of violence" to repress the demonstrations

Main sects of the Syria writers all also released a statement denouncing the repression, a sign of anger surging through the intellectual elite.

Monday Declaration, signed by writers and journalists, Syria and exile, 102 intellectuals called a "which have not broken the barrier of fear to take a clear position."

"We condemn the practices violent, oppressive of the Syrian regime against protesters and mourn the martyrs of the insurgency."

Activists said the Government troops and armed men loyal to Assad shot dead at least 13 civilians since they swept into the Mediterranean town of Jabla Sunday, said the Syrian human rights observatory.

Forces and gunmen loyal to Assad deployment in the old Sunni neighbourhood of Jabla Sunday after a pro-democracy protest the previous night and a warning by the Governor of the province to residents not step to assemble publiclysaid rights activists.

The militants said they feared forces Assad also are preparing for an attack on the town of Nawa, North of Deraa, after reports of bulldozers and vehicles military topic there. Thousands of people called the overthrow of Assad Sunday at a funeral in Nawa to the demonstrators killed by security forces.

Electricity and communications have been cut in some parts of the city by night and residents, some armed, erected barricades in the streets to prepare to defend against an attack.

"Long live the Syria." "Down with Bashar!"lament chanted at the funeral. "Leave, leave!" "People want the overthrow of the regime".

Banias, South of Jabla, protest leaders said they would cut the coast road leading to less than the lifting of the siege of Jabla. Jabla is home to many members of Alawi minority Assad who were generally remained away from protests.

At least 100 people were killed across the Syria Friday, the restlessness, higher cost when shot demonstrators demanding political freedoms and put an end to corruption in their country, security forces ruled for 41 years by the Al-Assad dynasty.

Another 12 people were killed Saturday at funeral of massive for the demonstrators. And rights activists said secret police looted homes near Damascus and in the Centre of the city of Homs Sunday, arrest of militants.

(Other reports by Sami Aboudi in Cairo and Mahmoud Habboush Dubai;) Written by Dominic Evans. (Editing by Paul Taylor)

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The voting results draw the Tensions of Nigeria - Wall Street Journal

KADUNA, Nigeria - the election of holders Goodluck Jonathan exposed gross gap in southern Nigeria primarily Christian and Muslim in the North, showing how quickly religious and economic tensions latent country can lead to violence.

Benedicte Kurzen/VII Nigerian youth network set fire Monday to a commission electoral construction in a predominantly Muslim region of Kaduna.

Aid groups estimated Wednesday that more than 100 people were killed in violence that broke out in Northern Nigeria, after Mr. Jonathan, a Southern Christian, was elected with about 60% of the votes at the national level. Mr. Jonathan now has the difficult task to try to calm the nation the most populous of Africa and a growing destination for foreign investment.

The city of Kaduna has many of the problems that helped fuel unrest in the North of Nigeria, including high levels of poverty unemployment and youth. His neighbourhood West of Kabala, with, from small shops and one in the history of the houses is home to Christians and Muslims living together in relative peace.

On Saturday morning, nearly 1,000 voters gathered to vote in a predominantly Muslim part of Kabala West. A widespread rumour that Christian voters in the voting unit nearby prevented Muslim to enter the unit election observers.

Dozens of young Muslim men sweeps towards the nearest Church, saying that a ballot box was being hidden there. Arguments turned into shoving matches.

Police arrived, and then the military. The day of the vote taken.

The outbreak appeared to have triggered by misunderstanding of the young people of an agreement in this area had cut the political leaders with regard to observers that each party sends to monitor polling stations. According to residents and members of both major parties of Nigeria - Christians and Muslims - officers had agreed to maintain peace in the West of Kabala Saturday by only accepting members who were Muslims would not observe voting in Christian and Christian regions only would not enter in predominantly Muslim areas.

"There was a long-standing understanding in this area that the [Muslim] Hausa observers would not here come in the vote," said James Sako, a 59 year-old trader in a nearby Christian area.

As security forces is appeared to restore calm, election observers Christian and Muslim agreed to return to their posts.

But more late in the evening, unknown suspects threw a bomb in the hotel at night Happy on the Christian side of the district, injuring eight patrons, two critically.

He was one of many overflows in Kaduna, the site of several sectarian clashes during the past decade. Local government tried to reduce violence by separating Muslim and Christian, populations in part by encouraging Christian residents to move to the southern part of the city. Residents say that the steps worked in large part. But tensions can quickly turn in hand-to-hand combat.

In the vote of last Saturday, a group of young men who live in a Christian section off walls of Kabala West ran to points of entry with wooden clubs. Women shooed their children indoors. A man has interrupted his washing of clothes in the head inside and lock the door of his.

Sunday in Kaduna, vote results showed the main rival Jonathan that Mr., former leader military Muhammadu Buhari, won in the Northern States. His supporters celebrated.

But in the evening, national results revealed Mr. Jonathan sweep South and won the election. Celebrations turned to violence. Supporters of Mr. burned Buhari of the houses of the people, Christians and high-profile Muslim leaders, who were supposed to have supported by Mr. Jonathan.

Riots spread to the North of Nigeria, Monday and Tuesday at the beginning. Churches, mosques and houses were burned. Hundreds of people were injured and several thousands of displaced people, according to the Nigerian Red Cross, which has not published its final balance.

On Monday evening, Mr. Jonathan appealed for calm, in his acceptance speech in the capital, Abuja. But Nigeria has a raft of politicians who do not accept defeat lightly.

Party of Mr. Buhari Congress for progressive change, rejected most of the results, although the local and international election observers called it more credible election of the country for decades.

Mr. Buhari, who also contested elections in 2003 and 2007, has distanced himself and his party of violence. In a statement Wednesday, he told his supporters that "it is wrong to allow you to unbelievers to infiltrate your ranks and committing such vile acts as the senseless destruction of places of worship."

Residents of Kaduna said a curfew imposed by the Government, which has been eased slightly Wednesday, kept things quiet. Still, they fear what lies under the momentary calm.

Monday "was too crazy, it was almost of war, said Lalas Abba, 33 years old, who is a DJ at night of Happy Hotel hit the bomb." "" If you go outside, until you know, you can just get shot. ?

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Icelanders reject agree to reimburse UK, Netherlands - Wall Street Journal

For the second time, Icelandic voted in a deal to repay both Britain and the Netherlands billions of euros lost in the collapse of the nation of the 2008 island - a popular rejection daring of the notion that taxpayers must bear the burden of the woes of bankers and a risky result will complicate the efforts of the Iceland for reach global markets.

Agency France-Press/Getty Images people celebrate while watching the results in a referendum on whether to approve a renegotiated agreement to compensate for Britain and the Netherlands on the 2008 collapse of Icesave Bank in a bar in Reykjavik Sunday.

The money in question, about 4 billion euros ($5.8 billion), has been placed by the British and Dutch depositors in an Icelandic Internet Bank called Icesave and then lost when the operator of the Icesave, Landsbanki Islands, collapsed with the remaining large banks of the Iceland in October 2008.

Almost 60% of 175 000 voters rejected a plan to compensate for the British and Dutch Governments who had intervened to pay their own Icesave depositors when the Iceland deposit insurance plan ran out of money.

The agreement was the result of several months of negotiations that saw the Iceland earn much better conditions for the refund. A prior agreement was demolished — 93% of voters said non - in another referendum, in March 2010.

But the President of the Iceland, ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, February has opposed a parliamentary bill which would have sealed the new deal. That triggered the Saturday referendum. The role of Mr Grímsson is primarily ceremonial and vetoes are extremely rare.

Britain and the Netherlands disappointed and have indicated that they he would fight with the Iceland in court. "The time of the negotiations is completed," said Jan Kees de Jager, Dutch Finance Minister.

Sunday, Mr Grímsson said that Iceland, once again, spoke clearly. "The leaders of other States and international institutions will have to respect this expression of national will," he said. He pointed out that the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, despite the rejection, would receive "huge amounts" of Iceland because countries have claims to the estate of the Landsbanki.

The Iceland is a member of the European economic area, which means he signed many of the Union European financial and trade rules - among them a requirement that countries maintain deposit insurance systems.

The EFTA Surveillance Authority, an organization that maintains the order Iceland, the Norway and the Liechtenstein EEA agreements, already began legal proceedings against the Iceland. Iceland says authority breached the rules by supporting not pas Icesave depositors - and by reimbursing the nationals before foreigners.

The dispute will be heard by the EFTA Court based in the Luxembourg.

The Icelandic Government said, the result of the referendum would delay "by a few weeks" the next assessment by the International Monetary Fund to Iceland progress towards economic recovery. The IMF and the Nordic countries have saved the Iceland with a rescue plan.

The Government has declared the result of the referendum would not affect binding of Icelandic Government payments in 2011 or 2012.

But it seems clear that the Iceland, already isolated by the collapse of the financial system, would remain in a precarious situation. Although the Netherlands addressed the matter Sunday, Britain, or the other country could veto request waiting for the Iceland to join the European Union.

Again, notice of many Icelanders, continuous isolation may be the best solution.

"He is mad that the taxpayer foot the Bill for private enterprises with stranded, said Frosti Sigurjónsson, an Internet entrepreneur who is a spokesman for a group of anti-Icesave." It was abhorrent. We have to say no. ?

Banking disaster in Iceland is widely regarded as the madness of a few financial and a deep resistance to pay their debt.

The banks of the Iceland collapsed in 2008 after years of growth that was dependent on foreign loans. When funding dried up after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the banks are found short of cash, and the Icelandic Central Bank had little to offer foreign exchange.

The Icelandic Crown sunk like a stone, and Exchange remains limited. Capital controls keep foreign assets to flee the Iceland.

The agreement was rejected Saturday called for the Iceland cover approximately 2.35 billion pounds sterling ($3.8 billion) in payments to the United Kingdom and 1.32 billion euros in the Netherlands - an amount equal to one year and a half about the economic output on the island of 320,000 people. It would have to 2046 to refund the money at an interest rate of 3%.

But the Iceland believes that it will be able to cover 90% of the sum - and perhaps all this - with the proceeds of the sale of the assets of the deceased Landsbanki, and therefore only in a small fraction would directly from the pockets of taxpayers.

-Ainsley Thomson and Archibal Preuschat contributed to this article.

Write to Charles Forelle to the charles.forelle@wsj.com

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Solicitors for Egyptians to the Mubarak issue - Wall Street Journal

Cairo - former called Egyptian prosecutors President Hosni Mubarak for an examination and order former Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif Sunday, following the protests by demonstrators demanding legal liability for civil servants who died in the country.

The two movements seemed to destroy growing public frustration about the slow pace with which new military leadership of the Egypt continued to officials of the former regime of alleged financial misdeeds.

Action of Attorneys emphasized the persistent power of protests led by young people. Almost two months after what Mr Mubarak gave power to a high military Council, demonstrators have shown that they are still capable of the convening in large numbers, but also delight more political concessions from the military Government.

Mr. Mubarak also chose Sunday to make his first comments to the Egyptian public. In a message recorded Saturday and broadcast Sunday on the pan-Arab satellite station Al Arabiya, the former leader is committed to cooperate with prosecutors. He also denied that he or his family held all banking or "active" accounts abroad.

"I cannot remain silent about the ongoing campaigns of defamation and false accusations to ruin the reputation and the integrity of my family and me", the former President said in the message. "I felt great pain - and still do - because of the unjust campaigns and unfair accusations that my family and I have been exposed."

Some protest leaders said they considered the speech an act of defiance by a Chief who himself had stylized as a father figure to the Egyptian people.

The speeches do little to ensure the demonstrators said the army made a sincere effort to keep the former officials, Shadi Al Ghazali Harb, a leader in the Revolutionary Youth, whose members Coalition led three weeks of protests ousted Mr. Mubarak.

"There is a feeling widespread frustration in the same arrogant manner in which he spoke to us," he said. "Everybody thinks that he has probably had enough time to mobilize his money and his money and assets in recent two months for him certainly nothing will take place on him, especially abroad,", added Mr. Al Ghazali Harb. "It was all under the guise of the army."

The Swiss Government said it froze assets of Mr. Mubarak on 11 February, the day, that he resigned. Office of the Attorney General of the Egypt requested foreign embassies to freeze the assets of Mr. Mubarak abroad ten days later.

In one of the largest gatherings since Mr. Mubarak resigned in February, thousands of demonstrators Tahrir Square in Cairo completed Friday to former officials demand be held responsible for perception of widespread corruption. The military police and security officialsforcefully dispersed the crowd at about 3 a.m. Saturday morning in a clash that killed at least a person, according to the reports of the wire. But on Sunday, demonstrators remained in the square.

The violence marked a low point in relations between the protestors, led by young activists and the armed forces, who ruled the Egypt since Mr. Mubarak resigned on 11 February.

Counsel of the Office of the Attorney General, said that the Attorney General sent a request Sunday morning for the Ministry of the Interior, requesting that Mr. Mubarak and his son, Gamal and Alaa, be called to Cairo for questioning.

It is believed that the former President spent at his home in the resort of Sharm El Sheikh city since he was overthrown from power after 18 days of often violent demonstrations.

The lawyer said it belonged to the Ministry of the Interior to decide when to assign Mr Mubarak. The former President is under investigation on allegations of misappropriation of public funds and for alleged kickbacks on transactions to import weapons. Prosecutors also will examine its involvement in violence against the demonstrators in unrest that led to her eviction, said the lawyer. According to the Ministry of health of the Egypt, some 384 people died during the uprising on the part of police, rogue agents incurred by officials of the regime and the military police.

Counsel for the Office of the Prosecutor, said Mr Nazif, who was arrested Sunday afternoon, will be detained for questioning for 15 days in connection with an agreement to import licence plates marked up a German company rates. M. Nazif has not publicly commented on the allegations.

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