...

...

...

Anthony Shadid, a gifted foreign correspondent whose graceful dispatches for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe and The Associated Press covered nearly two decades of Middle East conflict and turmoil, died, apparently of an asthma attack, on Thursday while on a reporting assignment in Syria.

There’s no way a Syrian military commission can credibly investigate this horrendous crime when so much evidence suggests pro-government forces were responsible. Annan should insist that Syria grant access to the UN commission of inquiry to investigate this and other grave crimes.

Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch

http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/05/27/syria-un-inquiry-should-investigate-houla-killings 

...

...

...

President Bashar al-Assad and his wife Asma have appeared on state TV packing food aid just hours after the Syrian first lady’s lavish lifestyle was targeted in an online appeal to “stop your husband.”

In an apparent effort to burnish the image of a first couple derided for ordering luxury goods on the Internet while their country burns, state television broadcast pictures on Wednesday of the Assads receiving a rapturous welcome at al-Fahya stadium in Damascus.