Opposition Activists

In a Christmas gesture, Panama on Saturday freed 26 opposition activists who were jailed three months ago on charges of plotting an armed action against military strongman Manuel A. Noriega. One of the men, Alberto Conte, flew to exile in Miami. The Panama Defense Forces, commanded by Gen. Noriega, said in a statement that the release order was given by President Manuel Solis Palma and "responded to the Christmas spirit felt by all Panamanians."

WASHINGTON - The hunt for proof that Syrian government forces used banned chemical weapons may come down to a rotting corpse exhumed late last month from a makeshift cemetery near Damascus. The grave diggers - a Syrian doctor and several medical students - were seeking tissue from the remains of a man who had died of respiratory failure after a rocket allegedly spewed poison gas on Dariya, a suburb of the Syrian capital, on April 25. Reaching the cadaver several feet down, the team sliced open the cloth shroud, cut into the torso and removed a small piece of lung.

Authorities arrested nearly two dozen opposition activists and confiscated the entire print run of the country's largest independent newspaper as Belarusians cast early ballots for Sunday's presidential election. The opposition fears the vote will be rigged in favor of incumbent Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled with an iron fist since 1994. A least 300 opposition activists have been jailed during the campaign.

BEIRUT - Syrian forces launched a large-scale assault Sunday on the city of Qusair, a rebel stronghold near the Lebanese border, in the government's latest effort to push back opposition fighters from strategic areas of the country. The opposition said fighters from Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group allied with the Syrian government, took part in the siege. Hezbollah did not confirm its involvement. The onslaught commenced with shelling shortly after midnight and continued for hours, with artillery strikes and airborne bombardment targeting both the city and rebel-controlled suburbs, opposition activists said.

Riot police in Zimbabwe arrested 38 activists after breaking up nationwide protests against a constitution critics say entrenches President Robert Mugabe's 22-year rule. Opponents who accuse Mugabe of stealing a presidential election in March blamed his supporters for beheading a woman whose family supported the opposition. Police denied that the killing had occurred. About 1,000 pro-democracy activists ran through the capital, Harare, chanting "Down with Mugabe" as they were chased by police.

A judge revoked the bail of a prominent Zimbabwean rights activist and 17 other suspects after prosecutors formally charged them in a terrorism case that has been widely denounced as a sham. Activist Jestina Mukoko appeared stunned as she heard the ruling from the dock. Mukoko and the others have said they were tortured during an earlier stint in prison. The suspects had been free on bail for two months. The magistrate said she was sending them back to prison because a formal indictment filed this week accused Mukoko and the others of sabotage, terrorism and banditry.

WASHINGTON - The hunt for proof that Syrian government forces used banned chemical weapons may come down to a rotting corpse exhumed late last month from a makeshift cemetery near Damascus. The grave diggers - a Syrian doctor and several medical students - were seeking tissue from the remains of a man who had died of respiratory failure after a rocket allegedly spewed poison gas on Dariya, a suburb of the Syrian capital, on April 25. Reaching the cadaver several feet down, the team sliced open the cloth shroud, cut into the torso and removed a small piece of lung.

BEIRUT - Syrian opposition activists reported heavy shelling Wednesday in Damascus, the capital, as authorities in neighboring Lebanon said a cease-fire had taken hold in a city in that country that has become a center for spillover violence. The Syrian military has mounted a campaign this week to root out rebel fighters and sympathizers in several areas of Damascus and its suburbs, including the Kfar Souseh and Nahr Aisha districts, according to antigovernment activists. The shelling of the two districts Wednesday could have been aimed at opposition mortar teams that have recently targeted a military airport, the Associated Press reported.

They brought down an autocrat and now hunch over position papers, microphones, BlackBerrys and meals from McDonald's. Revolution is messy but lasting power is won, young activists are learning, in meticulous battles of negotiations, egos and intrigue. The new breed of professionals who helped topple President Hosni Mubarak is watching its rebellion turn into a political struggle among the country's splintered opposition forces, remnants of the former ruling regime and the army, which has taken control of the nation until the constitution is amended and elections are held.

Syria's government has taken steps to comply with a regional initiative to end months of bloodshed, including pulling tanks out of cities and releasing nearly 3,500 detainees, the head of the Arab League said Monday. But he said gunfire continued and he called for a halt to the hostilities. Syrian opposition activists disputed the assertion of significant progress, saying security forces had killed more than 150 people since Arab observers began work Dec. 27 to determine whether the government is ending a violent crackdown on dissent.

BEIRUT -- Syrian rebels claimed Thursday they downed an Iranian plane that was landing at Damascus Airport and suspected of carrying weapons and ammunition for the Syrian government. The statement came as about a dozen students at Damascus University's architecture college were killed in separate mortar attacks. The Iranian plane was hit Wednesday by the rebels' anti-aircraft weaponry, crashed at the airport and exploded, causing a fire at the main terminal, opposition activists said.

ANTAKYA, Turkey -- Large protests marking the two-year anniversary of the Syrian uprising were held across the country Friday as the opposition vowed to continue its fight to topple President Bashar Assad. As the fighting entered a third year, there were scant signs of a political solution that some world leaders have been pushing. More than 70,000 people have been killed, many of them women and children, according to the United Nations. In Damascus, the capital, government security forces spread out across many neighborhoods in an effort to prevent large demonstrations, opposition activists reported.

BEIRUT - Shelling and explosions were heard in Damascus, the Syrian capital, Wednesday amid some of the fiercest clashes reported in months, and government and opposition forces both said they had made significant advances. Acrid smoke hung over parts of Damascus, opposition activists said. The renewed fighting in the capital appeared to dash the faint hope of peace talks in the almost 2-year-old conflict. Neither side has agreed to dialogue, despite conditional offers in recent weeks from representatives of the opposition and the government of President Bashar Assad.

BEIRUT - Syrian government forces pressed an ongoing offensive Monday aimed at dislodging rebels from the vicinity of the capital, Damascus, amid reports of large numbers of civilian casualties, including women and children. Meantime, a new study by an international aid group labeled the almost 2-year-old Syrian conflict "a regional humanitarian disaster" that is worsening, with more than 2.5 million people forced from their homes in the face of bombings, targeted attacks, sexual violence, food shortages and a general collapse in services.

BEIRUT - Twenty people were killed Wednesday in fighting in a small Syrian village, according to opposition activists, as the commander of Syria's military police announced he was joining the rebellion in one of the army's highest-level defections. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a pro-rebel nongovernmental organization, reported that Syrian security forces shelled Qahtaniya village in Raqqah province. It said at least 20 people were killed, including eight children and three women.

CAIRO - Egypt's volatile political fault lines were shaken Tuesday as rival protests echoed across the capital over the fate of a proposed constitution drafted by Islamists nearly two years after the overthrow of autocrat Hosni Mubarak. Tens of thousands of Islamist supporters of President Mohamed Morsi rallied at a mosque in Cairo to back a constitutional referendum set for Saturday. Two miles away, mainly secular opposition groups marched to the barricaded presidential palace in what increasingly appears to be an improbable task of blocking the vote and forcing Morsi to order the writing of a new charter.

Opposition activists reported dozens more people were killed in Syria on Thursday as the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly condemned the Syrian government's "systematic violations of human rights" and backed a plan calling for President Bashar Assad to relinquish power. The vote by the 193-member body in New York provided a symbolic victory for the United States, Turkey, Arab nations and others calling for the ouster of the Syrian leader. But the move seemed unlikely to make much difference on the ground in Syria, where the U.N. says more than 5,000 people have died in the conflict since antigovernment protests erupted almost a year ago. Opposition activists reported at least 63 people killed Thursday, including 38 in the rebellious northwestern province of Idlib, where the government is fighting to regain control of territory lost to armed rebels.

Under mounting international pressure, Syria said Monday that it would admit Arab observers to monitor a regional peace initiative aimed at ending months of bloodshed that is threatening to push the country into civil war. An advance team including legal, administrative, financial and human rights experts is expected to head to Syria within days, said Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby. There were no immediate plans to lift regional sanctions on Syria, as requested by the government, he said.

CAIRO - Anger between Egypt's rival political camps erupted into street battles Wednesday after Islamist supporters of President Mohamed Morsi tore down tents belonging to antigovernment demonstrators, raising the possibility of widening violence over the nation's proposed constitution. Pro-Morsi factions overran about 200 protesters camped outside the presidential palace in north Cairo. The clashes came after the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party called thousands of its members into the streets in a counter-demonstration to drive opposition movements from the presidential palace.

BEIRUT - Syria was plunged into Internet darkness Thursday and much of the nation's telephone service was cut as fighting raged on the main road between Damascus and the capital's international airport. It could not be immediately determined whether the Internet blockage and the cutoff in telephone service were deliberate acts or the result of a power outage or damage to cables or other equipment. Fighting has engulfed several districts near the capital in recent weeks. Both sides reported clashes along the airport road.