Syria

One of Syria's most vocal human rights activists was sentenced to five years in prison. Anwar Bunni was among several dissidents held for the last year. The United States, European Union and Amnesty International denounced the sentence. Bunni was among 500 Syrian and Lebanese intellectuals who signed the Beirut-Damascus Declaration, which called on the Syrian government to improve ties with neighboring Lebanon. A week after signing, he and at least eight other activists were arrested.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Thursday with Syria's foreign minister at a summit here, the first formal encounter between the two countries' top diplomats in more than three years. American officials suggested that more meetings with Syria could follow, an indication that the Bush administration may be changing its policy of isolating a regime it considers a sponsor of terrorism.

Anwar Bunni's wife had seen this moment often in her nightmares: the secret police emerging from the shadows, forcing her activist husband into a waiting car. After all these years, it felt like a spell had been broken. "You're waiting for the beast to arrive, and finally it comes," Raghida Issa said. "I felt relief." But their trouble had just begun. Bunni, a vocal critic of the Syrian regime, was held for nearly a year before a military judge sentenced him last month to five years in prison.

Re "Rice, Syrian official talk," May 4 One might conclude that in spite of the flak that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) took from the White House and its allies for making the same gesture toward Syria, that rather than aiding terrorists, as was suggested then, she was actually "paving the way" for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's meeting -- in both their efforts to stabilize the region. DIRK BLOCKER \o7Santa Barbara \f7

A Syrian dissident who was arrested after meeting with White House officials two years ago was convicted and sentenced to 12 years in prison. Kamal Labwani, 50, head of a pro-democracy group, was convicted of contacting a foreign country and "encouraging attack against Syria." His sentence was the harshest against a prominent political dissident since President Bashar Assad took office in 2000. Defense lawyer Khalil Maatouk said he would appeal.

A Syrian court sentenced prominent political writer Michel Kilo to three years in jail on charges of "weakening national feelings," stemming from his criticism of government policy toward Lebanon. Witnesses said the same sentence was handed to Mahmoud Issa, a political activist who also signed last year's Damascus-Beirut Declaration criticizing Syrian policy toward Lebanon.

Government soldiers Sunday battled members of an Islamic group at a refugee camp near the Syrian border and in a nearby coastal city, with at least 33 people killed in the worst bloodshed here in almost a year. A bomb went off before midnight in an affluent Christian neighborhood of Beirut, killing one woman and injuring five other people, relief workers said. It was unclear whether the explosion was connected to the earlier fighting in the north.

Talk about Syria is suddenly in the air here, but it is less clear whether the chatter is a harbinger of peace or war -- or only so much noise. For months, Israel and Syria have sent signals that have alternated between bellicose and calming, leaving Israelis to speculate about the possibility of another summertime war and debate the merits of renewing negotiations with Damascus after a lull of seven years. Israeli officials are reportedly giving serious thought to reopening talks.

Family, friends and party loyalists gathered Thursday to bury Walid Eido, a 65-year-old anti-Syrian lawmaker assassinated with his son and eight other people in a bombing on Beirut's waterfront the day before. Flanked by slick secret service agents speaking into their sleeves, the funeral procession passed billboards with images of the Lebanese politician and his son, and the words: "The men of justice, the martyrs of justice."

Lebanon's border security is largely incapable of preventing arms smuggling from Syria, experts said Tuesday in a scathing report for the U.N. Security Council. The five independent experts said that during a three-week stay in Lebanon they had not heard of any weapons being seized. The team did not visit Syria, which has denied involvement in any illegal transfers.