Syria updates (Zvi)

From Zvi:

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• 24 more people (unverified) were killed in Syria on Monday (Syrian Observatory for Human Rights). 150 more were arrested. 6 more were killed early on Tuesday. Reuters, quoting a source in Erbin: "People marched after the nightly Ramadan prayers. Security cars and pick-up trucks with machineguns mounted on their beds entered Erbin around midnight and assembled at the main roundabout before branching out in the streets and firing at neighbourhoods."
• Guardian column that includes a photo of Friday's (big) anti-regime protest in Hama: 

• Italy has withdrawn its ambassador to Syria.
• The UK has ruled out using force against the Syrian regime. Because, you know, it's very important to take out the nut-case dictator of oil-rich Libya, but the Baathist regime in Syria plays a very important role as the switchboard and logistics hub for terror and instability in the Levant and the junior partner of pre-nuclear Iran; G-d forbid that THIS regime should be removed.
• Turkey is becoming increasingly frustrated with Syria. The Turkish FM said that nobody can remain silent when "more than 100 people were killed in one day." The Turkish president said that he was "horrified" by the footage that he had seen.
• The UN Security Council still can't even bring itself to condemn the Syrian government for the ongoing slaughter of well over 1500 people. Russia, China, India, South Africa and Brazil are protecting the dictator, and thereby supporting the deliberate slaughter of noncombatant protesters.
• Russia is in a hard place, torn between protecting its long-time client regime and customer on the one hand, and the knowledge that many people in the region are becoming increasingly upset by the carnage on the other.
• EU's Catherine Ashton is a moron if she really thinks that the Syrian regime cares that others want it to "protect the population". Otherwise she's just a puff of stale air.
• Al Jazeerah Engish interviews a prominent Syrian human rights activist. He's frustrated with the hypocrisy of the world's response.