EA WorldView

The rise of protest in Syrian's second city Aleppo --- despite gunfire, demonstrators pursue a police car on Saturday

2020 GMT: A tour of the streets of Baba Amr in Homs in Syria, damaged by 23 straight days of regime shelling:

1735 GMT: The opposition Syrian National Council has issued a press statement calling for the "rejection of sectarianism" and reached out to the Alawite minority --- of whom President Assad and most of the regime elite are members --- as "an essential part of the Syrian fabric".

Claimed footage showing the Free Syrian Army in control of a highway between Aleppo, Syria's second city, and the Turkish border:

1625 GMT: The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent still cannot get into the besieged Baba Amr section of Homs, according to the ICRC.

"The ICRC and Syrian Arab Red Crescent are still negotiating with Syrian authorities and opposition groups. We are attempting to go into the affected area of Baba Amro today," said ICRC chief spokeswoman Carla Haddad. "We are working in good faith and need consensus of all involved in the violence."

1525 GMT: The Local Coordinations Committees in Syria have updated today's death toll to 34 --- 17 in Homs, eight in Haleifa in Hama Province, six in Daraa Province, and one each in Maarat Numan, the Damascus suburb of Qattana, and the Jobar section of Damascus.

A protest in Binnish in the northwest:

1355 GMT: The Local Coordination Committees of Syria say that 25 people have died today --- 14 in Homs, eight in Haleifa in Hama Province, and one each in Maarat Numan, Eelma, and Nawa.

1345 GMT: In Egypt, the trial has opened of 14 staff of non-governmental organisations, accused of operations without licences and improper receipt of foreign funding.

After raids in December, Egyptian authorities have charged 43 people, including 16 Americans. All the defendants in court today were Egyptian.

The trial has been adjourned until 26 April.

1340 GMT: The continued shelling of the Baba Amr neighbourhood of Homs in Syria today:

1055 GMT: Claimed footage of insurgents attacking the ruling Baath Party's headquarters in the Khalidiya section of Homs in Syria today:

Regime tanks in Al Harak in Daraa Province:

1045 GMT: Thirteen people have reportedly died in Syria today, 11 of them in Homs.

A large group of defecting soldiers in Homs say they are joining the "Citizens Protection Commission":

A loud demonstration in Ataman in Daraa Province rejects the Syrian regime's vote on a new Constitution:

0700 GMT: Syrians vote today on a new Constitution, proposed by President Assad earlier this month.

More than 14 million people over the age of 18 are eligible to cast a ballot.

0615 GMT: We open Sunday with a snapshot from the city of Homs in Syria, enduring Day 23 of a regime siege and shelling.

Abu Bakr is a 22-year-old university student. Last Wednesday, he was in the media centre in the Baba Amr neighbourhood when it was shelled, killing 11 people including foreign journalists Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik. Two days later, he was talking to America's NBC News via Skype:

No one can protect themselves from shelling in Baba Amr. We just need (to) stop the shelling.

I'm hungry from two days. I'm eating just some onions (for) two days. That's my life, that's the life in Baba Amr. Most people here eat just simple things, the plants on ground....

I think I will die.

Bakr, who studies mechanical engineering. survived. He said by Skype later that he had rushed out to his neighbour's house to make sure everyone was OK.

Bakr said, "It is urgent that you have humanitarian corridor in Syria. This could save the lives of a lot Syrians."