Syria Live Coverage: The Humanitarian Crisis

2145 GMT: The situation near the palace may be unknown, but the CFDPC reports that shells (or rockets) have killed many tonight in Kafr Batna, to the east (map):

situation of chaos in the Kafar Batna suburb of Damascus which was shelled by regime forces with rocket launchers; there are reports of injuries also among the medical staff,

Bashar al Assad will likely live for more nights, but how many will have to die before his regime comes toppling down?

2028 GMT: This video was sent to us by Zilal, who has been speaking to people inside Damascus. It was taken from the south of the Presidential Palace in Damascus. The occasional gunshot or explosion, far in the distance, can be heard. More importantly, though, it reportedly shows the ambulances lined up on the road to the palace. Zilal describes the video:

This is Damascus tonight. [Zilal's sources] say that there are ambulances on the road leading to the presidential palace but we cannot see anything.

What we can see is that electricity is cut in many areas as you said before.

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Syria Analysis: "Peace" Only Buys Time for All Sides

Protest last night in the Damascus suburb of Arbeen

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As the song goes, "Peace sells, but who's buying?" The United Nations this UN peace agreement just bides time for all parties involved. With every passing day of that biding-time, more people die, more people protest, and the conflict appears to be further away from resolution, not closer.

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Will the US Aid the Opposition?

2002 GMT: A late-afternoon surprise from the State Department. While we could have guessed that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would be traveling to Turkey for the "Friends of Syria" meeting, we were not aware that she would be traveling to Saudi Arabia to discuss Syria first:

ecretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will travel to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from March 30-31, 2012. While in Riyadh, she will meet King Abdullah and Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal. She will also attend the First Ministerial Meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council-U.S. Strategic Cooperation Forum. In her conversations, she will discuss the full range of bilateral and regional issues, including ongoing security cooperation in the region, as well as the international community’s continuing efforts to stop the bloodshed in Syria.

Secretary Clinton will then travel to Istanbul, Turkey from March 31-April 1 to attend the second meeting of the “Friends of the Syrian People.” This meeting will build upon steps that our friends, allies, and the Syrian opposition continue to take in an attempt to halt the slaughter of the Syrian people and pursue a transition to democracy in Syria. While in Istanbul, Secretary Clinton will also conduct bilateral meetings with Turkish Foreign Minister Davutoglu and other foreign leaders.

What does this mean? We could read a lot into a short statement, but it certainly means that Clinton is seeking regional unity on Syria. Remember that Saudi Arabia walked out of the last "Friends of Syria" meeting because of a lack of perceived progress in ending the crisis. Whatever the FoS decides, they will look weak and illegitimate without the backing of Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar, and the other major regional players.

1957 GMT: The Syrian government has banned all male citizens under the age of 42 from traveling internationally:

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: A Referendum Amidst the Deaths

Residents of Baba Amr in Homs, under siege for the 24th straight day, stage their version of Sunday's referendum on a new Constitution

See also Turkey Special: The Government Supports a Hyper-Nationalist --- and Threatening --- Protest
Sunday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: "I'm So Hungry. I Think I Will Die" --- Then the Line Went Dead

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2153 GMT: At the end of the day, the two Western journalists who remain injured in the Baba Amr district of Homs have not been rescued. However, the Red Cross did manage to remove three injured Syrians from the besieged district:

A negotiator in the evacuation efforts said they fell through "at the last minute after ambulances had entered Baba Amr" but declined to specify if regime forces or rebels had blocked the operation.

2146 GMT: The on-line magazine Mother Jones has received a document that they say was leaked from someone inside the Syrian government and contains more than 700 pages of names of activists who have been placed on a government "kill list." A series of experts whom Mother Jones shared the document with believe it is genuine:

Joshua Landis, a scholar on Syria who has consulted for the State Department and other US government agencies, said he thinks the document merges the records of several Syrian intelligence agencies in order to better coordinate the crackdown. "This is what a secret service does," he said. Actions allegedly taken by individuals in the document—such as setting up a roadblock near Homs or issuing instructions about how to attack a Syrian military outpost—are "the kind of thing that people get whacked for all the time, or at least tortured for."

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Syria: The Necessary Spark of the Daraa Protests (Arar)

Ethnic divisions make it extremely challenging to have a unified popular voice, but what is encouraging is the fact that the Syrian youth who are leading this nonviolent reform movement have made it clear that it is purely secular in nature and they will not allow it to be hijacked by any opportunist ethnic group or opposition party.

It is too early to ascribe the "revolution" label to this Syrian youth movement. But what is clear from the Tunisian example is that revolutions need a spark and it seems Assad has already ignited it in Daraa.

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Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Unsteady as She Goes

2125 GMT: Witnesses say Yemeni police have fired on protesters in the capital Sanaa, injuring 50.

2120 GMT: Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has arrived at Tripoli's Rixos Hotel, where many foreign journalists are staying. He is expected to hold a news conference soon.

2035 GMT: In Egypt, a Coptic Christian man has reportedly been killed in clashes this evening between Copts and Muslims.

1835 GMT: In Syria, human rights activist and government critic Haitham al-Maleh has been released from jail.

Maleh, 80 and reportedly in poor health, was freed after President Bashar al-Assad issued an amnesty for those convicted of minor crimes and prisoners over the age of 70.

Maleh was imprisoned last July for three years on charges of spreading false information and damaging national morale.

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