Nearly 200 lives lost in last two days in Syria

FE Team | Published: December 22, 2011 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

DAMASCUS, Dec 21 (agencies): Almost 200 people have died in two days of clashes in Syria, activists say, as the violence there intensifies. Two activist groups put Tuesday's toll at 84 - the majority in Idlib province in the north-west. Video has emerged of a young boy, whose body was apparently torn in half by shelling in the city of Homs. The bloodshed comes a day before an advance group of Arab League monitors is due to arrive to oversee the implementation of a peace initiative. The UN said earlier this month that more than 5,000 people had been killed across Syria since protests against President Bashar al-Assad erupted in March. Meanwhile: The opposition Syrian National Council Wednesday urged the UN Security Council and Arab League to hold emergency meetings after "massacres" carried out by regime forces. Egyptians vote after deadly clashes Egyptians turned out to vote again on Wednesday in the run-off of a staggered election marred by deadly clashes between protesters and security forces that have left 14 people dead in five days. Polling stations opened at 8:00 am (0600 GMT) in a third of the country's 27 provinces. The run-off in the second round of legislative polls, which takes place over two days, will see the two largest Islamist parties go head to head for 59 seats of the lower house. The ruling military has decided on a complex election system in which voters cast ballots for party lists, which will comprise two thirds of parliament, and also for individual candidates for the remaining third of the lower house. Four Yemen troops die in clashes with militants Four soldiers were killed in a third day of fighting in Zinjibar between the army and Al-Qaeda-linked militants trying to take over the restive southern city, military officials said on Wednesday. "Four soldiers were killed and at least 20 others were wounded" in the battles to retake full control over Zinjibar from fighters of the Al-Qaeda linked Partisans of Sharia (Islamic law) group late Tuesday, they said. Kuwaitis register for polls seeking change, stability Candidates began registering on Wednesday for Kuwait's early polls called by the ruler after dissolving parliament over a political crisis amid high hopes for massive change and relative stability. "The change in this election will be huge thanks to the young generation who will play a pivotal role in the polls," Hussein Jamal, contesting for the second time, told AFP after filing nomination papers for the February 2 polls. Bahrain protesters re-emerge after crackdown Shiite protesters in Bahrain are increasingly heading back to the streets, nine months after a brutal security crackdown was thought to have silenced their democracy movement.