Syria sanctioned, condemned for "brutality" (Reuters)

BEIRUT — In another blow to President Bashar Assad, his commander of military police defected. The defector, Maj. Gen. Abdul-Aziz Jassem al-Shallal, is one of the most senior members of Assad’s inner circle to join the opposition during the 21-month-old uprising against authoritarian rule. He appeared in a video aired on Al-Arabiya TV late Tuesday saying the army has been turned into a gang to kill and destroy.

Reuters - The main U.N. human rights forum condemned Syria's crackdown on protests on Friday and Royal Dutch Shell shut down oil work there because of EU sanctions, signs of the deepening isolation of President Bashar al-Assad.

Reuters - Swiss oil traders Vitol and Trafigura are supplying fuel to Syria, dealers said Friday, despite a bloody military crackdown by President Bashar al-Assad's security forces against protesters that has cost hundreds of lives.

Sen. John Kerry has held up Syria as a country that could bring peace and stability to the Mideast and predicted that the now-disgraced government of President Bashar Assad would pursue a legitimate relationship with the United States. Those assertions are certain to draw scrutiny at Kerry’s confirmation hearing to be secretary of state as Assad’s brutal crackdown has plunged his country into civil war.

Syrian rebels launched their biggest push into the capital since July and separately captured the country's largest hyd