BEIRUT – The U.S. closed its embassy in Syria and Britain recalled its ambassador to Damascus on Monday in a new Western push to get President Bashar Assad to leave power and halt the murderous grind in Syria – now among the deadliest conflicts of the Arab Spring.
Although the diplomatic effort was stymied at the U.N. by vetoes from Russia and China, the moves by the U.S. and Britain were a clear message that Western powers see no point in engaging with Assad and now will seek to bolster Syria’s opposition.
The most serious violence Monday was reported in Homs, where Syrian government forces, using tanks and machine guns, shelled a makeshift medical clinic and residential areas on the third day of a relentless assault, killing a reported 40 people, activists said. More than a dozen others were reported killed elsewhere.
Nation
L.A. school removes faculty over charges
The Los Angeles Unified School District superintendent says the faculty at Miramonte Elementary School will be removed following allegations of child sex abuse against two teachers.
Superintendent John Deasy made the announcement Monday night during a meeting with parents. The move follows the arrest of two teachers on lewd conduct charges.
Deasy says staffers are being replaced because a full investigation of allegations is disruptive, and staffers require support to get through the scandal. An entire staff has been trained to come into classrooms at Miramonte to take over teaching for the time being.
Occupy camp in Maine dismantled
A tent city in Portland, Maine, that’s among the longest-lived Occupy protest encampments is coming down as part of a new wave of eviction orders against demonstrators aligned with the movement in communities including Miami, Washington and Pittsburgh.
Occupy Maine demonstrators removed several large tents over the weekend, and the city on Monday gave them additional time to remove the rest.
Demonstrators who established the encampment just two weeks after the Occupy Wall Street encampment set up shop in New York City vowed to continue their work to call attention to corporate excess and economic inequality.
World
Palestinian leader siding with Hamas
After months of wavering, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas took a decisive step Monday toward reconciliation with the Islamic militant group Hamas, a move Israel promptly warned would close the door to any future peace talks.
In a deal brokered by Qatar, Abbas will head an interim unity government to prepare for general elections in the Palestinian territories in the coming months. The agreement appeared to bring reconciliation – key to any statehood ambitions – within reach for the first time since the two sides set up rival Palestinian governments in the West Bank and Gaza in 2007.
Government in Romania collapses
Romania’s government has collapsed following weeks of protests against austerity measures, the latest debt-stricken government in Europe to fall in the face of raising public anger over biting cuts.
Emil Boc, who had been prime minister since 2008, said Monday he was resigning “to defuse political and social tension” and to make way for a new government. Thousands of Romanians took to the streets in January to protest salary cuts, higher taxes and the widespread perception that the government was not interested in the public’s hardships in this nation of 22 million.
Norway massacre suspect defiant
The right-wing extremist who has admitted killing 77 people in Norway’s worst peacetime massacre told a court Monday that he deserves a medal of honor for the bloodshed and demanded to be set free.
Anders Behring Breivik smirked as he was led in to the Oslo district court, handcuffed and dressed in a dark suit, for his last scheduled detention hearing before the trial starts in April.
Reading from prepared remarks, the 32-year-old Norwegian told the court that the July 22 massacre – carried out with a bomb, a rifle and a handgun – was a strike against “traitors” who he said are embracing immigration to promote “an Islamic colonization of Norway.”
Greece agrees to cut civil service jobs
Greece’s coalition government caved in to demands to cut civil service jobs, announcing 15,000 positions would go this year, amid mounting international pressure to agree on austerity measures needed to secure major new debt agreements.
The announcement Monday signals a shift in Greece’s policy, as state jobs have so far been protected during the country’s acute financial crisis, which started about two years ago.
