Syrian troops bomb towns,eu grounds First Lady
DAMASCUS, March 23, 2012 (AFP) - Syrian forces bombed towns and clashed with rebels in several regions Friday as activists said thousands staged anti-regime protests and the European Union slapped sanctions on the country's First Lady.
In Geneva, the UN Human Rights Council ordered an extension of a probe into violations in Syria, and asked investigators to map out abuses since a deadly crackdown on protests in the country erupted in March 2011.
Un-arab League envoy Kofi Annan was to travel this weekend to Moscow and Beijing, which have blocked Security Council action against Syria over the crackdown, but he had no immediate plans to return to Damascus.
Adding to pressure on the regime, the EU on Friday agreed to sanction President Bashar al-assad's glamorous British-born wife Asma, along with his mother, sister and sister-in-law.
Diplomats in Brussels said European Union foreign ministers had agreed to an assets freeze and to slap a travel ban on “Assad's wife, mother, sister and sister-in-law,” and eight other members of his entourage.
Asma Assad, whose parents live in Britain where she grew up, cannot be barred entry to the country but is not expected “to try to travel to the United Kingdom at the moment,” British Foreign Secretary William Hague said.
The president himself was targeted last May 10, along with his younger brother Maher and four cousins.
Demonstrators in all the hot spots of anti-regime revolt across Syria on Friday numbered hundreds of thousands, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. In total, seven civilians, seven soldiers and a deserter were killed during the day on Friday, the Observatory said in a preliminary roundup.