Syrian soldiers take up positions before protests

Syrian soldiers rolled into flash point cities in tanks and set up sand barriers topped with machine guns Thursday, as President Bashar Assad's deadly crackdown on dissent pulled the country deeper into international isolation.

On the eve of another round of large protests, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton slammed the government's assault on demonstrators and said the violence showed Assad is weak, though she stopped short of saying he must quit. (AP)