Syria: Assad demands rebels halt attacks
Syria's President Bashar Assad has said he will spare no effort to make UN envoy Kofi Annan's peace plan a success, but demanded that armed opponents battling his regime commit to halting violence.
In brazen attacks, gunmen kidnapped a high-ranking military pilot outside the capital and assassinated two army colonels in the country's business hub on Thursday, in what appeared to be part of a stepped-up campaign by the battered opposition against the symbols of Assad's power. (AP)
