Syria Live Coverage: Insurgents Claim Another Victory Near Aleppo

See also Syria Video Feature: Planning For the Endgame? --- Scott Lucas on Al Jazeera English's "Inside Syria"
Syria Feature: A Requiem for Aleppo
Saturday's Syria Live Coverage: "The Only Terrorism is That of Assad"

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2015 GMT: Vice President Farouk al-Sharaa has admitted in an interview that the regime will not be able to defeat the insurgency and restore its authority --- he said, "“The opposition forces combined cannot decide the battle militarily," but continued, "Meanwhile what the security forces and the army units are doing will not reach a conclusive end.”

A pessimistic al-Sharaa said, “With every passing day, the military and political solutions get further away. The way events are heading will lead to an uncomfortable place where things will definitely go from bad to worse.”

Al-Sharaa pointed to a "historical settlement...stopping all shapes of violence, and [with] the creation of a national unity government with wide powers":

The opposition with its different factions, civilian, armed, or ones with external ties, cannot claim to be the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian People, just as the current rule with its ideological army and its confrontation parties lead by the Baath, cannot achieve change without new partners.

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: At Least 44 Dead in Airstrike on Ma'arat al-Numan

2250 GMT: Syria. We have to end today's coverage, and we will continue it tomorrow, but it has been a terrible day - in Lebanon, but even more so in Syria.

Still, if two words could summarize the spirit of the Syrian opposition, they might be "brave defiance." Today, despite the shells and gunshots, falling bombs, tanks, and massacres, people still protested.

This video was taken today in Douma, a major suburb of Damascus - the protesters brought the remnants of a cluster bomb to the streets:

But just a few miles away, in the Damascus suburb of Saqba, civilians try to dig their friends and family out of the rubble as shells land and buildings collapse:

Bravery, defiance, and death...

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Car Bomb Outside Damascus Police Station

Scene of last night's car bomb in Damascus

Syria Opinion: Opposition Is Letting Down Residents in the East
Sunday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: On a "Slow" Saturday, 105 Die

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2055 GMT: Egypt. President Mohammed Morsi has said he will pardon all those arrested --- except persons charged with murder --- from the first day of the uprising against the Mubarak regime to June 2012, when Morsi took office.

Any decree could lead to the release of several thousand people.

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: What Next in Aleppo...and Elsewhere?

1959 GMT: Syria. 129 people have been killed today, according to the LCC:

27 martyrs in Damascus and its Suburbs, (most of them were killed in the massacre of Qaboun neighbourhood, their bodies were discovered today), 22 in Aleppo, 21 in Homs, 15 in Hasakeh, 12 in Hama, 12 in Idlib, 11 in Deir Ezzor and 9 martyrs in Daraa.

1354 GMT: Bahrain. EA's John Horne reports:

Following escalating complaints and concerns, "12 free-standing air conditioning units and large generators to power them" have been fitted at Jaw Prison "as an emergency measure", reports Trade Arabia. Jaw Prison is Bahrain's largest and where many political prisoners are currently being held. The installation of the air conditioning units is something of a victory for activists online who have been raising awareness of the lack of air-conditioning for several days through Twitter using the hashtag Click to read more ...