(Al Jazeera English: 0516 PST, March 25, 2011) Protesters calling for freedom gathered in capital Damascus and other areas around Syria as security forces ordered journalists to leave a southern city where a brutal weeklong siege on demonstrations killed dozens of people.

Al Jazeera's special correspondent, reporting from among the pro-reform demonstrators in the southern city of Daraa, 100 kilometers south of Damascus, said: "No one here is calling for a regime change ... No one here is chanting slogans against the president Bashar al-Assad. The people here say they want freedom, they want reforms."

(Associated Press: 0609 PST, March 9, 2011) A suicide bomber killed at least 36 people Wednesday at a funeral in northwest Pakistan attended by anti-Taliban militiamen. Piles of personal belongings were left after the deadliest militant attack in the country so far this year.