Syria follows U.N. rebuke with assault

Syria followed a U.N. rebuke by pounding the city of Homs for a 14th day Friday as China sent an envoy to Damascus and Venezuela shipped oil to the regime. Tanks, heavy artillery, rockets and mortars barraged residential areas of Homs, a center of the resistance in western Syria, shortly after dawn, residents said. Rockets and tank shells pummeled Homs's embattled Baba Amr neighborhood, activists said. No casualties were immediately reported, but at least 22 people were killed in the flashpoint cities of Hama and Daraa Thursday, activist groups said. The regime of President Bashar Assad arrested a prominent activist journalist Thursday along with a well-known blogger and more than a dozen other journalists and activists, opposition groups said. The arrests of Mazen Darwish, who heads the Syrian Center for Media and Free Expression in Damascus, and blogger Razan Ghazzawi, a symbol of the uprising, prompted press-freedom organization Reporters Without Borders to call for their immediate release. No information was immediately available about the reasons for their arrests. Darwish and Ghazzawi have been detained by police before, the Los Angeles Times reported. Syrian-American Ghazzawi has written her Razaniyyat blog since 2009. Her @RedRazan Twitter feed is followed by an estimated 6,700 people, a United Press International review indicated. She posted her last blog entry and Twitter feed Monday, the review indicated. The U.N. General Assembly condemned Assad's rampant crackdown on the nearly year-old uprising Thursday by a 137-12 vote, with 17 abstentions, and called for his resignation under an Arab League peace proposal to resolve the conflict. Syria tried to block the non-binding vote and severely criticized its sponsors, which included the Arab League. The league suspended Syria's participation in November 2011 because of the unrestrained crackdown. A handful of other countries opposed the resolution, including Russia, China, Iran, Venezuela and North Korea. They condemned it as an unwarranted interference in Syria's internal politics. "Today the U.N. General Assembly sent a clear message to the people of Syria: The world is with you," U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said in a statement. "Bashar Assad has never been more isolated." The resolution calls for Assad to give up power to a vice president, for opposition and government representatives to negotiate, and for Syria to form a new government. Two weeks ago a similar, binding Security Council resolution was vetoed by Russia and China. The countries said it would create an opening for outside military force to depose Assad. Despite voting against the General Assembly resolution, China Thursday called on Damascus "to seriously heed the people's legitimate desire for reform and development" and said Beijing hoped "the Syrian issue will be resolved within the framework of the league through political and peaceful means." Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Zhai Jun arrived in Syria Friday for talks with regime leaders "and relevant parties including leaders of the opposition," China Daily reported. "We condemn all acts of violence against innocent civilians and urge the government and all political factions of Syria to immediately and fully end all violence, and quickly restore stability and the normal social order," he said before leaving Beijing. Separately, a Venezuelan oil tanker was sent to Syria, raising suspicions Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez sought to undercut Western sanctions by providing fuel to Assad forces, The Wall Street Journal reported. The 47-ton Negra Hipolita was to arrive in the port of Baniyas Wednesday, shipping records on the Web site Marinetraffic indicate. Baniyas is home of one of the largest oil refineries in Syria. A spokesman for Venezuelan oil monopoly Petroleos de Venezuela SA declined comment Thursday, the Journal said. An oil ministry spokesman had no immediate comment.