German, Italian and Spanish foreign ministries announced today that Syrian ambassadors are being expelled - following similar moves by Britain, France, Australia and Canada after a massacre in which the United Nations says families were shot at close range in their homes.

Syrian president Bashar al-Assad met peace envoy Kofi Annan on Tuesday, the state news agency SANA said, amid an outcry over a massacre of civilians that UN observers attributed at least partly to the army but the government blamed on Islamist militants.

David Cameron and William Hague were today involved in high-level international talks to ratchet up pressure on Syrian President Bashar Assad in the wake of the massacre of more than 100 people, including women and small children.

Syria yesterday denied that its forces had carried out a massacre of at least 116 people including dozens of children in the central Syrian town of Houla, claiming that the slaughter was the work of rebels.

Emergency meeting of UN discusses response to attack that killed 34 children

Many in Damascus know first-hand about the physical destruction wrought by the fighting in the centre of the country

Nearly nine weeks after Bashar al-Assad's regime formally agreed the UN six-point peace plan, and six weeks after the ceasefire was supposed to come into effect, the killing continues unabated.

A suicide car bomb tore through the parking lot of a military compound in Syria's eastern city of Deir el-Zour this morning, the latest in a wave of blasts targeting security agencies in recent months, the country's state media reported. 

Syrian troops shelled a rebel-held town, sparking intense clashes that sent bloodied victims flooding into hospitals and clinics, activists said.

A video posted online in the name of a shadowy militant group last night claimed responsibility for twin suicide bombings in the Syrian capital this week that killed 55 people. 

Two suicide car bombs ripped through the Syrian capital today, killing 55 people and tearing the facade off a military intelligence building in the deadliest explosions since the country's uprising began 14 months ago.

Amid more violence and calls for a boycott, only a trickle of voters turn out in restive provinces

Syrians are expected to largely shun the polling booths today in an election widely written off as a sham that will do nothing to loosen President Bashar al-Assad's grip on power.

An explosion at a car wash on the edge of Syria's second city, Aleppo, killed at least five people, according to opposition activists, as unrest in the country continued.