Syria: Troops continue assault on Homs 4.17pm: A further update on Egypt from the Guardian's Abdel-Rahman Hussein: Fighting seems to have finally stopped in downtown Cairo, but there are always lulls in the clashes. After having erected block walls on Nobar, Mansour, Fahmy and Falaki streets there are no police forces in sight, probably safely esconsed near the Interior Ministry behind the giant walls. The stench of tear gas still permeates the air, and the clouds of gas have mingled with the dust clouds from a particularly murky day in Cairo to create a swirl that severely limits visibility. Amongst all this residents of the area are arguing with the few hundred protesters milling about to leave the area. Apparently there had just been a scuffle between the two but now it's calmed and there's much heated back-and-forth. Meanwhile, discussions in parliament seem to have irked people on the ground, what with it centering on ways to secure the Interior Ministry, with very little focus outside liberal MPs on the use of buckshot and other ammunition against protesters. 4.00pm: Here's a summary of the main developments so far today: The United States has closed its embassy in Damascus and all embassy staff have left the country. Britain has also recalled its ambassador. On the ground, the killing continues in Syria, especially in Homs. The Syrian National Council put the death toll in Homs at 50 while the Local Co-ordination Committees, which said a field hospital was hit during the bombardment, said 19 people had been killed. Ignoring a US threat to cut off aid, Egypt has referred 19 Americans and 24 other employees of non-profit groups to trial before a criminal court on accusations they illegally used foreign funds to foment unrest in the country. 3.42pm: Hague: Britain has recalled its ambassador from Syria. Here is the full text of Hague's statement: With permission, Mr Speaker, I would like to make a Statement to the House on Syria. The whole House will be appalled by the bloodshed and repression in Syria which continues at this very moment. Over the last 11 months more than 6,000 people have been killed. The Syrian regime has deployed snipers, tanks, artillery and mortars against civilian protestors and population centres, particularly in the cities of Homs, Idlib, Hama and Deraa. Thousands of Syrians have endured imprisonment, torture and sexual violence - including instances of the alleged rape of children - and the humanitarian position is deteriorating. This is an utterly unacceptable situation which demands a united international response. Last Tuesday I attended the UN Security Council debate in New York, along with Secretary Clinton and the French Foreign Minister Alain Juppé and other Ministers. We all spoke in strong support of a draft UN Security Council resolution proposed by the Kingdom of Morocco on behalf of the Arab League. The resolution called for the implementation of the Arab League plan to stop all violence in Syria from all sides, and to begin a political transition. Mr Speaker, there was nothing in this draft resolution that could not be supported by any country seeking a peaceful end to the tragedy unfolding in Syria. It demanded an end to all violence. It called for a Syrian-led political process to allow the Syrians to determine their future. And it set out a path to a national unity government and internationally-supervised elections. It did not call for military intervention, and could not have been used to authorise any such action under any circumstances. It did not impose sanctions. It proposed putting the weight and authority of the United Nations Security Council behind a plan to achieve a lasting and sustainable peace in Syria. As I said at the Security Council, this was the Arab League's plan; it was not a plan imposed by Western nations. It was co-sponsored by nations that included Turkey, Tunisia, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Oman. Their leadership, and their strong understanding of their region, deserves our support. I pay particular tribute to the Secretary General of the Arab League and to the Prime Minister of Qatar, who travelled to New York to brief the Council and played a vital role in the extensive negotiations that followed. On Saturday the resolution was put to the vote. Thirteen of the fifteen members of the UN Security Council voted in favour. Two did not: Russia and China both exercised their veto. They did so despite extensive efforts made to amend the draft resolution to address Russia's specific concerns, and in the face of repeated appeals from Arab nations. Instead, they chose to side with the Syrian regime and implicitly to leave the door open to further abuses by them. They did so while President Assad's tanks were encircling Homs and shells were pounding the homes of Syrian civilians, killing up to 200 people, and on the 30th anniversary of the massacre in Hama. We regard this veto as a grave error of judgment by the governments of China and Russia. Mr Speaker, there is no need to mince words about this. Russia and China have twice vetoed reasonable and necessary action by the United Nations Security Council. Such vetoes are a betrayal of the Syrian people. In deploying them they have let down the Arab League; they have increased the likelihood of what they wish to avoid in Syria - civil war - and they have placed themselves on the wrong side of Arab and international opinion. By contrast, I thank the other members of the Security Council for the principled stand they took; in particular the non-permanent members of the Council Morocco, Azerbaijan, Colombia, Germany, Guatemala, India, Pakistan, Portugal, South Africa and Togo, all of whom voted in favour of the resolution. Pakistan's representative to the UNSC spoke for all of us when he said "this resolution should not die; by being active and engaged, we should give hope to those who are expecting it from us." Mr Speaker, the Syrian regime may have drawn comfort from events at the UN Security Council, but we will do everything that we can to make sure that comfort is short-lived. There is no way it can recover its credibility internationally or with its own people. The UN Security Council's failure to agree a resolution does not signal the end of our efforts to end the violence in Syria, and I want to set out how we will now proceed. First, we will continue our strong support for the Arab League. Earlier this afternoon I spoke to the Secretary General of the Arab League, Nabil El-Araby as well as the Foreign Minister of Jordan. I welcomed and encouraged the proposal to appoint a Special Envoy of the Arab League, and I commended the Arab League's leadership and action so far. Arab Foreign Ministers will meet this weekend to consider their options. The Secretary General was very clear about the urgency of the situation, the continued determination of the Arab world to act, and the need to step up their efforts. I told him that the Arab League will have our complete support. Second, we will seek to widen the international coalition of nations seeking a peaceful and lasting resolution in Syria. We welcome the concept of a new Arab-led group of Friends of Syria, which I discussed with the Prime Minister of Qatar last Tuesday in New York. The aim of such a group will be to demonstrate the strength of international support for the people of Syria and their legitimate demands, to coordinate intensified diplomatic and economic pressure on the regime, and to engage with Syrian opposition groups committed to a democratic future for the country. Britain will be a highly active member in setting up such a group with the broadest possible international support. Third, we will intensify our contact with members of the Syrian opposition. The House will recall that in November I appointed an Ambassador-level envoy, Frances Guy, to lead our discussions with them. We will continue to urge the Syrian opposition to come together and to agree a common statement of commitment to democracy, to human rights, and to the protection of all Syria's minorities. Fourth, we will maintain our strong focus at the United Nations, undeterred by Saturday's vote. We will continue to raise Syria at the Security Council, and we will consider with other nations a resolution of the UN General Assembly. And despite our disagreement with Russia and China we will continue to discuss with them any possibility of an agreed but meaningful way forward. Fifth, we will increase pressure through the European Union, following the discussions I had in New York with Ministers from France, Portugal and Germany. We have already agreed 11 rounds of EU sanctions and will hope to agree further measures by the Foreign Affairs Council on 27 February. Sixth, we will work with others to ensure that those responsible for crimes in Syria are held to account. At the UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva in March we will work to ensure the strongest possible mandate to scrutinise human rights violations in Syria, so that those responsible know that there will be a day of reckoning and that they will be held to account. And seventh, we will use our remaining channels to the Syrian regime to make clear our abhorrence at violence that is utterly unacceptable to the civilised world. The Syrian Ambassador to London was today summoned to the Foreign Office to receive this message. Despite our deteriorating relations with the Syrian government we remain committed to ensuring the safety of its Embassy and staff in London. We expect the Syrian authorities to provide the same protection to our Embassy in Damascus. In parallel, I have today recalled to London our Ambassador from Damascus for consultations. He and his team work in extremely difficult conditions to ensure that we have an accurate picture of what is happening in Syria. I hope the House will join me in paying fulsome tribute to them and their families. Their safety and security is always prominent in our considerations. Mr Speaker, the human suffering in Syria is already unimaginable and is in grave danger of escalating further. The position taken by Russia and China has regrettably made this more likely. However this government, this House, our country and our allies will not forget the people of Syria. We will redouble our efforts to put pressure on this appalling regime and to stop this indefensible violence. 3.42pm: Hague: This is a doomed regime as well as a murdering regime. We will continue our strong support for Arab League. We will seek to widen the international coalition seeking peace in Syria. Intensify diplomatic and economic pressure on the regime. UK will also intensify contact with Syrian opposition. Maintain strong focus at UN, continue to look for meaningful way forward. We will work through UN human rights council. 3.39pm: Hague: Extensive efforts were made to address Russia's concerns. We regard this veto as a grave error of judgement by the governments of Russia and China -- a betrayal of the Syrian people. They have increased risk of civil war and placed themselves on the wrong side of Arab and international opinion. 3.37pm: Hague continues: There was nothing objectionable in the UN resolution that was proposed by Morocco - did not impose sanctions or authorise military action. 3.36pm: William Hague is now speaking about Syria. Appalled by bloodshed and repression. Utterly unacceptable situation demanding united international response. 3.30pm: British foreign secretary William Hague has now arrived in the House of Commons chamber to make his statement about Syria. 3.25pm: We shall be liveblogging the British foreign secretary's statement on Syria which is expected in a few minutes. You can also watch it live here. 2.46pm: The Local Co-ordination Committees group in Syria has posted a statement it says is from members of the minority Alawite sect (a branch of Shia Islam, which Bashar al-Assad belongs to) in Homs and coastal cities, condemning the assault by government forces. The upper echelons of Assad's regime are largely populated by Alawites and the president has portrayed the uprising as sectarian in nature, with most of the protesters Sunni. Even some opposition activists have admitted sectarian tensions have been to the fore in Homs, although they have blamed the government for stoking them. The statement on the LCC website says: We call upon all sects and ethnic minority groups to unite as one and to halt all efforts put forth by the Assad regime to drag the country into a never-ending civil war. We, the Syrian Alawites, warn all of our brothers and sisters in Syria that Assad's army has been using Alawite dominated neighborhoods in Homs, to launch its assaults on the remaining neighborhoods and surrounding areas. It has been doing so to spark a sectarian revenge among the people of Homs. We hold Assad's regime and forces along with Ba'ath Party members at home and abroad, completely responsible for the massacres in the country. In particular, we hold them responsible for igniting sectarian strife to divide Syria. Meanwhile, the LCC says Monday's death toll in Homs has risen to 36 (the Syrian National Council said very early on that 50 people had been killed). The LCC says another 10 people have been killed in the rest of the country. 2.33pm: In a comment article for the Guardian, Wadah Khanfar, former director-general of al-Jazeera, draws some parallels between the 1982 massacre in Hama and what is happening in Homs now. Hafiz al-Assad's regime managed to get away with the massacre of Hama in 1982 because of the international silence dictated by the balance of forces during the cold war and a media blackout, which denied the victims a voice and prevented them from presenting the images of their calamity. It is true that the regional and international balance of power continues to play a negative role in ending the suffering of the Syrian people. But the Syrians - as other Arab people in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen - have now become the most important actors in the flow of events. This would enable them to overcome all external factors in their quest for freedom from tyranny and repression. US ambassador Robert Ford. Photograph: Str/EPA 2.13pm: The United States has closed its embassy in Syria, CNN is reporting. The last of its 17 employees, including Ambassador Robert Ford, left Syria on Monday morning, travelling by road in a convoy to neighbouring Jordan, according to State Department officials cited by the TV channel. The US appears to be blaming the embassy's closure on Syrian authorities' failure to address its security concerns. Britain's foreign secretary, William Hague, is due to address parliament in just over an hour and the US decision raises the possibility that the UK is about to do the same. 1.50pm: President Obama says it is important to resolve the conflict in Syria without outside military intervention. In an interview on NBC's Today programme, he said that not every situation allows for the type of military action the US and allies took in Libya against Colonel Gaddafi. He added that he believes a negotiated solution in Syria is possible. 1.19pm: Iran, rather predictably, has welcomed the Russian and Chinese vetoes over Syria. In remarks quoted by the official news agency, IRNA, foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi said: The security council has become a tool for the west's bullying of other nations, and this time Russia and China stood up against it. The security council ... wanted to take a path in deciding a head of state, while it is not within the functions of this council to interfere in other nations' internal affairs. 12.53pm: Here's a summary of the main developments so far today: Activists says a number of people have been killed in Homs after government troops renewed shelling of the restive city. The Syrian National Council put the death toll at 50 while the Local Co-ordination Committees, which said a field hospital was hit during the bombardment, said 19 people had been killed. Their figures cannot be independently verified. The BBC's Paul Wood said mortars were landing every 30 seconds from 6am and troops were reportedly massing on the outskirts of the city. Syrian state media accused "armed terrorist groups" of firing mortars in the city, setting fire to tyres and blowing up empty buildings to give the impression that Homs was under fire from Assad's forces. The head of the Arab League, Nabil Elaraby, expressed his anxiety about the "escalation of military operations in the city of Homs ....and the Syrian armed forces' use of heavy weapons against civilians." He warned that conditions were sliding "towards civil war." The Syrian government and opposition activists blamed each other for the explosion of a pipeline in Babr Amr, a hotbed of resistance. The two sides have repeatedly traded accusations over the past few days in relation to explosions at a series of gas and oil pipelines. The UK foreign secretary, William Hague, will make a statement to parliament this afternoon, amid pressure for Britain to withdraw diplomatic recognition of Syria, after Tunisia issued a call for Syria's isolation and protesters clashed with police outside the mission in London.Britain said on Monday it is looking at possible further European Union sanctions on Syria Shelling by government forces has also been reported in Zabadani, near the border with Lebanon. Zabadani is said to be under the control of the Free Syrian Army. The Syrian government claimed an "armed terrorist" group was attacking buildings in the area. The last remaining member of Hamas's Damascus-based politburo has now left Syria, according to a German news agency report carried by Haaretz. Imad el-Alami, a senior Hamas figure who was deported by Israel in 1991, arrived in Gaza on Sunday, via Egypt. The report said: "Hamas decided to leave Syria in order not to be seen as endorsing the regime of President Bashar Assad in his bloody crackdown against his own people." Egypt's military rulers had already deeply strained ties with Washington with their crackdown on US-funded groups promoting democracy and human rights and accused of stirring up violence in the aftermath of the uprising a year ago that ousted President Hosni Mubarak. Egypt will prepare Cairo's Torah prison hospital so it can receive ousted President Hosni Mubarak from the military hospital where he is now detained, an interior ministry official said on Sunday. Protesters, who have clashed with police for four days demanding an end to military rule, have long complained that the ruling generals have been sparing their former commander the humiliation of prison by keeping him in a military hospital. Members of Mubarak's old regime already in the prison have been split up after they were blamed by some for the violence at a football match last week that left scores dead. 12.43pm: The head of the Arab League has said the Syrian army's use of heavy weapons against civilians is an escalation that edges the country towards civil war, Reuters reports. Nabil Elaraby said in a statement: We follow with great anxiety and irritation developments in the field situation in Syria, and the escalation of military operations in the city of Homs and rural areas of Damascus, and the Syrian armed forces' use of heavy weapons against civilians. In the statement published by the Egyptian state news agency, Elaraby said the escalation took the crisis in Syria in "a serious direction," adding that it pushed conditions "towards civil war." 12.18pm: Britain's foreign secretary, William Hague (left), is expected to address the Commons on the situation in Syria at 3.30pm GMT today. Following the UN security council vote on Saturday, Hague issued a statement commenting on the Russian and Chinese vetoes. He said: The draft resolution, tabled by Morocco, supported Arab League efforts to resolve the crisis in Syria and called for an immediate end to all violence. It did not impose any sanctions, nor did it authorise military action. At every stage we worked to accommodate the concerns of some Council members and tabled a text which did just that. There was nothing in the draft to warrant opposition. 12.01pm: The Local Co-ordination Committees group (LCC) says 19 people have been killed in Homs so far today. The Syrian National Council told Reuters 50 have been killed in Homs. The LCC says 26 people have been killed across Syria today so far, with four killed in Madaya, in Damascus suburbs, two in Aleppo and one in Idlib. Due to restricted access for foreign journalists, the reported death tolls cannot be independently verified. 11.53am: Syrian army defectors have announced the formation of a higher military council to "liberate" the country from President Bashar al-Assad's rule, Reuters reports. The council, named "The Higher Revolutionary Council" and designed to supersede the Free Syrian Army (FSA), said its head was General Mustafa Ahmed al-Sheikh, the highest ranking deserter who had fled to Turkey. The council's spokesman is Major Maher al-Naimi, previously the FSA spokesman, according to a statement sent to Reuters. It said: After consultations with defectors across the homeland and after careful organisation of their ranks the formation of a Higher Revolutionary Council to Liberate Syria has been agreed in response to the call of freedom and ahead of freeing Syria from this gang. The US-based Syrian dissident, Ammar Abdulhamid, was scathing about the announcement, coming against a backdrop of increasing bloodshed. He wrote: In a typical fashion Syrian opposition groups responded to the massacres by issuing more statements and forming new groups and councils that decried divisiveness. Today, the highest ranking officer to defect to Turkey, Major General Mustafa Ahmad Al-Sheikh, announced the formation of the High Syrian Council for the Liberation of Syria. Two days ago, a group of 70 Syrians announced the formation of the National Current for Change. 11.29am: The Syrian government has denied its forces are shelling Homs. Instead, the state news agency, Sana, reports (Arabic) that "armed terrorist groups" have stormed homes, attacking the occupants. Additionally, it reports "armed terrorist groups" attacking civilians in Zabadani, near the border with Lebanon, which has also been shelled today, according to activists. 11.19am: The Guardian's Abdel-Rahman Hussein has an update of developments from Egypt, including the continued fallout from the deaths at a football match last week: Parliament has convened again to discuss the latest developments and what can be done to handle the fallout of events since Wednesday. The death toll since the tragic events at the football match has now reached 13. More walls have gone up in downtown Cairo and numerous attempts at brokering truces have been wrecked by the liberal use of teargas by security forces. Sunday night saw some of the worst clashes as police armored vehicles drove up to the field hospital and started firing buckshot under cover of teargas, forcing the field hospital to move. More walls have been built in the area around the Interior Ministry. Streets which saw the majority of fighting such as Nubar and Mansour now have three-tiered block walls on them. This ability to keep protesters far from the ministry didn't stop security forces from continuing to fire teargas at them. And it was from behind those walls that the assault on the field hospital took place. Meanwhile, recommendations of the national security committee in parliament seemed to place culpability of the entire affair squarely on the old regime, and thus their advice that the cabal in Torah prison be split up has been heeded. Additionally, it is expected that ousted president Hosni Mubarak will be moved from the International Medical Centre to the hospital of Torah prison today. 10.59am: In a blogpost, entitled "Why won't you help us?" the US-based Syrian dissident Ammar Abdulhamid argues that if the rebels were properly armed, Homs would be "liberated." The story on the ground in Homs in particular is this: loyalists cannot stand up to local rebels in direct combat, they are always pushed out to the outskirts of rebellious communities after each assault, and they are in fact losing ground. But from their position on the outskirts they can continue to inflict damage on rebels by indiscriminately pounding their strongholds with artillery and mortar fire. That's what's happening in Old Homs, and that's what's happening in the town of Rastan, among other restive communities. Should rebels lay their hands on more sophisticated weaponry, the entire momentum of the current conflict will shift to their side. Liberated town will become truly liberated and protected, and the Assad and their loyalists will be forced to be truly on the defensive for once. It's only when this situation is created on the ground that the world can push for a negotiated settlement. By that time, the Assads will have been sufficiently weakened within their own camp as well for other likely leaders to emerge and influence the decision-making process. 10.41am: Video has been posted online purporting to be of the pipeline in the beseiged Homs district of Babr Amr, where an explosion was reported by activists this morning (see 9.45am). It is not only Homs that has come under heavy attack today, according to activists. The Local Co-ordination Committees (LCC) report the shelling by heavy artillery targeting homes in Zabadani, near the border with Lebanon. Zabadani was described by some last month as Syria's first liberated city. This video purports to show a house that was shelled in Zabadani. The LCC also reports a "complete siege" of Deraa, in the south, with people prevented from entering or leaving. It also says there has been continuous gunfire. 10.16am: A brief update from Yemen. President Ali Abdullah Saleh looks happy enough in this picture, taken as he left the Ritz-Carlton hotel in New York on Sunday, but he was confronted by protesters. One demonstrator reportedly threw a shoe, narrowly missing him. Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh waves to people protesting his presence in the United States as he leaves his hotel in New York Photograph: Seth Wenig/AP Saleh, who is due to be replaced by his deputy in a one-candidate election on 21 February, is on what is officially described as a private medical visit to the US. He was badly injured by an explosion in his palace last June but there have been suggestions to the medical reasons were just an excuse to get him away from Yemen. Last month, Gerald Feierstein, the US ambassador in Sana'a, was quoted as saying: "We think that him not being here [in Yemen] will help the transition, we think it will improve the atmosphere." Saleh has been granted immunity from prosecution by the Yemeni parliament but on Sunday the New York protesters were calling for him to be referred to the international criminal court. Some of them chanted: "ICC not NYC." 10.06am: As has become customary in recent days, the Syrian government and opposition are trading accusations over explosions at oil pipelines. No sooner had activists reported an explosion at a pipeline in Baba Amr (see 9.45am) than the Syrian state news agency, Sana, has said an "armed group" has attacked a pipeline in Jobar, also in Homs. 9.59am: The last remaining member of Hamas's Damascus-based politburo has now left Syria, according to a German news agency report carried by Haaretz. The report says: Hamas decided to leave Syria in order not to be seen as endorsing the regime of President Bashar Assad in his bloody crackdown against his own people. 9.45am: An explosion has ripped through an oil pipeline feeding a main refinery in Homs, al-Jazeera is reporting, citing residents and activists. The explosion, the second in a week that hit the pipeline, which carries crude oil from the eastern Rumailan field, occurred in the district of Bab Amr, an opposition stronghold under heavy tank and mortar bombardment and rocket fire by President Bashar al-Assad's forces, they said. 9.40am: The BBC's Paul Wood, in Homs, spoke live to Radio 4's Today programme in a conversation punctuated by the sound of explosions in the background (thanks to BrownMoses below the line for the link to the Audioboo). He said people fear an invasion by government ground troops. It was a quiet night till just dawn when at 6am we started hearing mortars falling, I would think about one every 30 seconds. That's been going on, on-and-off, for the past two hours. And also some heavier artillery has been used ... I spoke to the Free Army Commander last night ...and they have been trying to attack checkpoints on the periphery of this part of Homs but it really is absolutely futile when the government has tanks, armoured vehicles and heavy weapons. We are hearing a report this morning, not confirmed but from an eyewitness saying government troops have been moving up to the outskirts of this part of Homs, not military vehicles or tanks but ground troops. They haven't yet gone through the first rebel checkpoint, the Free Army checkpoint, so there's not yet an invasion but clearly that's what people fear is going to happen over the next day or so. 9.19am: A number of videos purporting to show the results of today's shelling of Homs have been posted online. This one shows dense black smoke rising: Another purportedly shows the field hospital, which the Local Co-ordination Committees group says was attacked today. (warning: graphic). The BBC says the Syrian government has denied shelling Homs. 8.58am: China's leading Communist party newspaper has defended Beijing's rejection of a United Nations resolution calling for Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad, to resign. The People's Daily said western campaigns in Libya, Afghanistan and Iraq showed the error of forced regime change. From the Guardian: The situation in Syria continues to deteriorate and numbers of civilian casualties keep rising. Vetoing the draft security council resolution does not mean we are giving free rein to letting this heart-rending state of affairs continue," said the paper, which echoes government thinking. China, unlike its western critics, was acting "responsibly" for the sake of the Syrian people, it said. The author used the pen name Zhong Sheng, which can mean "voice of China" and is often used on articles giving Beijing's position on foreign policy. Currently the situation in Syria is extremely complex. Simplistically supporting one side and suppressing the other might seem a helpful way of turning things around, but in fact it would be sowing fresh seeds of disaster. 8.47am: In an article for Slate, international affairs commentator Michael Moran looks at the UN security council and points out that the debacle over a resolution on Syria is only the latest of its many failings. It's not only the Russians and the Chinese who cast "narrow, paranoid vetoes," he says - and it's time to put a stop to it. Moran writes: The idea that any power should preempt a majority of the planet's most powerful states simply by issuing a veto is the most egregious of all the anachronisms that have survived at the UN ... This veto power - far more than the theatre of the absurd that is the General Assembly - [does] more to undermine the institution than any other single factor. Once vetoes are gone, the addition of a set of emerging powers and a consolidation of the French and British seats into a single EU vote would be possible. Japan, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Egypt and perhaps South Africa added as permanent members would force real negotiations on the world's most important issues, transforming the United Nations from a sideshow to the main show. 8.44am: Welcome to Middle East Live. The focus is once more on Syria where the bombardment of Homs is continuing. Syrian troops shelled neighborhoods in the restive city of Homs on Monday, a day after President Bashar al-Assad's government vowed to continue its deadly crackdown on the country's uprising, killing 50 people, the Syrian National Council said. The BBC's Paul Wood, in Homs, described "pretty constant shelling." The bombardment comes two days after another attack on the central Syrian city that activists say killed 200 people, the highest death toll reported for a single day in the 11-month uprising. The Local Co-ordination Committees activist group said Monday's bombardment hit a makeshift hospital in the tense neighborhood of Baba Amr, causing casualties. Russia may be seeking a "controlled demolition" of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's rule to save its sole major foothold in the Arab world against western rivals when its foreign minister and spy chief hold rare talks in Damascus this week, Reuters reported, citing an analyst at the British think-tank, the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said he would travel to Syria on Tuesday along with foreign intelligence service director Mikhail Fradkov for talks with Assad. Lavrov revealed nothing about their purpose, but a foreign ministry statement on Sunday indicated he and Fradkov would at least press Assad, who has ruled out resigning and rejected his opponents as "terrorists," to make compromises. The foreign minister, William Hague, said: "We constantly review our diplomatic relations. We haven't taken any decision to sever our relations. Saboteurs on Sunday blew up a pipeline in Egypt that supplied gas to Israel, the 12th such attack in a year, security officials said. Masked gunmen planted explosives under the pipeline near the town of El Arish in the north of the Sinai peninsula, they said. Witnesses said they heard a loud explosion before a large fire broke out. Sources said that the attack on the pipeline occurred the day after an Islamist leader from the area died in his prison cell in Cairo. Interior ministry officials said he died from natural causes.