Mourners wave Syrian flags and a photo of President Bashar Assad as they chant slogans at a mass funeral Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011 for 44 people killed in twin suicide bombings that targeted intelligence agency compounds in Damascus, Syria. Mourners carried coffins draped in the red, white and black Syrian flags into the eighth-century Omayyad Mosque, where they were placed on the ground for prayers. (AP Photo/Muzaffar Salman)
Mourners wave Syrian flags and a photo of President Bashar Assad as they chant slogans at a mass funeral Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011 for 44 people killed in twin suicide bombings that targeted intelligence agency compounds in Damascus, Syria. Mourners carried coffins draped in the red, white and black Syrian flags into the eighth-century Omayyad Mosque, where they were placed on the ground for prayers. (AP Photo/Muzaffar Salman)
Mourners bow in prayer at a mass funeral Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011 for 44 people killed in twin suicide bombings that targeted intelligence agency compounds in Damascus, Syria. Mourners carried coffins draped in the red, white and black Syrian flags into the eighth-century Omayyad Mosque, where they were placed on the ground for prayers. (AP Photo/Muzaffar Salman)
BEIRUT (AP) ? With violence continuing, the leader of Syria's main opposition group is urging the Arab League to push for U.N. involvement in seeking an end to the bloodshed.
Burhan Ghalioun, the Paris-based leader of the Syrian National Council, made the plea in a televised speech marking Christmas.
The Arab League has begun sending observers into Syria to monitor its compliance with a plan demanding an end to the regime's crackdown on political opponents. The 22-member bloc has warned that it could turn to the U.N. Security Council to help stop the violence that began in March.
The Arab League plan demands the government remove its security forces and heavy weapons from city streets, start talks with opposition leaders and allow human rights workers and journalists into the country.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) ? Thousands of mourners carrying Syrian flags and pictures of the dead took part in a mass funeral Saturday for 44 people killed in twin suicide bombings that targeted intelligence agency compounds in Damascus.
The government of President Bashar Assad said a preliminary investigation pointed to al-Qaida and that the bloodshed and destruction in the capital bolstered its argument that terrorists, rather than true reform-seekers, were behind the anti-government revolt.
The opposition, meanwhile, grew fearful that the regime was taking advantage of the distraction caused by the bombings to move in military reinforcements and prepare for a massive assault on key activist areas in central Syria. Shelling in the city of Homs on Saturday killed at least three people in the Baba Amr district and set several homes and shops ablaze, activists said.
"We believe this is in preparation for a large-scale attack," said Bassam Ishak, secretary-general of the Syrian National Council opposition group.
In Damascus, mourners carried coffins draped in the red, white and black Syrian flags into the eighth-century Omayyad Mosque, where they were placed on the ground for prayers.
"Martyr after martyr, we want nobody but Assad," they shouted in support of the embattled Syrian president.
The government linked Friday's bombings to the uprising against Assad's autocratic rule. They were the first suicide bombings since the unrest began in mid-March, adding new and ominous dimensions to a conflict that has already brought the country to the brink of civil war.
Striking just moments apart, the attackers used powerful car bombs to target the heavily guarded compounds. The explosions shook the capital, which has been relatively untouched by the uprising, and left mutilated and torn bodies amid rubble, twisted debris and burned cars.
Besides the dead, 166 people were wounded.
The opposition has questioned the government's account and hinted the regime itself could have been behind the attacks, noting they came a day after the arrival of an advance team of Arab League observers investigating Assad's bloody crackdown of the popular revolt.
Ishak said he feared the bombings "were orchestrated to distract attention from a massive assault today in Homs."
He said his group reported the information they got from Homs to the Arab League and urged the monitors to head to Homs. "The regime is keeping them in their hotels and delaying their departure for Homs," he told The Associated Press on the phone from Amman, Jordan.
An Arab League statement from its Cairo headquarters on Saturday said Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby condemned the attacks in Damascus but also expressed particular concern for Homs.
"The secretary-general expresses concern over reports that violent acts are on the rise in Homs city and calls for an immediate cessation of such acts," the statement said, warning that the violence will affect the success of the fuller observer mission set to arrive in Damascus Monday.
The government has long contended that the turmoil in Syria this year is not an uprising by reform-seekers but the work of terrorists and foreign-backed armed gangs.
Sheik Said al-Bouti, a prominent pro-Assad clergyman in Damascus, blamed the opposition squarely for the attacks.
"This gift has been sent to us by Burhan Ghalioun and his friends," he said in his funeral sermon Saturday, referring to the head of the Paris-based Syrian National Council.
Women dressed in black wailed Saturday during the funeral procession, which was aired by state-run Syrian TV. Some blamed the emir of Qatar, seen by supporters of Assad as leading the campaign against the regime.
"Those terrorists are funded by the emir of Qatar to kill innocent people, but they won't succeed," cried Fawakeh Shaqiri, 56, who was dressed in black and carrying a Syrian flag.
All the coffins Saturday held the names of the bombing victims, except for six coffins carrying the remains of people who had not been identified.
Syrian officials said a suicide attacker detonated his explosives-laden car as he waited behind a vehicle driven by a retired general who was trying to enter a military intelligence building in Damascus' upscale Kfar Sousa district Friday morning. About a minute later, a second attacker blew up his SUV at the gate of the General Intelligence Agency, the officials said.
Government officials took the Arab League observers to the scene of the explosions and said it supported their accounts of who was behind the violence.
"I wonder, have the covers been removed from the eyes of the Arab League representatives so that they can see who is the real killer and who is the victim?" al-Bouti asked.
The United Nations says more than 5,000 people have been killed since March, when the uprising began and the regime responded by deploying tanks and troops to crush protests across Syria.
In addition to the deaths in Baba Amr Saturday, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the bodies of four people were found dumped on the streets in Houla, also in Homs province. They showed signs of torture on their bodies, it said.
A fifth person was still alive but in critical condition, according to the group.
They had been detained a day earlier by security forces and pro-government thugs.
"The Observatory calls on the Arab League observers to go immediately to the city of Houla to document this flagrant violation of human rights," the group said in a statement.
___
Karam reported from Beirut. AP writer Dale Gavlak in Amman, Jordan, contributed to this report.
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Turkey and France traded barbs Thursday, with the Turkish ambassador recalled from Paris. Turkey also suspended all? bilateral political, economic and military cooperation.
The French National Assembly today passed a controversial bill penalizing anyone who denies the Armenian genocide by Ottoman forces almost a century ago.??
Skip to next paragraphThe bill, which now has to be voted on by the Senate, provoked a furious Turkish reaction. ?Ankara is recalling its ambassador to France while freezing official contacts between the two countries.?
?We are recalling our ambassador in Paris to Ankara for consultations," said Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, Associated Press reports.?
Ankara lobbied hard for the French government to shelve the bill and warned? of potential retaliatory measures. Earlier this week, a delegation of Turkish MPs and businessmen visited Paris to request that the government of President Nicolas Sarkozy abandon the bill.
"As of now, we are canceling bilateral level political, economic and military activities," Mr. Erdogan said. "We are suspending all kinds of political consultations with France" and "bilateral military cooperation, joint maneuvers are canceled as of now," he added.
Erdogan said that he will annul any permissions given to French military vessels to dock at Turkish ports and would consider on a case-by-case basis requests for military overflights and landings. ?The Turkish prime minister said that?"This decision is cause for concern not only for France where there are efforts to make gains through enmity toward Turks and Turkey, and in general terms, through Islamophobia, but also for Europe and principles defended by Europe."
The French bill requires a prison term of up to one year and a fine of $58,000 (45,000 euros) to anyone who publicly denies the mass killings of the Armenians during World War I.? In 2001, France officially recognized the ?Armenian genocide? but a subsequent parliamentary effort to criminalize it was dropped by the Senate.
"It is important, in the current context, that we keep the paths of dialogue and cooperation open," French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said in a statement.
French lawmakers were vexed over what they saw as Turkish interference into the country?s internal affairs.
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Mariano Rajoy sends Christmas message to the troops tinyurl.com/cdstx7f
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Mariano Rajoy sends Christmas message to the troops tinyurl.com/cdstx7f
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Ridley Scott's teaser, featuring Noomi Rapace and Charlize Theron fighting for their lives, is reminiscent of 'Alien' and 'Blade Runner.'
By Kara Warner
If you're a fan of movie trailers, consider your holiday wants and wishes fulfilled now that the teaser for Ridley Scott's "Prometheus" has dropped. It's the fourth trailer released this week for a hugely anticipated 2012 film, following "The Dark Knight Rises," "Wrath of the Titans" and "The Hobbit." Here's a look at five key elements that deserve MTV News' over-analysis:
Plot Tease
We still don't know a lot about the story line in this film, but this one-minute spot sheds a lot of light on what the action will center around: a team of explorers, scientists and anthropologists sets out on a journey to find clues to the origin of our species. "What they found could be our end," we're told in cold, blue type, before quick cuts of what looks to be death and destruction. And although the prequel rumors have been shot down by those involved, there is room here to interpret it as such. Not to mention the title: In Greek mythology, Prometheus is the titan who stole fire from Mt. Olympus and gave it to humans. If the humans in the film are searching for their origin, maybe it is Prometheus, in some way, shape or form.
Lost in Space/Discovery of Life on Other Planets
Unsurprisingly, there are several gorgeous shots of space vehicles, spaceships, spacesuits, etc. that help properly accentuate the size and scope of what it would be like to be up/out there, as well as how big this film really is. Director Ridley Scott shot the film in 3-D and serves up a few hints to the beautiful technology at play, though there is still a grittiness to it all. This is not friendly, bright and shiny unexplored territory; it's dark, dangerous, deep space. And then there are the scenes at the end of the trailer that look to take place on another planet, in another galaxy. There is dry, dusty terrain and ancient-looking symbols, a towering horseshoe-shaped totem of some sort, that looks to be either crumbling to the ground, or it is moving of its own accord, beginning a small war between the natives and the humans who've discovered them.
The New Ripley(s)
It's hard to talk about Ridley Scott and an "Alien"-esque movie without thinking about Sigourney Weaver as Ripley, one of the most bad-ass protagonists in film history. There's no replacing Ripley, but Scott has enlisted two very capable ladies to carry the torch: Noomi Rapace and Charlize Theron. From what the trailer shows, both women will be fighting for their lives, but Rapace seems to be the most Ripley-esque, particularly in one shot where she is hanging upside down, being held by someone or something. The resemblance is uncanny. And let's not forget about the rest of the cast, of whom we get only brief glimpses: Michael Fassbender, Idris Elba, Guy Pearce and Rafe Spall.
That Ridley Scott Touch
The trailer is cold, calculated and just too cool. Just like Scott has said himself, if "Prometheus" isn't an "Alien" prequel, the two films definitely share the same DNA — not to mention a few "Blade Runner"-esque elements thrown in for good measure. And as is the case with most of Scott's films, the effects are far more practical than CG. The world of "Prometheus" is set in a distant future, but not too distant. It's big, bold and, very likely, terrifying.
The Alien(s)
As much as we might have hoped to see some big, bad aliens in this trailer, all we get are hints of an unidentified, menacing force out there. In one brief scene, the team happens upon an area full of small, perfectly arranged casings that could be artifacts or alien eggs, we don't know. But we do see one of the humans' helmets enveloped by a mysterious gas, followed by a loud, painful scream. There is a quick shot of the head of something being examined in a lab, what looks like it might be an alien ship of some sort hovering over dusty terrain, followed by brief shots of human suffering at the hands of something we can't quite make out. Yet.
"Prometheus" hits theaters June 8, 2012.
Check out everything we've got on "Prometheus."
For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.
Related VideosSource: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1676437/prometheus-trailer.jhtml
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PITTSBURGH ? Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger will not start Saturday when the Steelers face the St. Louis Rams.
Roethlisberger is dealing with a sprained left ankle and did not practice this week following a 20-3 loss to San Francisco on Monday. He will be replaced by veteran Charlie Batch, who is 4-2 as a spot starter since joining the Steelers in 2003.
Roethlisberger said Wednesday he would prefer to play and believed his ankle was in pretty good shape after throwing for 330 yards and three interceptions against the 49ers. Yet he watched both practices this week in sweat pants as Batch took the snaps with the first team.
Roethlisberger last missed a start due to injury in 2009, when a concussion forced him to sit out a loss to Baltimore.
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