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heaviest since the uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime began in March last year.
• The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Syria-based activist Mustafa Osso say Monday's clashes concentrated in the districts of Kfar Souseh and Tadamon.
• A resident who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals says gunfire and sporadic explosions could be heard Monday morning.
• Damascus is tightly controlled by Assad's forces, although there have been sporadic clashes in the capital in recent months.
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• SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korea's top military official -- a key mentor to young new leader Kim Jong Un who served under his father -- has been removed from all posts because of illness, state media said Monday in a surprise announcement that shakes the core of the authoritarian country's power structure.
• Ri Yong Ho had looked healthy in recent appearances, and his departure fed speculation among analysts that Kim purged him in an effort to put his own mark on the nation he inherited seven months ago when his father Kim Jong Il died. At the same time, there was no sign of discord at Ri's last public appearance at a high-level event, barely a week ago.
• The decision to dismiss the 69-year-old from top military and political posts was made at a Workers' Party meeting Sunday, according to the official Korean Central News Agency. It was not immediately clear who would take Ri's place, and the dispatch did not elaborate on his condition or future.
• Daniel Pinkston, a North Korea analyst at the International Crisis Group, was skeptical of the illness claim, in part because of Ri's recent apparent health. He also said Ri won his major promotions at a September 2010 party conference but received none in April, which stirred speculation about the general's future.
• "There's a very high probability that it wasn't health issues, but that he was purged," sending a strong signal to anyone seeking to challenge Kim Jong Un -- even if Ri never directly defied the new leader, Pinkston said.
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