U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is calling for "friends of democratic Syria" to unite to stop funds and arms shipments to President Bashar Assad's regime.

Syria won't be able to deceive the world about compliance with a ceasefire that is just days away, the United States warned as regime forces pounded more opposition strongholds.

The United States is proposing a new UN Security Council resolution demanding an end to violence in Syria, first by government forces and then by opposition fighters.

A former member of an elite Guatemalan military force extradited from the United States last July has been sentenced to 6,060 years in prison for his role in the killings of 201 people in a 1982 massacre.