Gates of Vienna News Feed 3/31/2011

Bashar Al Assad, the celebrated (by Hillary Clinton) “reformer” of Syria, has decided not do any reforming after all, at least not yet. He declined to rescind the country’s state of emergency, and his security forces are continuing their violent suppression of street demonstrations against the regime.

Meanwhile, the rebels in Libya are retreating from an offensive by forces loyal to Col. Moamar Qadafi, who have retaken several cities in the last two days. Reports from Tripoli say that a NATO bomb attack killed at least 40 civilians.

In other news, U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump says the world has a Muslim problem.

To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.

Thanks to AC, C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Gaia, Insubria, JD, Nilk, Paul Green, Steen, Takuan Seiyo, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.