A suicide bomb hit the central neighborhood
of Bab Touma in Damascus, a famous Christian quarter of the capital's ancient
Old City, state television said on Thursday.
Reports stated that four were killed in the attack.
On another note, UN-appointed chemical weapons inspectors, blocked from entering Syria, are in Turkey to gather information about possible use of the munitions in the country's civil war, officials said on Thursday.
Members of the team assembled by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had been on standby in Cyprus since April, unable to enter Syria even as claims of chemical weapons attacks there were reported by Western governments.
New French-backed Syrian radio promises independent voice
Syrian journalists backed by
France launched a Paris-based radio station on Wednesday that will broadcast
deep into Syria, aiming to provide what they said would be independent coverage
of the civil war.
Apart from their military conflict, the
Syrian government and rebels are waging a propaganda war using television,
radio and the Internet. Access for international media is restricted by the
Damascus authorities and by security constraints.
Five Syrian journalists, including three
who have left Syrian state media, will broadcast and coordinate Rozana's
coverage from 30 correspondents based across Syria.
Rozana is financed by Canal France
International, a French media support agency funded by France's foreign
ministry and Danish media non-profit organization International Media Support.
The French embassy in Syria is also providing money.
France, which backs the rebels in its
former colony and has demanded President Bashar al-Assad's removal, has channeled
non-lethal military equipment as well as medical aid throughout Syria almost
since the uprising began more than two years ago.
The reporters, mostly activists in their
mid-20s, have been trained by the likes of media charity Reporters Sans
Frontieres (RSF) in Turkey. They are based in government- and rebel-held areas
of Syria, and will not be identified for security reasons.
RSF places Syria near the bottom of its
world press freedom index. The government controls state media content
entirely, censors the internet and spreads false information, RSF says.
Journalist missing in Syria still alive
Italy's foreign minister says that officials continued to press for the release of a reporter for the Turin daily La Stampa missing in Syria since April.
Emma Bonino told private Radio 24 on Thursday that Domencio Quirico is alive "at least until a few days ago." She said official diplomatic channels and contacts with groups in Syria were being used to seek his release.
Quirico contacted his family via telephone in early June for the first time since his April 9 disappearance. The Foreign Ministry has cautioned that the situation remains delicate.
Quirico, 62, an experienced war reporter, entered Syria on April 6 from Lebanon, and was heading to the Homs area when he went missing. His captors have not been identified.
REUTERS/AP