Syria rejects plan to end crisis

Syria on Monday rejected the Arab League's wide-ranging plan to end the country's 10-month crisis, saying the League's call for a national unity government in two months is a clear violation of Syrian sovereignty.

Tens of thousands of people poured into the streets in a suburb outside Damascus, to mourn 11 residents who were either shot dead by security forces or killed in clashes between army defectors and troops a day earlier, activists said.

The crowd in Douma which one activist said was 60,000-strong was under the protection of dozens of defectors who are in control of the area after regime forces pulled out late on Sunday, said Samer al-Omar, a Douma resident.

President Bashar Assad blames the uprising that erupted in March on terrorists and armed gangs acting out a foreign conspiracy. His regime has retaliated with a brutal crackdown that the U.N. says has killed more than 5,400 people. There is growing urgency, however, to find a resolution to a crisis that is growing increasingly violent as regime opponents and army defectors who have switched sides have started to fight back against government forces.