Hillary Clinton announces that there is no need to worry about Syria as it is ruled by a"reformist" called Assad and MSM touts his plans to lift the 1964"emergency laws" under which this"reformist" had been ruling the country for a decade. For decades,"Emergency" rule has been used by Syria and many other Arab countries to squash dissent.

Well, Assad was nice enough not to thank Hillary in public, he merely did what savvy Arabs do with"good will" concessions. He pocketed them and promised to continue to protect Syrians from outside agitators.

Al Jazeera, yes, Al Jazeera then acknowledged the reality the American secretary of state is so anxious to cover up, 'Assad announced himself a dictator' and reported:

Within hours of Assad's speech, several hundred residents of Lattakia took to the streets to protest for freedom.

Gunfire was heard and by evening activists in Syria had uploaded a video to YouTube datelined to the city showing a man lying flat on the concrete, blood pouring from the wound where a bullet had hit him square between the eyes.

I hope that her supporters are proud to see her stand by Assad as they were of Obama when he stood by Ahmadinejad.

Protests demanding freedom continued in a number of Syrian towns including Douma, a Damascus suburb!. Syrian security forces opened fire and killed at least four (some claim 10 died).

Al Jazeera's Rula Amin, reporting from Damascus, said at least four people were killed in the afternoon after government forces started using live fire against the protesters in the Douma suburb.

"Some protesters told us they were there chanting for freedom peacefully," she said.

"The security forces in plain clothes tried to disperse them with sticks ... people started running into the alleys, and then the security forces started shooting at them."

Our correspondent said at least four person was killed and 30 injured in the village of Sanamin, besieged by the Syrian army, when people from nearby villages were barred from paying their respects to those killed earlier in the week.

For the first time, the government acknowledged there were pro-reform demonstrations in cities, but said there was no friction between security forces and protesters.

Watch snipers shoot demonstrators as they did in Iran.