Pakistan's president acknowledged for the first time on Tuesday that his security forces were left out of a U.S. operation to kill Osama bin Laden, but he did little to dispel questions over how the al Qaeda leader was able to live in comfort near Islamabad.

Security forces arrested hundreds of pro-democracy demonstrators in cities across Syria after taking control of the city of Deraa, cradle of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's autocratic rule.