Hama

Preserving Byzantine heritage

A mosaic  from a church in Hama, Syria. An archaeologist sounded the alarm on Friday over the plight of antiquities in Syria at a conference on Byzantine monuments and world heritage in Thessaloniki. The focus of the conference, which ends tomorrow, is a charter on intervention principles for Byzantine monuments.

Nearly half a million Syrians have returned home this year: UNHCR

Nearly half a million Syrians have returned to their homes so far this year, including 440,000 internally displaced people and more than 31,000 returning from neighbouring countries, the United Nations' refugee agency said on June 30. 

Most returned to Aleppo, Hama, Homs and Damascus, it said, on the view that security had improved in parts of the country.

Syria's more confident Assad gives Eid prayers in Hama

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad delivered prayers for Eid al-Fitr holiday in Hama on June 25, the furthest he has travelled inside Syria in years, showing his growing confidence.

State television broadcast footage of Assad standing to pray in a large mosque in Hama behind its imam, with other clerics standing alongside and a large crowd of worshippers.

Car bomb kills at least 34 in Syria's Hama: state media

A car bomb claimed by rebels killed at least 34 people on Friday in a government-controlled village in the central Syrian province of Hama, state news agency SANA reported.
      
More than 50 people were wounded in the attack in Al-Horra, SANA said, blaming the attack on rebels fighting to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad.