Egyptian protesters taunt H. Clinton
ALEXANDRIA, Egypt, July 15 (UPI) -- Protesters in Alexandria, Egypt, threw tomatoes and other objects at Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's motorcade Sunday while yelling "Monica, Monica."
The BBC reported that a senior State Department official said none of the tomatoes, water bottles and shoes struck Clinton or her vehicle.
The Italian news agency Agenzia Giornalistica Italia reported the "Monica" chant was an apparent reference to Monica Lewinsky, the White House intern alleged to have had an affair with Clinton's husband, then-President Bill Clinton.
AGI said the protest appeared to have been triggered by suspicions that Washington helped Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi become president of Egypt.
The secretary of state, who was in Alexandria to reopen the U.S. consulate that had been closed since 1993, said the "United States is not in the business, in Egypt, of choosing winners and losers, even if we could, which, of course, we cannot."
"Democracy is not just about reflecting the will of the majority. It is also about protecting the rights of the minority," she said.
Alexandria was her last stop before leaving Egypt.
Earlier Sunday, Clinton said the United States wanted to remain a solid supporter of Egypt's democracy after meeting with Egypt's top general.
Clinton spent about 2 hours with Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi in Cairo discussing the sometimes-tense relationship between the military ruling council and the newly elected civilian government.
"We know that Egypt's future is up to the Egyptian people, but we want to be a good partner," Clinton told reporters after the meeting. "We want to support the democracy that has been achieved by the courage and sacrifice of the Egyptian people."
Fighting intense in suburban Damascus
DAMASCUS, Syria, July 15 (UPI) -- A former Syrian ambassador called on President Bashar Assad to step down and halt what he called a war against the Syrian people.
Nawaf al-Fares, the former Syrian ambassador to Iraq, told CNN in Qatar Sunday that Assad and his regime knew their time was up and were buying time by battling the stubborn insurgency.
"They are trapped," said Fares, who recently defected. "They committed crimes and they entered into a war of blood. And they are aware that they are going to pay for it. They are just buying time. Maybe they will get a chance to escape."
Al-Fares said he did not expect the Assad regime to give up power willingly.
The BBC reported there was heavy fighting in suburban Damascus Sunday as the military reportedly used tanks and mortars in an attempt to drive back the rebel fighters.
Hicham Hassan, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, said the organization now regards the Syrian situation as a "non-international armed conflict," which the BBC noted is the technical term for civil war. The Red Cross monitors whether warring parties adhere to the provisions of the Geneva Convention.
"What matters is that international humanitarian law applies wherever hostilities between government forces and opposition groups are taking place across the country," he said.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights & Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies said they had documented 95 casualties across Syria Sunday. The death toll was unconfirmed.
Meanwhile, the Syrian government was denying accusations Sunday of a military massacre of anti-government rebels in the town of Tremseh.
Responding to claims that more than 200 people were shot and shelled by tanks in the town Thursday, Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi said what happened "was a military operation and not a massacre," CNN reported.
March to protest reopening of NATO routes
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, July 15 (UPI) -- Pakistanis opposed to the reopening of NATO land routes into Afghanistan marched during the weekend, urging their government to scrap its decision.
The two-day long march, in which thousands took part, was organized by dozens of religious and political parties in Balochistan, and was led by an alliance of alliance religious and political parties called the Defense of Pakistan Council, China's state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.
It was the second such long march by the DPC as part of its countrywide campaign against the Pakistani government's July 3 decision to reopen the supply routes after they had been closed in November. The first march between Lahore, Pakistan's second-largest city, and the capital Islamabad was held a week ago. More such protests are planned.
"There is a flood of people in the march," DPC head Maulana Sami-ul-Haq told Xinhua by phone from Chaman, the border town in Balochistan and one of the two main NATO supply routes.
He said Pakistanis will "force the government to stop serving the interests" of the United States and its NATO allies.
The routes were closed after a NATO airstrike inadvertently killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November.
Security remained tight during the protest march and no incidents were reported, Xinhua said.
The Pakistan Daily Times quoted DPC leaders as saying the march was a referendum against the government, which they said had restored the supply routes against wishes of the people.
They claimed the government's decision was influenced by immense pressure from their foreign masters, and said the people would never accept it and should be withdrawn immediately, the Daily Times reported.
A similar protest was organized in the port city of Karachi by Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan's most powerful Islamic political party, state-run television reported.
10 hurt in Austin, Texas, deck collapse
AUSTIN, Texas, July 15 (UPI) -- The collapse of a backyard deck at a hillside home in Austin, Texas, left 10 people injured, authorities said.
The Austin Statesman-American reported there were about 20 people on the poolside wooden structure when it collapsed during a birthday party about 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
Austin Fire Department spokesman Palmer Buck said six of the victims were taken to medical facilities for treatment, with four of them reported to have serious but non-life threatening injuries, the newspaper said.
The cause of the collapse had not been determined.
The deck surrounded an above-ground pool and was attached to the back of a house overlooking a ravine, the newspaper said. People on the deck when it gave way fell 18 feet into the ravine and slid another 20 feet down the steep hillside, officials said. Some of the party-goers were partially buried in the debris and Buck said it took fire crews about an hour to extricate them.
