If any man pursued a life of value without valuing his own life, it was Tim Hetherington. Wars in Liberia, Nigeria, Afghanistan and Libya — the world's open wounds — were vocation destinations for this English photojournalist, whose pictures had the impact of stark truth stripped of political attitudinizing. His masterwork was Restrepo, the Oscar-nominated documentary he made with journalist-adventurer Sebastian Junger (The Perfect Storm). Detailing a year the two men spent with an Army unit in Afghanistan, Restrepo recorded life and death on the front lines of America's nearly anonymous "other war." Hetherington just had to be where the action was; hooking up last week with Libya's rebel forces in the besieged city of Misrata was as natural to him as going to Disney World would be to any American family. The news of his death at 40 on Wednesday, in mortar fire that also killed Pulitzer Prize-nominated photographer Chris Mondros and injured two other journalists, 2011 air max was thus a shock but not a surprise. Like so many of the subjects of he caught in his camera, Hetherington died on the battlefield. (See "Tim Hetherington in Memoriam") He was both a soldier among frontline photographers and a missionary with no dogma but to give people the look and feel of the wars their governments wage in their name. "I don't want to preach to the converted," Hetherington said of his and Junger's reporting from Afghanistan for the ABC network in 2007. (They were also on assignment for Vanity Fair.) "I want to reach the road sweeper who has ABC News on in the morning, or the mom who's taking her kids to school. In some ways I think that has much more utility." The Liverpool-born Hetherington was, in a way, a roving correspondent from birth: he lived with his family in 12 different cities before being sent to Stonyhurst boarding school. The place, as he told The Washingtonian's Sophie Gilbert, was "a real Jesuit prison camp. Hard weather, and they used to beat you in that private schoolboy tradition." After reading literature at Oxford, he traveled on his own to China, India and Pakistan. Inspired by the imaginative documentaries of the French filmmaker Chris Marker, he took a photojournalism course at Cardiff University and landed a job as staff photographer at The Big Issue, a London newspaper sold by the homeless. A grant led him to Liberia, covering the Second Civil War behind the lines with TV journalist James Brabazon; that earned the two an execution order from Liberian President Charles Taylor. Hetherington helped film Brabazon's Liberia: An Uncivil War and, a decade later, the Darfur documentary exposé The Devil Came on Horseback. This Oxonian shot with a camera, not a Walther PPK; yet one Vanity Fair staffer said that Hetherington had the air of someone "on assignment for Her Majesty's Secret Service — just like James Bond. I could imagine him taking off a flak jacket to reveal a tuxedo, on the way to a cocktail party. There was a lightness to him, along with the seriousness." Those reserves of bluff charm were the photographer's passport into war zones. He had the diplomatic skill to get people — people who were busy killing other people, people who might want to kill him — to give him the one thing a journalist needs: access. Of course, that access often put him in the line of fire. That's where he and Junger were for a year at Afghanistan's Camp Restrepo (which the soldiers had named for Juan Restrepo, the company medic, killed in 2007). There, the old Army slogan "Hurry up and wait" is replaced by "Wait and shoot," as the GIs pass the time talking about their job, their anxieties and the folks back home, then return fire from the neighboring Taliban. Without narration or ostensible political agenda, Restrepo got under the thin skin of a military siege. "It's a very slippery thing to try to get out any truisms about war," he said in an interview about the film. "War is hell, but it's more than that. And rather than lay down any kind of definitiveness, I just wanted to show the texture of it. And that meant not just photographing just the combat, but ... the guys, their time off, when war is often very boring. And it's boredom punctuated by sheer terror. And I wanted to capture all of that." As tersely revealing as the film are the photos Hetherington shot for Vanity Fair, and which are available for perusal on the magazine's website. One shows Sgt. Tanner Stichter stripped to the waist, and on his stomach a tattoo of the word INFIDEL; that was the title of Hetherington's book of photographs about the Restrepo team. Another has Specialist Kyle Steiner pointing to the mark a Taliban bullet made when it struck his helmet during a firefight. (To illustrate the guardian angels that saved his life, Steiner later had two winged bullets tattooed on his chest.) One man has marked his grenades like charms on a bracelet: "Mom," "Taryn," "Doug," "9/11" and "NY" (the New York Yankees logo). The shot of a Restrepo soldier during a shelling — one hand on his forehead, the other cradling his helmet — earned Hetherington the 2007 award for World Press Photo of the Year. Hetherington compiled many awards and war wounds — he broke a leg during the filming of Restrepo — but these were incidental to his larger campaign of showing the world the face of conflict. On Tuesday he reported from his last battle, in a Tweet that carried the epigrammatic eloquence, and the mortal threat, of his photojournalism: "In besieged Libyan city of Misrata. Indiscriminate shelling by Qaddafi forces. No sign of NATO." He died the next day.

Perhaps tolerance is the new satisfaction. More than a day's use of Bridge revealed an imminently workable email solution on the tablet, though placing the "send" button more conveniently is an absolute necessity -- that and "save" appear at the top of the message, requiring the user to scroll up to have the message delivered, rather than just hit a "return" or "send" key on the keyboard. Because the PlayBook is only Wi-Fi-enabled today, using a BlackBerry smartphone as a bridge (or tether) lets users send emails over the mobile network when they aren't in Wi-Fi range. Score one for the PlayBook, then,air yeezy but this is limited to BlackBerry smartphone owners. However, one reader commented that because the PlayBook doesn't have a 3G radio, it can't connect to BES, which simply isn't true. It can't connect to BES because RIM has yet to include the functionality. A BlackBerry smartphone connected only via Wi-Fi is certainly able to depend on BES for its communication. For now, then, the BlackBerry smartphone isn't just the most secure way to conduct secure email communications; it's the only way -- unless that email is Gmail or Yahoo Mail or other Web-based messaging systems, including Web-based connections to Microsoft Exchange. All those are workable, but not as seamless, especially with the BlackBerry's universal inbox. This same reader also said that using the BlackBerry Bridge gets the entire BlackBerry on the PlayBook. No, it doesn't. You'll only get memopad, tasks, files, contacts, messages (including universal inbox view, in addition to sorting by mailbox type), calendar, and browser (presumably for browsing through the BES infrastructure). Still, potential buyers seem to be saying: Email and other communications functions are coming on the PlayBook, so don't panic; more applications are coming, possibly Android apps, so be patient. Fair enough. Scratch the trip to Best Buy off the list for the weekend, then, and give the PlayBook time to marinate. Enterprise application teams will have an easier time enabling functionality, given some of the tools RIM has made available. C++, Java, and Adobe AIR and WebWorks development tools should broaden the PlayBook developer ecosystem. While time may soften the PlayBook criticism, one reader won't be so easily convinced. "Ludicrous is an appropriate term for a tablet that doesn't have email and calendaring clients," the reader said.

Kendra Wilkinson is very aware that she’s been getting a bad rap for being shown complaining on “Dancing with the Stars,” but she said that’s not really who she is. “You only get so much time on TV and that’s all that people see of you,” Kendra told Access Hollywood following Tuesday’s show. “Last week, I was in a bad mood more than a good mood so that is what all that people know of me is that week, you know, that’s who I am in that week. But I’m not that person,” Kendra added. “I’m a very happy person, so I just want to make sure that people know that that’s that negative side only comes once a month.” Kendra, in fact, blamed her time of the month for sassing back when judge Carrie Ann Inaba suggested she was afraid of elegance after her dance on last week’s show. She also had a couple of rough rehearsals with pro partner Louis van Amstel shown in rehearsal footage on the program,air yeezy and another time she blamed a smoke machine for hindering her dance. The former “Girl Next Door,” however, said she isn’t a negative force. “I’m always a positive person, I’m always laughing, I’m always making fun of everything, you know,” she said. “I’m a happy person, so last week was just a little bit off for me. I was a little dizzy, I was a little sick. Now, this week, I feel like myself again so I’m ready to get out there and have some fun next week.” Hondros, 41, had covered conflict zones since the late 1990s including Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan, and his work has appeared in major magazines and newspapers around the world. His awards include World Press Photo honors and the Robert Capa Gold Medal, one of the highest prizes in war photography. One front page New York Times photo from 2007 showed a Humvee patrol in Iraq from a different angle: The ruddy hands of an Iraqi interpreter and a pair of muddied boots belonging to a gunner. Two other journalists have been killed in the Libyan conflict, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. An unknown gunman killed Mohammed al-Nabbous, founder of the online Libya Al-Hurra TV, in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi on March 19. Cameraman Ali Hassan al-Jaber was shot when his Al-Jazeera crew was ambushed near Benghazi on March 13.

It became official Tuesday: Fidel Castro was formally removed from the leadership of the Cuban Communist Party for the first time since its formation nearly 50 years ago. But despite expectations that the new party leadership would begin to usher in a younger generation, senior stalwarts were appointed to the top posts. The moves came at the end of an extraordinary congress of the ruling party in which participants also endorsed a potentially far-reaching package of economic reforms. Cuban President Raul Castro, as anticipated, was elected first secretary of the Communist Party, replacing his ailing brother. But in the second slot, air max Castro named an 80-year-old hard-line communist official long seen as his right-hand man, Jose Ramon Machado Ventura. In fact, by one count, the new 15-member Politburo, only slightly changed from the previous one, has just three members under 60; half are in their 70s. New faces included Mercedes Lopez Acea, 46, head of the Communist Party in Havana, and, significantly, Marino Murillo, 50, a former economy minister recently placed in charge of the broad economic reforms that Raul Castro, 79, has made the centerpiece of his government. The congress endorsed those reforms, which are believed to include issuing more licenses for small businesses, slashing bloated state payrolls and allowing, for the first time, the selling and purchase of private property. But Castro, in Tuesday's closing speech, warned that it could take five years for the new measures to be enacted, a timeline that some experts say is too protracted to save Cuba's flailing economy. "We are not under the illusion that … [the measures] by themselves are the solution to all the problems that exist," Castro said. "Updating the economic model is not a miracle that can be achieved overnight, as some people think." The text of the speech was made available by the Havana-based news agency Prensa Latina, and video of Castro delivering it was broadcast by Granma, the official Communist Party news service. Castro has also proposed limiting party and government officials, including the president, to two five-year terms. That had been a taboo topic in a country where either Fidel or Raul ruled for half a century. Both have also held the two top posts in the Communist Party since it was formed in 1965. As for his brother's decision to leave the party leadership, Raul Castro said Fidel did not need a formal title to validate his position as the historic father of the revolution. As if to underscore the point, Fidel Castro, 84, made a surprise appearance at the congress' closing session, helped to the dais by an aide as delegates gave him a sustained standing ovation. Fidel Castro recently revealed that when he fell ill in 2006, and nearly died, he not only relinquished the presidency but also his party role. "I knew the state of my health was grave," he wrote this week to explain his decision. "But I was at peace. The revolution would go on."

A White House jet with first lady Michelle Obama aboard flew closer than permitted to an Air Force cargo plane due to an air-traffic control slip-up Monday afternoon and had to break off its approach to land at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, according to people familiar with the details. The incident didn't pose an imminent hazard, these people said, because the aircraft remained roughly three miles apart and Federal Aviation Administration controllers in the airport tower recognized the developing air yeezy problem and took action to alleviate it. The distance between the two planes was less than required when the first lady's jet contacted the Andrews tower, according to these people. When it appeared that the C-17 cargo jet landing in front of the White House aircraft wouldn't depart the runway in time to maintain "the required amount of separation," according to the FAA, the tower instructed the pilots of the first lady's Boeing 737 jet to abandon their approach. They then circled the field and landed safely. An FAA statement said the "aircraft were never in any danger" and the agency was investigating the incident. Most planes must keep extra distance when landing beyond a particularly heavy plane such as the C-17, which produces more turbulence than smaller jets. The incident came as the FAA faced heightened public and congressional criticism over a recent spate of controllers nodding off at their radar screens. FAA chief Randy Babbitt has revamped controller schedules to alleviate fatigue and increased overnight staffing at 26 airport towers, including the one at Andrews. The jet carrying Mrs. Obama is part of a Air Force-managed and flown fleet at Andrews that flies government officials.

As sundown approached Monday, many Jewish families in Utah were hurrying to prepare for the first night of Passover. Rabbi Benny Zippel’s family searched their home for breads, rolls, cakes — anything made with leavening that causes dough to rise. Monday, they removed it and burned it outside Chabad Lubavitch of Utah Community Center. As the flames rose in a metal tub below the street curb, Rabbi Zippel said those who observe the strictest laws of Judaism are not permitted to eat or own any bread with leavening. He and his six children participated in the burning of chametz. “The chametz, the leavened food,air yeezy which is usually puffed up, is symbolic of one's arrogance and the awareness of one's self," he said. "So, spiritually speaking, the ceremony of the burning of the chametz signifies really the ultimate drive or need to attain humility and modesty by removing and eliminating the symbolic 10 pieces of bread which, once again, represent arrogance and self-awareness and to celebrate the holiday of Passover which commemorates the birth of the Jewish people." And freedom from Egyptian slavery, the Exodus. Passover marks the moment when, many believe, God passed over the houses of the Jews while the firstborn of Egypt were slain. Moses then led the children of Israel through the parted Red Sea. “I think the message that we can all keep in mind and we can learn from Passover is that you don't have to be Jewish for every person to attain personal freedom,” the rabbi said. After the burning, comes the celebration with song and dance to remind themselves of renewing the commitment. Three of the Rabbi's sons study outside the state. They wish to follow in his footsteps. “More than the academic lesson, it's a great opportunity to be seated next to my dad, kind of as a mentor role as he leads the Seder and he conducts the congregation," said rabbinical student Avremi Zippel. "More than learning the text and the basic rules about it, it's very much of a hands-on lesson which provides invaluable experience to the way I would want to lead a congregation as I'm allowed in life." At sundown, special Passover services begin. Following that, the congregation moves from the synagogue to the social hall for the first evening's dinner called a Seder which refers to the order of what takes place during the meal. The meal is ceremonial and contains food that is symbolic. The special plates have a place for each item. The participants will eat bitter herbs, reminding them of the bitter struggle as slaves, and vegetables, meat or fish and unleavened matzoh. They drink cups of wine at certain points in the dinner. Jewish children participate by asking key questions beginning with “Why is this night different from all other nights?” The answers bring Jewish families and friends together to remember. Passover lasts for seven days, eight outside of Israel.

A blunt warning Monday from a credit rating firm about the U.S. government's mounting debt pushed stock markets lower and intensified political divisions in Washington about how best to tackle growing deficits. Both the Obama administration and House Republicans scrambled to gain leverage from Standard & Poor's changing its outlook on U.S. Treasury securities to "negative" from "stable." S&P didn't lower its top-notch AAA-bond rating for U.S. government Treasury securities, and their prices initially fell but later rebounded amid optimism that the report could serve as a catalyst to force both sides in Washington to compromise. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 140.24 points, or 1.14%, to 12201.59, its biggest decline in a month, after earlier tumbling almost 250 points. Stocks in Britain,gucci outlet Germany and France fell more than 2%, with most of the declines coming after the S&P news. Gold surged to just below $1,500 an ounce. But hopes that the report might spur a deficit deal actually helped U.S. borrowing costs and the dollar. The 10-year Treasury bond rose 9/32 in price, pushing its yield down to 3.373%, its lowest 3:00 p.m. level since March 23. The dollar rose against the euro. A downgrade would push up interest rates on Treasurys, which are a benchmark for other consumer and business borrowing rates, raising the cost of credit throughout the economy. The S&P report questioned whether the White House and Republicans would be able to reach an agreement before the 2012 presidential elections on a plan to rein in deficits. "The sign of political gridlock was a key determinant in our outlook change," said John Chambers, chairman of the sovereign ratings committee at Standard & Poor's Ratings Services. This year's budget deficit is projected to rise to between $1.5 trillion and $1.65 trillion, equal to roughly 10% of America's gross domestic product, or total economic output. The White House is hoping to form a group of Democratic and Republican lawmakers to craft a framework for reducing the deficit, but has made little progress. Vice President Joe Biden plans to host the group's first meeting May 5. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has warned lawmakers that their reluctance to raise the federal borrowing limit could cripple the recovery, and the jittery reaction to the S&P report could underscore his arguments about how badly markets would react to any failure to raise the debt ceiling.The U.S. debt now stands at $14.219 trillion—just shy of the $14.294 trillion cap—and is expected to balloon in part because of rising costs for health care, retirement and other so-called entitlement programs, and the interest on existing debt. If no action is taken, the government could default on its debt by July 8. Wall Street executives have called Capitol Hill with increasing frequency in recent weeks, urging it to raise the debt ceiling immediately. Although S&P said it changed its outlook even while assuming the debt ceiling will be increased, many Republicans cited the report in affirming their position that they would raise it only in exchange for a commitment to address the deficit. "As S&P made clear, getting spending and our deficit under control can no longer be put off for another day, which is why House Republicans will only move forward on the President's request to increase the debt limit if it is accompanied by serious reforms that immediately reduce federal spending and end the culture of debt in Washington," said House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R., Va.). White House and Treasury Department officials, who were alerted to the report on Friday, questioned its conclusions but said it validated their efforts to broker a bipartisan deal to address the debt. Administration officials had sensed the downgrade was coming for weeks, and informed President Barack Obama about the change over the weekend."Any call for a bipartisan agreement on deficit reduction, on fiscal reform, is a welcome one, and in that context, I think that it adds to what we believe is some momentum towards that end," said White House spokesman Jay Carney. The move to a negative outlook means S&P believes there is a one-in-three chance that Treasury bonds could be downgraded from their AAA rating, the ratings agency said. Mr. Chambers said outlooks cover a period of six months to two years, during which the credit-rating agency monitors whether the government is moving toward resolving the situation. Moody's, another U.S. ratings firm, came to a different conclusion in its Weekly Credit Outlook. It noted "the changed parameters of the debate, with broadly similar goals as to government debt levels, as a turning point that is positive for the long-term fiscal position of the U.S. federal government."

Askewville, N.C., a town of a few hundred in rural Bertie County, awoke to near total destruction Sunday morning after a powerful, unusually large tornado touched down and then swept across 6 miles, flattening everything in its path, killing 11 people and injuring 50 more. “It is devastating,” County Manager Zee Lamb said Sunday after surveying the damage in his 700-square-mile county. “We’ve had hurricanes, floods. We’ve had tornadoes before. But we’ve never seen anything like this.” The county has shifted from search and rescue to recovery, he said. “People are already gucci outlet starting to clean up the debris, but it’s a real big mess.” Tornadoes, high winds and flooding rains ripped across the South for three days, killing at least 45 people in six states Thursday through Saturday in the deadliest storm outbreak to hit the USA in more than three years. The Storm Prediction Center noted 243 initial reports of tornadoes in 13 states — an “astounding” number, Weather Channel meteorologist Jonathan Erdman said. Severe storms in February 2008 killed 57 people across the Southeast. The tornado that struck Bertie County was one of 62 in North Carolina, causing “significant damage” in 26 counties, according to Julia Jarema, North Carolina Emergency Management spokeswoman. The state confirmed 23 deaths. The storm hit the state late Saturday morning, and more continued into the evening. “ We still don’t have a full grasp of what the damage is,” Jarema said. Initial assessments found more than 65 homes destroyed and more than 600 damaged, but not all counties had reported, she said. Streets were blocked by downed trees and power lines, and more than 250,000 homes and businesses had lost power. A coordinating officer from the Federal Emergency Management Administration arrived Sunday. “There is a lot of damage, and there are a lot of people who are hurting physically and emotionally right now,” Jarema said. In Bertie, the tornado destroyed at least 75 buildings, Lamb said. One extended family lost four homes and their business, he said. “It’s just so spread out and so destroyed, he’s not going to be able to salvage much. The whole area is flattened. There’s nothing left,” Lamb said. “The debris is spread out over miles. There’s stuff in trees.” Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell declared a state of emergency after the storm caused flash flooding, power outages and, in Carroll County, a mudslide. Nine counties reported damage to homes and businesses, downed trees and power outages. Waynesboro City and four counties reported flash flooding. The state confirmed five storm-related deaths. One tornado touched down Saturday night at the switchyard of a Surry, Va., nuclear power station, cutting off electricity and triggering a shutdown of two reactors, according to a statement issued by Dominion Virginia Power. The company reported no release of radioactive material and notified the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. “They shut down exactly as they are designed to do,” NRC spokesman Joey Ledford said. “There is no danger.” The Surry power station in southeastern Virginia, across the James River from historic Jamestown, generates 1,598 megawatts of electric power . The tornado did not strike the two reactors, which are housed in steel-reinforced concrete containment buildings designed to withstand tornadoes, hurricanes and earthquakes, the company said. Meteorologists attributed the storms’ ferocity to cold air from the Plains colliding with warm, humid air from the Gulf of Mexico. Weather Channel meteorologist Mark Ressler predicted more strong storms with tornadoes, high winds and hail Tuesday in eastern Kansas, eastern Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee. By Wednesday, the threat of severe weather will stretch from the Great Lakes to the Deep South. There could be severe weather each day through Easter Sunday, Ressler said.

Jimmie Johnson wins with an assist from Dale Earnhardt Jr. Johnson, with Earnhardt as his partner in the two-car drafting tandems that dominated all day, passed Clint Bowyer at the finish line to win Sunday’s Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Superspeedway. The win is the first of the season for Johnson, who has won the last five Sprint Cup Series championships. Jeff Gordon finished third, Earnhardt was fourth and Kevin Harvick was fifth. The race started as expected air max with drivers almost immediately breaking into two-car drafting tandems. By the time the race was 50 laps old, there were already 27 lead changes with five laps being the longest any driver was able to remain out front. On Lap 28, Brian Vickers got turned by Kurt Busch to bring out the first caution. Vickers had to go to the garage for extensive repairs. Busch was involved in another incident on Lap 90 in Turn 3 which also collected the cars of Kasey Kahne, David Ragan, Marcos Ambrose, Trevor Bayne and Brad Keselowski. By Lap 94, the race had 44 lead changes half of the record 88 set just last year. Kyle Busch, who won Saturday’s Nationwide Series, got turned by his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Joey Logano on Lap 140 to bring out the fourth caution of the race. Also caught up in the accident were Matt Kenseth, AJ Allmendinger and Denny Hamlin. Jimmie Johnson also got some front nose damage from the incident. On the restart on Lap 146, Kevin Harvick was the leader followed by Jeff Burton, Clint Bowyer, Paul Menard and Kurt Busch. Debris on the track brought out the fifth caution of the race on Lap 164. All of the lead-lap cars elected to pit a final time for fuel and some took tires as well. On the restart on Lap 168, Bowyer led followed by Jeff Burton, Harvick, Dave Blaney and Regan Smith. Ryan Newman spun on Lap 174 which brought out another caution. On the restart on Lap 177, Blaney was the leader followed by Kurt Busch, Jeff Gordon, Martin Truex Jr. and Mark Martin.

Protests in Syria swelled Friday to their largest numbers so far, as tens of thousands of demonstrators marched on the capital, Damascus, and in dozens of cities and towns across the country, witnesses said. But unlike in earlier protests, state security forces appeared to withhold lethal force, firing into the air instead of on crowds — a possible sign that the government might be reassessing its approach to the uprisings that started here a month ago. “It is an amazingly big day, both in the number of protesters and the number of towns and cities being bigger than ever before, and in that the regime response and the way they dealt with the protesters air max was exceptional,” said Wassim Tarif, director of Insan, a Syrian human rights organization. “This is the first Friday that we don’t have reports of people being killed in the country.” Protests were reported in 46 towns and cities, including Daraa, Homs, Baniyas, Latakia, Aleppo and the Kurdish cities of Qumishli and Hasageh. But although there were no reports of killings, the government arrested 172 people early Friday morning in and around Daraa, the city where the uprisings began and the focal point for many of the protests, Tarif said, adding that 43 people were arrested in the city of Sweida. The Damascus march, which marked the first large-scale protests in the capital, began in Douma and picked up participants as it passed through the Damascus suburbs, witnesses said. Shouting, “Freedom, freedom!” and “National unity, Muslims and Christians!” the crowd swelled as it moved toward al-Abbasiyeen Square in northern Damascus, where police blocked protesters from entering, witnesses said.It was impossible to independently confirm the number of protesters beacuse foreign media have been restricted from reporting in Syria. In Homs, protesters set fire to a statue of Hafiz al-Assad, the late father of the current president, said Tarif, who witnessed it. “They destroyed it. It was amazing,” he said, laughing. Until Friday, the movement in Syria had been marked by government crackdowns, with security forces opening fire on crowds and arresting people en masse. In recent days, in apparent attempts to placate protesters, the government released many detainees, and on Thursday it announced a new cabinet. Friday, the Muslim day of prayer, had been widely anticipated as an indicator of whether the opposition movement would subside or continue to gain steam. The large turnout “means that people didn’t respond to the violence of the authorities,” said Razan Zaitouneh, a human rights activist and lawyer who was near the Damascus protests. “The authorities were trying to make people scared, but people responded in the opposite way, by going out in larger numbers.” However, it is unclear if those numbers will be large enough to tip the balance in favor of protesters, said Rami Khouri, director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut. “There’s a serious issue for the regime in terms of people demonstrating throughout the country, but who’s doing it and what’s the extent of it is very hard to know,” he said. But, he added, “The longer it goes, the more difficult it is for the regime to calm things down.” There has been a marked difference in the tenor of the protests. Whereas earlier ones called for greater freedoms and the lifting of a decades-long emergency law, more recent ones have increasingly called for the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad, 45. “From alley to alley, from house to house, we want you out, Bashar,” Damascus protesters chanted Friday, playing on Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi’s vow to rid his country of rebels. Assad’s government, considered one of the most repressive in the Middle East, has close ties with Iran, and on Thursday the Obama administration accused Iran of helping Syria stamp out the recent protests, a charge Syrian officials denied. A Human Rights Watch report issued Friday said that Syrian security and intelligence services have arrested and tortured hundreds of protesters across the country since anti-government demonstrations began last month. Rights groups say 200 people have died in the the protests. Syria’s state-run SANA news agency reported that one soldier was killed and another wounded Friday morning in the port city of Baniyas, the site of earlier demonstrations this week. The agency seemed confused on Friday, Tarif said, showing footage of protests but characterizing them as pro-regime, and hanging up on interviews with the Arabic news organizations al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya. “Their strategy wasn’t totally clear,” he said. “It was like they were waiting for instructions.”