The BBC said Thursday its services in the Middle East and Europe were being deliberately jammed, along with those of other broadcasters -- with the interference coming from Syria.

The jamming of Eutelsat satellites affected BBC television and radio services in English and Arabic, the British Broadcasting Corporation said.

The Free Syrian Army accused Hizbullah of “occupying” six Syrian towns near the Lebanese-Syrian border, reported al-Liwaa newspaper on Friday.

A spokesman for the army, Fahed al-Msari, told the daily: “We doubt that United Nations and Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi's ceasefire proposal for the Eid al-Adha holiday will be a success amid Hizbullah's occupation of these Syrian towns.”

Former U.N. secretary general Kofi Annan said Thursday that Iran has told him it would accept the fall of Syrian ally Bashar Assad if the conflict-torn country holds elections.

Annan, who served until August as the U.N.-Arab League special envoy on Syria, renewed his call for a peaceful solution to the crisis and warned that foreign weapons were only fueling a conflict said to have claimed more than 34,000 lives.

President Bashar Assad of Syria, where more than 33,000 people have been killed in 19 months of conflict, issued a law on GM food Thursday to preserve human life, state-run SANA news agency reported.

Assad, whose forces are locked in a bloody confrontation with armed rebels opposed to his rule, "has approved a law on the health security of genetically modified organisms... to regulate their use and production," SANA reported.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has warned that Hizbullah’s sending of a reconnaissance drone into Israel's airspace may threaten stability in Lebanon, in his 16th report on the implementation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559.

According to LBCI television, Ban also voiced his concerns over the Syrian crisis’ repercussions on the situation in Lebanon, praising the stances of President Michel Suleiman and Prime Minister Najib Miqati in regards to the so-called self-disassociation policy.

At least 28,000 people have disappeared in Syria since the start of an anti-regime uprising 19 months ago, arrested by troops or pro-government militiamen, a global activist group said on Thursday.

Avaaz said the forced disappearances was part of a "deliberate" campaign by the authorities to silence dissent against the government of President Bashar Assad.

Syrian fighter jets blasted the rebel-held town of Maaret al-Numan on Thursday, killing at least 44 people, rescuers said, as 144 people were killed across the country according to activists.

Rescue workers said the air force's bombs destroyed two residential buildings and a mosque, where many women and children were taking refuge, in the strategic northwestern town, which was captured by rebel fighters on October 9 in their push to create a buffer zone along the Turkish border.

Former prime minister Saad Hariri on Thursday noted that he had tasked MP Oqab Saqr with coordinating “humanitarian, political and media support” for the Syrian people, adding that he was not performing “a jihadist duty against the Syrian people.”

“In response to the defamation campaign against al-Mustaqbal Movement, accused by Hizbullah and its media outlets of engaging in the current conflict in Syria, and to the accusations against MP Oqab Saqr in particular, the Press Office of former Prime Minister Saad Hariri wants to clarify that … Saqr was assigned by Premier Saad Hariri to follow up on the situation in Syria and to coordinate with the political forces in the Syrian opposition regarding the media and political support of al-Mustaqbal Movement to the Syrian people," said a statement.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has urged a ceasefire in Syria and called for internal dialogue to resolve the crisis, but rejects a Turkish proposal to replace President Bashar Assad, Kuwait's press reported Thursday.

"The continuity of the fighting and the killing of innocent and unarmed Syrian citizens ... is unacceptable. A ceasefire must be achieved and then a dialogue started," said Ahmadinejad, cited by the daily Al-Anbaa newspaper.

International peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, who is trying to secure a truce in Syria for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, will arrive in Damascus on Saturday, the Foreign Ministry said.

"Brahimi will meet with Foreign Minister Walid Muallem on Saturday morning," ministry spokesman Jihad Maqdisi told AFP.