Machinegun rounds, flares and percussion bombs were fired from the Syrian side of the border towards the stream of the Grand River on Wednesday, some of which landing in the northern Lebanese town of Bani Sakhr in al-Bqaiaa region, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported.

“Machinegun volleys struck several homes, causing no casualties, as a bomb landed in a grove,” NNA quoted residents as saying."

Syrian army troops rained shells on the Homs district of Khaldiyeh on Wednesday and killed at least 70 people across the country, activists said.

"Khaldiyeh is being bombed, with shells and rockets, for a second day," Hadi Abdullah of the Syrian Revolution General Commission told Agence France Presse, reached by telephone from Beirut.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday praised the U.N. statement on Syria and warned President Bashar al-Assad to carry out the peace plan or face "increasing pressure."

Clinton said that the long-divided U.N. Security Council has taken "a positive step" after it adopted a statement demanding that Syria immediately implement a peace plan proposed by former secretary general Kofi Annan.

Thousands of Syrian Kurds held demonstrations in northern Syria on Wednesday to mark the Kurdish New Year, as seen in videos posted online by anti-regime activists.

In the main northern city of Aleppo, demonstrators waving Kurdish flags shouted slogans such as "Azadi", meaning freedom in the Kurds' Kurmanji language, and "Our Syrian revolution is for justice, dignity and freedom."

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi stated on Wednesday that he was not informed that the Bkirki meeting that was supposed to be in April has been postponed.

He said: “We are still awaiting the outcome of the efforts of the follow-up committee that is studying the parliamentary electoral law.”

The electric fuse connects to the battery, Abu Suleiman shouts "Allahu Akbar!" and the gas canister explodes, tearing up the road just a few kilometers (miles) from a Syrian army position.

For the rebel chief, whose men control a mountainous region of northern Syria, preventing the army from using this route near the Turkish border is a matter of life or death.

The U.N. Security Council on Wednesday adopted a presidential statement demanding that Syria "immediately" implement a peace plan proposed by U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan and giving a veiled warning of international measures.

The statement, which has less weight than a formal resolution, says the Council will "consider further steps as appropriate" if Annan reports that the Damascus government is not cooperating.

For three long weeks, Murhaf was stuck in Homs' notorious Baba Amr district, in central Syria. By the time he got to hospital in Lebanon, like many others, he had to undergo an amputation.

The 30-year-old is among a growing number of Syrians wounded in the violence sweeping their country and losing limbs for lack of proper medical care, especially in opposition strongholds targeted by regime forces.

Japan's foreign ministry on Wednesday said it would close its embassy in Syria, citing deteriorating security conditions amid a brutal crackdown on anti-government protestors.

"We have decided to temporarily close the Japanese embassy in Syria as of today due to worsening public safety conditions in Syria, including the capital Damascus," a ministry statement said.

U.N.-Arab League special envoy on Syria Kofi Annan is set to return to Damascus "very soon,” United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday.

His announcement came a day after Western powers agreed to change a proposed U.N. Security Council statement on Syria after Russia refused to back any "ultimatum" to President Bashar Assad.