This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.United Nations observers in Syriahave visited the site of this week's killingsnear the city of Hama.Activists said at least seventy-eight people,including women and children,were killed in the village of Mazraat al-Qubeir.Earlier attempts by observersto enter the village had failed.The U.N. says gunmen had shot at the unarmed observersand blocked them from investigating.(SOUND)A woman who said she lives in the villagespoke in an amateur video.She said government-supported militiamenfrom nearby villages were responsible for the attack.Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has blamed the recent attackson foreign-supported terrorist groups.These include the killings last month in Houla.(SOUND)The violence appeared to intensifyacross parts of Syria on Friday.Opposition activists reported fresh government attacksin several areas.Large opposition protests also took place around the country.Peter Harling is an analyst with the International Crisis Group.The group works to prevent and solve conflicts.He says the conflict in Syriawill likely move increasingly to Damascus.PETER HARLING: "What we see now is a looming battlefor the big cities -- for the capital in particular.The regime has scored a number of very superficial,symbolic victories in terms of cracking down on armed groups,but without ever being able to hold the ground it regainedthrough these military operations."In Geneva Friday, the International Committee of the Red Crosscalled the humanitarian situation in Syria "extremely tense."Spokesman Hicham Hassan said people throughout Syriaare finding it more and more difficult to get food and medicine.He said a million and a half civilians need long-term assistance.HICHAM HASSAN: "People who are being displaced are in need,for example, of bread even.This is something now that is difficult to getfor many people who are fleeing or who are still stayingor not able or refusing to leave their homes."A nine-week-old ceasefire is supposed to be in effect.United Nations and Arab League negotiator Kofi Annanmet Friday in Washington with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.There are fears that the conflict in Syriamay be crossing into Lebanon.The neighboring country has yet to recoverfrom its civil war more than twenty years ago.The war split Lebanon along religious lines.There have been recent clashes between two neighborhoodsin Lebanon's second largest city, Tripoli.Two gun battles killed twenty-five people in Tripoliand then spread to Beirut where two people died.Many Lebanese Sunni Muslims sympathizewith the fifteen-month-old uprising in Syria.Syria's majority Sunnis have led the uprising.The Lebanese government has an official policy of neutrality in Syria.But Lebanese Sunnis have been holding weekly demonstrationsin Tripoli to protest what they say is supportby their government for the Syrian government.The Sunnis are also angry about cross-border raids by Syrian troops.American University of Beirut Professor Hillal Khashem sayshe does not believe the Syrian conflict will explode into Lebanon.HILLAL KHASHEM: "I don't expect the security situationto reach an alarming levelbecause the various factions in the Lebanese political systemunderstand the implications of insecurity."And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.Go to 51voa.com for more...