Rights Protest Halted; U.S. Diplomat Held

Syrian police arrested dozens of people at a human rights protest and briefly detained a U.S. diplomat who had been observing the rare demonstration in a nation where political activity is tightly controlled.

Demonstrators had gathered outside the parliament building to press for an end to four decades of emergency law in the Arab state, which Amnesty International says has led to thousands of suspected political opponents being held, tortured and kept incommunicado without trial, sometimes for more than two decades. The protest was quickly broken up.