U.S. gas bonanza from fracking slow to spread globally

In less than a generation, the United States has soared to world leadership in extracting natural gas from shale formations by hydraulic fracturing. But as the world debates whether “fracking” is an economic boon or a budding environmental disaster, few foreign countries are following the U.S. lead.

Conditions unique to the United States have encouraged investment in the abundant source of low-carbon energy and boosted prospects for reducing dependence on costly and unpredictable supplies of foreign oil. Of the natural gas consumed in the United States last year, 94% came from domestic production, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

“The availability of large quantities of shale gas should enable the United States to consume a predominantly domestic supply of gas for many years and produce more natural gas than it consumes,” the agency reports, predicting a 29% increase in output by 2035, almost all of it from shale fracking.

The rapid advance toward self-sufficiency has made the U.S. industry both a model and a cautionary tale for other countries pondering all-in development of their shale-gas reserves.

Significant deposits of natural gas trapped in coal and shale seams have been identified in Eastern and Western Europe, Canada, Australia, China, South Africa and the cone of South America. Global energy giants like Shell and Chevron are bankrolling billions in exploration, sizing up the cost-effectiveness of replicating the U.S. boom in more remote locales with little infrastructure.

Technological advances in horizontal drilling have made it feasible to tap small pockets of gas trapped in shale layers a mile or more below the surface. Contractors bore thousands of feet down through soil, rock and water layers, then drill laterally through the shale to create a horizontal well. When sand, water and chemicals are blasted into the bore holes, the force fractures the shale, releasing gas from fissures within the sedimentary rock. The gas is captured and ferried by pipeline to distribution grids or to port facilities where it can be converted to liquefied natural gas for overseas shipment.

But the process leaves behind tons of chemical-contaminated mud. There are also reports of drinking water pollution from the chemicals and methane gas that escapes into underground reservoirs. A study last year published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences documented “systematic evidence for methane contamination of drinking water associated with shale gas extraction” in the aquifers above the Marcellus and Utica shale formations in the U.S. Northeast.  This spring, the U.S. Geological Survey reported “a remarkable increase” in the occurrence of earthquakes of magnitude 3 or larger that it tied to fracking operations.

This month, the U.S. Government Accountability Office acknowledged that the Environmental Protection Agency was finding it “challenging” to inspect and enforce clean air and clean water regulations in the fast-moving fracking industry. For example, the GAO report noted, the EPA is often unable to evaluate alleged water contamination because investigators lack information about the water quality before the fracking occurred.

Europe tackles torture allegations that were swept aside in U.S.

When CIA agents nabbed an Egyptian cleric on the streets of Milan, Italy,  and whisked him off for interrogation in a country that turned a blind eye to torture, they violated international law and were justly sentenced to prison, Italy's highest court has ruled in a landmark case against the U.S. counter-terrorism tactic known as "extraordinary rendition."

The final judgment by Italy's Court of Cassation on Wednesday upheld the convictions of 23 American operatives for their roles in the 2003 abduction of Hassan Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar. Their five- and seven-year prison terms meted out by a lower court three years ago were not only upheld but extended by two years, although it appeared unlikely that  any of the convicted U.S. operatives would be surrendered to serve their time.

Human rights advocates concede that  the legal judgment against rendition is mostly symbolic. Unless Italy seeks extradition -- something Washington has been fighting fiercely, leaked diplomatic cables suggest -- the only punishment the Americans are likely to face is the threat of arrest if they travel to Europe or nations elsewhere that might elect to fulfill commitments under the U.N. Convention Against Torture.

Despite the limited reach of the Italian court's decision, rights advocates have applauded the ruling as evidence that European courts are willing to bring to justice those who violate the law in the so-called war on terror, even though the U.S. government has declined to do so.

Milan prosecutor Armando Spataro, who brought the case against the Americans and a few Italian intelligence agents complicit in Nasr's abduction, declared that the high court ruling is a definitive judgment that rendition is "incompatible with democracy." He said a government decision on whether to seek extradition wouldn't be expected until the high court issues its full written opinion, which could take two to three more months.

The CIA did not respond to a call and email from The Times asking for comment on the Italian court ruling and whether the agency is advising the convicted Americans against foreign travel.

The United States has an extradition treaty with Italy, and any request for Washington to deliver the Americans to serve their prison terms would be difficult for the U.S. government to ignore, said former Air Force Col. Morris Davis, a former chief prosecutor at the Guantanamo Bay war-crimes tribunal who was forced to retire after criticizing U.S. handling of terrorism suspects.

"If the Italians were to submit an extradition request, there would be no legal basis for us not to comply," Davis said. "I’m sure there’ll be a lot of behind-the-scenes diplomatic wrangling on the Italian government not to submit the request."

The Italian case isn't the only one threatening to spotlight legal breaches by American agents since Sept. 11, Davis said. He pointed out that most of the legal actions abroad in defiance of the Obama administration's decision to "look forward, not back" on counter-terrorism excesses are coming from allied countries, "not Iran or Cuba or Venezuela."

A Spanish judge in 2009 ordered an investigation of torture allegations at Guantanamo Bay. Polish authorities are demanding full disclosure of the former government's complicity in CIA detention and interrogation of rendition subjects at a remote secret prison there. The British government has paid compensation to citizens and legal residents released after abusive CIA interrogations, including plaintiffs whose cases were thrown out of U.S. courts when the George W.  Bush and Obama administrations claimed that to try them would expose "state secrets." In Canada, the government has apologized to and compensated Maher Arar, a citizen nabbed by U.S. agents while traveling home from Tunisia in 2002 and sent to Syria for "enhanced interrogation."

Nasr, an Egyptian-born imam, was suspected of recruiting men from his Milan mosque to fight U.S. and other foreign troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, the impetus for his Feb. 17, 2003, abduction and delivery to a secret interrogation site in his homeland. He said he was beaten, bound and blindfolded for months in a cold cell and subjected to electrical shocks to his genitals while being questioned.

A lower Italian court found the 23 Americans guilty in 2009 and sentenced former Milan CIA station chief Robert Seldon Lady to seven years in prison and the others to five years' detention. The high court stiffened those sentences by two years and sent back to the lower court several cases against Italian agents involved in the Nasr rendition that had been dismissed on immunity claims.

While the Italian judiciary, like that of the United States, has no power to enforce its rulings if the government fails to request extradition, the rendition judgment serves a powerful symbolic purpose in branding those who would violate laws against torture as criminals, said Jamil Dakwar, director of the human rights program of the American Civil Liberties Union. He pointed out an array of other legal challenges to rendition and warrantless detention brought by former terrorism suspects that are making their way through foreign and multinational courts.

The Italian ruling this week, Dakwar said, "sent a strong message that if the United States fails to hold accountable its own officials for human rights violations that European countries will do so."

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Photo: A police officer stands guard at the Milan trial of 23 Americans involved in the 2003 abduction of an Egyptian cleric. European and international courts are prosecuting cases of alleged torture of terrorism suspects despite the U.S. government's policy against exposing its counter-terrorism practices to the judgment of the courts. Credit: Giuseppe Cacace / AFP/Getty Images

Insert: Egyptian-born cleric  Hassan Osama Nasr, known as Abu Omar, says he was kidnapped in Milan and tortured in an Egyptian prison. Credit: Amr Nabil / Associated Press

Canada breaks relations with Iran over Syria, support for terror

The Canadian government announced Friday that it has closed its embassy in Tehran and ordered Iranian diplomats to leave Canada, formally severing diplomatic ties and accusing the Islamic Republic of sponsoring terrorism.

"Canada views the government of Iran as the most significant threat to global peace and security in the world today," Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said in a statement posted on the ministry's website.

Iranian diplomats in Canada were declared personae non gratae and given five days to leave the country, Baird said.

The decision to sever relations was based on a multitude of concerns, including Iran's support for the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad, which is engaged in a bloody crackdown on opponents, Baird noted. His statement was issued in Ottawa after he announced the diplomatic action while attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vladivostok, Russia.

"The Iranian regime is providing increasing military assistance to the Assad regime; it refuses to comply with U.N. resolutions pertaining to its nuclear program; it routinely threatens the existence of Israel and engages in racist anti-Semitic rhetoric and incitement to genocide; it is among the world's worst violators of human rights; and it shelters and materially supports terrorist groups," the statement said.

Ottawa's relations with Iran had been strained throughout the three decades since the Islamic Revolution. Canada's then-ambassador to Tehran, Ken Taylor, helped rescue six Americans during the hostage crisis in 1980. Canada recalled its ambassador from Tehran nine years ago after a Canadian-Iranian photographer died in custody after being arrested for taking pictures outside a prison.

U.S. affairs with Iran have been handled through the Swiss Embassy in Tehran since relations were severed by Washington in 1980. Britain pulled the last of its diplomats out of Iran in November after an attack on its embassy.

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Photo: Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird speaks during an Aug. 11 visit to a refugee camp for displaced Syrians in Mafraq, Jordan. Credit: Jamal Nasrallah / EPA

 

Gunman at Quebec political victory rally likely acted alone

TORONTO -- The suspect in a fatal shooting at a midnight political victory rally in Montreal for a Quebec separatist party likely acted alone, police said Wednesday.

One person was killed and another was wounded in the attack, which occurred as Parti Quebecois leader Pauline Marois was giving her victory speech after her party won Tuesday's provincial elections.

Police said suspect Richard Henry Bain, 62, was detained outside the hall, where he shouted in French as he was being taken away: "The English are waking up!"

The province, which has a French-speaking majority, has a long history of contentious language politics. At the rally, Marois said in English that she would protect the rights of Anglophones.

At the sound of the gunfire, Marois was whisked off the stage by guards. Police said they don't know whether Marois, who will be Quebec's first female premier, was the intended target. Both of the shooting victims were members of technical crew at the event, police said. The person who was wounded is hospitalized in critical condition.

Police said the alleged gunman, who was wearing a robe and a balaclava -- a type of ski mask -- also set a fire behind the hall where the rally was taking place. An assault rifle and a handgun were recovered at the scene.

While winning the most seats in the election, Marois' party did not win an outright majority and will have to work with other parties to retain power, thus making it difficult to push a separatist agenda. A recent poll showed support for Quebec independence decreased during the provincial campaign.

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Photo: Police arrest a suspected gunman outside the Parti Quebecois victory rally in Montreal early Wednesday. Credit: Olivier Pontbriand / Associated Press / Montreal La Presse via The Canadian Press

Quebec separatist party riding wave of voter dissatisfaction

This post has been updated. See note below.

When the separatist Parti Quebecois burst on the political scene 40 years ago, financial institutions and global corporate headquarters fled Montreal for neighboring Ontario in fear of the economic disaster predicted if Quebec were to secede from the Canadian federation.

In 1995, when the party again gained control of the provincial government, voters defeated a referendum on separation by such a small margin -- the difference was 1 percentage point -- the province again suffered a loss of business investments that killed jobs, dropped property values and depressed the Canadian dollar for much of that decade.

So why, in an age of relative prosperity that is the envy of the recession-racked world, are Quebec voters again surging to the side of Parti Quebecois and its nationalist platform for more sovereignty and French language dominance? As the Ottawa Citizen warned in an editorial Tuesday, a victory for Parti Quebecois leader Pauline Marois in Tuesday's legislative elections would give her "a chance to turn her province into the Greece of North America and slow Canadian progress for many years."

Votes were still too close to call in some hotly contested districts, or "ridings" as they are known in the province, but Canadian Broadcasting Co. declared Parti Quebecois the winner and Marois poised to become Quebec's first female premier. Incumbent Jean Charest and his Liberal Party colleagues lagged by at least 10 seats in the winner-takes-all district contests. Parti Quebecois could end up heading a minority government, though, as a relatively strong third-place finisher, the Coalition Avenir Quebec, appeared to deprive the separatists from getting at least 63 seats for an outright majority.

[Updated 9:30 a.m. Sept. 4: In a possible sign of the tensions that can flare on the separation issue, shots were fired during Marois's victory speech shortly after midnight, prompting security officers to whisk the party leader off the stage. Police said they were questioning a man detained at the scene who was wearing ski mask and blue bathrobe. Marois was unhurt, but a 48-year-old man was killed and another man wounded, Quebec police reported.]

Support for separation has fallen dramatically since two previous referendums found insufficient voter interest in going it alone. A 1980 ballot measure failed with only 40% in favor, and the vote 15 years later narrowly missed with 49.5% backing. Today, only about 28% of the electorate wants to separate from Canada, according to a recent poll published by La Presse of Montreal.

What has brought voters back to the Parti Quebecois fold, says McGill University law and politics professor Daniel Weinstock, is Canada's long tradition of "democratic alternance in power," a cyclical sweeping out of the governing echelons.

"After three or four terms in power, a party gets complacent. Corruption sets in and it gets too cozy with people it shouldn’t be getting cozy with. About a quarter of Parti Quebecois voters say they just want change," said Weinstock, alluding to a scandal involving the building trades and organized crime that eroded support for Charest and the Liberal Party.

Quebec has also been roiled this year by massive student unrest in protest of tuition increases, which flared into ugly confrontation between police and demonstrators. Thousands were arrested this spring, and new restrictions imposed on public demonstrations have angered free-speech advocates across Canada.

More than an opportunity to raise the separatist cause again, Marois has appealed to voters with populist pledges to boost taxes on wealthy individuals and charge higher mining royalties on multinational extractors to raise revenue for public projects. She has also called for making it more difficult for foreign companies to buy out Canadian competitors, like the $1.8-billion offer from home improvement giant Lowe's of North Carolina for Quebec-based chain Rona Inc. that could imperil thousands of Canadian jobs, mostly in the Francophone province.

Under pressure from party hardliners, Marois has demanded provincial autonomy in foreign affairs and immigration policy and called for making French the exclusive language of education at the community college level. French already has that status in primary and secondary school teaching.

Marois made clear on the campaign trail that getting Quebec's finances in order would be the first priority if her party regains power. But she also reiterated Parti Quebecois' separatist aim in vowing to hold a referendum "tomorrow morning" if polls show majority support.

Finn Poschmann, vice president of research at the C.D. Howe Institute, an economic and social policy think tank in Toronto, says separation makes no sense economically for Quebec and Marois has said she would push for a third vote on it only when the measure is assured of passage.

Still, the notion of independence has an emotional appeal for many in Quebec, Poschmann said.

"It's the sovereigntist ideal, that if only the province could have more control over its destiny that everything will get better," he said. "There are going to be significant groups of people, particularly in rural areas and among youth, who are true believers in the separation program. But that is not the dominant force in Quebec politics."

Canadian markets and currency have weathered the latest Parti Quebecois rise without the nerves and panic of previous political shifts in Quebec, probably because analysts see little imminent threat of another secession vote, said Poschmann.

But he points out that the campaign promises made by Marois -- higher income taxes for  big earners and $1 billion in new public spending -- would be enough to damp investors' enthusiasm for Quebec and Canada as a whole even if the separation issue has been relegated to the back burner.

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Photo: Parti Quebecois Leader Pauline Marois is whisked off stage as she delivered her victory speech in Quebec on Tuesday. Police were not immediately able to provide details but party organizers informed the crowd that there had been an explosive noise and they needed to clear the auditorium. Credit: Paul Chiasson/Associated Press

A deadly denouement for foreign troops in Afghanistan

The Netherlands pulled out of Afghanistan two years ago. Canada brought home its contingent last year. France, the fifth-largest contributor of troops to the International Security Assistance Force, will exit the war by the end of this year. New Zealand soldiers will be home by April.

Commitment to the 130,000-strong force fighting to drive Taliban and Al Qaeda militants from their Afghan strongholds has been eroding since the U.S. announcement three years ago that defense and security will be handed over to Afghans by the end of 2014. Analysts say that proclamation of a mission deadline was premature and fired a starting gun for a haphazard exodus driven by domestic political pressures rather than meeting benchmarks for a mission accomplished.

The U.S.-led campaign to defeat insurgents has had its successes, and life for average Afghans has markedly improved since the U.S.-led invasion nearly 11 years ago, security experts say. But the ultimate goal of leaving a stable Afghanistan when the drawdown is finished is now imperiled by a deadly phenomenon many see as inspired by the signaled exits:  Afghans in the green uniforms of police and militia recruits have been turning their guns on their foreign trainers.

Of the 237 U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan this year, according to icasualties.org, at least 40 died at the hands of supposedly allied Afghans. Some of the turncoats are suspected Taliban infiltrators, while others appear to be acting on individual grievances and rising anti-American sentiment. 

"Green-on-blue killings are as devastating a tactic in Afghanistan as were IEDs [improvised explosive devices] in Iraq. This is the most dangerous tactical challenge that U.S. forces have faced in the war," Andrew Exum of the Center for a New American Security said of the rash of "insider" killings.

The betrayals throw into question a core U.S. conviction that Afghans are loyal partners eager to learn from foreign soldiers how to defend and protect their homeland, Exum said. They also wear down the willingness of ISAF's 40-plus contributing nations to send troops into a volatile and dangerous end game, he said.

"There's been a lot of patience from the United States and other troop-contributing nations to send soldiers to fight and sometimes die in the face of combat with the Taliban, but there's a lot less patience with sending soldiers to be shot in the back by their Afghan colleagues," Exum said.

Ahmad Majidyar, a senior research associate at the American Enterprise Institute who briefs U.S. troops ahead of deployment on the social complexities of his native Afghanistan, likewise sees the insider killings as a consequence of Afghans fearing that the foreigners are heading for the exits.

"With the announcement of a withdrawal timeline, you see a lot of people hedging their bets," he said of tribal leaders worried about Taliban fighters regaining sway over their territory. "It has emboldened the Taliban. Their strategy now is just to wait out the coalition forces."

Majidyar cites the impending departures of French and New Zealand troops as decisions driven by domestic political concerns "rather than a policy based on security realities on the ground." That sends a bad message, he added, to both friendly and enemy forces.

Security force trainees are ordinary young Afghan men, with friends and relatives who sympathize with the Taliban, notes Sarah Chayes, a senior associate with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She has spent most of the last decade in Afghanistan on development projects and has worked as an advisor to the U.S. military.

"It’s just demographics," she said of recruits who mingle with Taliban supporters when they visit their home villages or talk over tea. "Everyone is vulnerable to being recruited by extremists because, frankly, the propaganda is fairly convincing: The [Afghan] government is profoundly and abusively corrupt in a structured way that the international community hasn’t paid much attention to."

David Cortright of the University of Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies sees the insider killings as a sign that the U.S. strategy to hand over security to allied regional militias is doomed, as was the Soviet effort in the 1980s to mold Afghanistan into an ideological ally.

"A political option needs to be pursued," he said, embracing a Rand Corp. blueprint for Afghan peace talks drafted last year. It proposes U.N. oversight of a forum including the government of President Hamid Karzai, rival political forces and the Taliban, with the United States and Afghanistan's neighbors conducting parallel talks.

Cortright acknowledges there is little appetite in the international community for any new Afghan initiative, especially one including the Taliban and in the throes of a U.S. presidential election. But he argues that the social gains achieved over the last decade are at risk if Afghanistan collapses into civil war when the foreign troops leave, and that the chances of the military mission delivering a lasting peace are "close to zero."

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Photo: A U.S. soldier rests at Forward Operating Base Joyce in Afghanistan's Kunar province. Credit:  Jose Cabezas/AFP/GettyImages

Europeans, Canadians baffled by U.S. furor on healthcare

As the news spread that the U.S. Supreme Court had upheld the law and its requirement that most people buy health insurance, some people across Europe took to Twitter to ask: What’s the big deal?

“Dear Americans. Health insurance is very important for your health and life. Don’t forget. We have it in Germany,” one Twitter user from Germany wrote, adding a smiley face to the end.

Rafael Dohms, a computer engineer living in the Netherlands, wrote, “I’m forced to pay health insurance here in the [Netherlands] … not as bad as I would have imagined.”

And Parisian filmmaker Vincent Galiano joked, “At least USA becomes a modern nation! Soon even the education could be good!”

In Europe, where governments take a bigger role in healthcare, many people have been baffled by the political furor over the healthcare law championed by President Obama, which has spawned fervent protests and angry accusations that the government is sliding into socialism. The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the government may impose tax penalties on people who don't buy insurance, something that opponents argued was an unconstitutionally intrusive step.

“Why object [to] Obamacare?” a French teacher mused online Thursday in Switzerland, where residents must buy insurance in a system similar to the contested American law. “Is it more about *having* to get insurance, or more about poor people getting treated for less?”

Canadian suspect in gruesome killing arrested in Berlin

A Canadian model and porn actor wanted in a bizarre and gruesome murder case that has horrified Canada and the world was arrested Monday in Berlin, according to German and Canadian media.

Police around the world had been hunting for Luka Magnotta since Interpol added the 29-year-old to its wanted list last week.

Magnotta is wanted by Canadian authorities in the killing and dismembering of a Chinese university student whose foot and hand were mailed to political parties.

The grotesque killing is also believed to have been filmed and uploaded to the Internet, sending police scrambling to get the disturbing video removed from the Web.

The international manhunt ended Monday when German police apprehended Magnotta in an Internet cafe in Berlin, according to several German newspapers. Magnotta also reportedly had been spotted in Paris before his arrest; police used his cellphone as a beacon to track him in France, the Canadian Press reported.

"Our goal is to bring him to Canada as quickly as possible," Capt. Guido Busch of the Berlin police told the Globe and Mail.

After Magnotta was first named as a suspect by Canadian police, media quickly unearthed a strange and lurid Internet trail attributed to him, including musings about necrophilia and how to disappear.

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Gruesome killing in Canada spurs international manhunt

A gruesome killing in Montreal has spurred an international manhunt for a Canadian man suspected of hacking apart a victim, then mailing pieces of the body to politicians.

Canadian police said Wednesday they were searching for Luka Rocco Magnotta, a 29-year-old model and porn actor who has used several different names. Interpol added Magnotta to its wanted list Thursday as police said he may have left Canada.

"There is no country in the world that is not talking about him," Montreal police Cmdr. Ian Lafrenière told CBC News Thursday morning.

Officials have not released the name of the victim. A dismembered torso was found in a suitcase in an alley behind a Montreal apartment Tuesday, the same day that a severed foot arrived by mail at the Conservative Party headquarters in Ottawa, according to Canadian media. Another package containing a human hand was stopped at an Ottawa postal facility before it reached the Liberal Party.

More body parts may be in the mail: The foot came with a note saying that six body parts had been sent, CTV News reported Wednesday. The suitcase holding the torso was found near Magnotta's second-floor apartment, which was reportedly still spattered with blood Thursday.

“I can’t believe I’m cleaning this tomorrow, man,” an apartment handywoman told the Canadian Press as she looked at the mess and gagged. “I need a bonus for this."

The slaying is believed to have been captured in a video uploaded to the Internet last week. The video shows someone stabbing a young man with an ice pick, dismembering the corpse and committing “sexual and cannibalistic acts on it,” the Canadian Press reported.

Magnotta appears to have left a twisted trail of Internet ramblings. One blog in his name titled “Necrophilia Serial Killer Luka Magnotta” begins: “It’s not cool to the world being a necrophiliac. It’s bloody lonely. But I dont really care,” the National Post reported.

Animal rights activists believe Magnotta was also behind a string of disturbing videos showing kittens being killed, which had spurred calls to find Magnotta long before the alleged dismemberment.

On his website, Magnotta wrote that many hoax websites had been made in his name. "I do not feel the necessity to address the specific accusations made in the posts since they are so far from my character that responding to them will give them more credibility than they will ever hold.”

He had previously denied dating infamous killer Karla Homolka, who was freed from prison seven years ago, though skeptics believe he spread the rumors about dating her in the first place.

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Photo: Luka Rocco Magnotta is wanted by Canadian police and Interpol. Credit: Montreal Police Department

Syrian diplomats being expelled across Europe, elsewhere

This post has been updated. See the note below for details.

LONDON -- Governments in Europe and elsewhere announced Tuesday that they were expelling top Syrian diplomats in a coordinated response to the killings last week of more than 100 civilians, mostly women and children, in an attack on a town in the embattled country.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague announced that his country was ordering three Syrian diplomats to leave within seven days as part of a concerted international effort to pressure the government of President Bashar Assad to accept a U.N.-brokered peace plan and to express "horror at the behavior of the regime," in particular the attack Friday on the town of Houla.

[Updated, 8:29 a.m., May 29: In Washington, State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland confirmed the action, which she said was taking in coordination with Australia, Canada, Spain, Italy, France and Germany.

"In response to the May 25 massacre in the village of Houla, today the United States informed Syrian Charge d’Affaires Zuheir Jabbour of his expulsion from the United States," Nuland said in a statement. "He has 72 hours to leave the country."]

The German government quickly confirmed that it had given the Syrian ambassador 72 hours to leave the country. Spain said it was expelling Damascus' ambassador to its country along with four other diplomats within 72 hours.

France and Italy acknowledged that they would also be part of the effort.

The British Foreign Office said the Syrian Embassy in London would remain open, but that the charge d'affaires and two other senior diplomats had been asked to leave.

The Syrian government has denied responsibility for the deaths in Houla, where the United Nations has said that 49 children and 34 women were among 108 people killed in one of the deadliest incidents of the 14-month uprising against Assad's rule. Syrian officials instead blamed the attack on "terrorists," their common description of the opposition forces.