Shara, guarantees individual freedoms but gives Mr. al-Shara abundant power and keeps Islamic law as its legal foundation.

Syria's interim President Ahmad Al Shara on Thursday signed the country's constitutional declaration, which will be enforced throughout a five-year transitional period. Mr Al Shara said he hoped the constitutional declaration would mark the start of "a new history for Syria,

Syria’s interim president has signed a temporary constitution that leaves the country under Islamist rule for five years during a transitional phase

More than 1,000 people have been killed in clashes in the coastal provinces of Syria, according to one war monitoring group.