Syria's Assad issues 'counter-terror' laws

  Syrian President Bashar Assad issued three new "counter-terrorism" laws on Monday, the official SANA news agency said, 16 months into a deadly crackdown on an uprising against his rule. The first law stipulates that a state employee convicted of "any act of terrorism -- whether he is directly engaged, an accessory to the crime, or providing material or moral support to terrorist groups in any way -- will be fired," SANA said. The second law provides for jail terms of 10 to 20 years with hard labor for any act of violence or kidnap for ransom, the news agency said. It gave no details of the third law. SANA said that during a debate on Thursday, members of parliament said the laws were "needed at this stage, given the negative impact of terrorism on the security of the country and its citizens." Last month, Assad told government ministers that the country was in a "state of war" and ordered them to crush the uprising that broke out in March last year. Syrian authorities refer to both rebel fighters and unarmed activists as "terrorists".