Our friends the Syrians?

Syrian authorities are holding 137 Saudi nationals suspected of trying to cross into Iraq, where militants have been waging a two-year insurgency since the U.S. invasion, the Saudi newspaper Al-Watan said on Thursday.

If true this is great news. Even if this is only a token response by Assad to give the impression he is trying to control terrorist crossing his border it's still 137 less terrorist in Iraq. Pulling out of Lebanon, recognizing the Kurds, and now this, good things seem to be happening in Syria.

And bad things.

Syrian authorities have detained 40 Syrian students in northern Syria and tortured them, a Syrian human-rights group says.

Syrian authorities accused them of setting up an underground Islamist group called Sunaa al-Hayat.