Syrian students rallied in front of Damascus University on Monday in solidarity with protesters killed in the flashpoint towns of Daraa and Banias.

“Youngman Fadi al-Assmi was martyred at the hands of Syrian security forces during protests at Damascus University’s Faculty of Science,” Prominent Syrian human rights activist Suheir al-Atasi wrote on her facebook page.

At least 22 protesters were killed on Friday as anti-regime demonstrations and clashes with security forces raged around Syria, the head of the National Organization for Human Rights said, while the opposition's mouthpiece Sham News Network put the death toll at 40 in the southern city of Daraa alone.

The state-run hospital in Daraa has received the bodies of 40 protesters who were killed today by security forces, SNN reported.

President Bashar Assad on Thursday granted citizenship to Syria's Kurds, the majority in the northeast who have been denied nationality for nearly half a century, said SANA state news agency.

"President Assad issued a decree granting Arab Syrian citizenship to people registered as foreigners in the (governorate of Hassake)," said the news agency.

The Syrian parliament is preparing to adopt major reforms in May, including an end to emergency rule, a politician close to the regime said Wednesday.

"There will be an extraordinary session from May 2 to 6 in which social and political laws will be adopted in line with the reforms desired by the head of state," the politician told Agence France Presse.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu voiced his country's backing for a Syrian government reform package on Wednesday when he met President Bashar al-Assad, whose government has been shaken by three weeks of political unrest.

"Davutoglu expressed his country's support for the reform package adopted by the Syrian authorities," said the official SANA news agency citing a statement by the Syrian presidency.

The commission charged with replacing Syria's emergency law with new legislation will conclude its work by Friday, a newspaper close to the government reported.

"Sources within the commission tasked with studying the removal of the emergency law said it will, by Friday, finish formulating the necessary legislation to replace the emergency law," the Al-Watan newspaper said Monday.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad appointed former agriculture minister Adel Safar the new premier on Sunday and asked him to form a government as thousands joined the funeral procession for protesters killed in Douma.

Cell phone and internet networks failed for several hours on Sunday "due to an overload", according to a customer representative, a day after authorities carried out a wave of arrests in protest cities.

Syrian security forces opened fire on protesters on Friday north of Damascus and in the south of the country, killing at least nine people, a witness and a human rights activist said, as thousands of Syrians staged demonstrations after Friday prayers.

At least eight protesters fell in Douma, 15 kilometers north of the Syrian capital when police opened fire after protesters emerging from a mosque pelted them with stones, the witness told Agence France Presse by telephone.

Syria is launching an immediate probe into the deaths of "civilians and troops" in Daraa and Latakia, two cities that have emerged as the focal points of protests, state media reported Thursday.

"Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has charged the head of the judges' council with forming a committee to begin an investigation, effective immediately, into the deaths of civilians and troops in the governorates of Daraa and Latakia," read a report on the state-run news agency SANA.

Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati praised in a telephone call with Syrian President Bashar Assad on Thursday the Syrian people’s support for his leadership.

The premier also lauded them for obstructing attempts to create strife given the recent demonstrations in Syria.