'At Least 400 People are Reported to Have Been Killed Since the Protests Began on March 15'

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that, in Syria, "At least 400 people are reported to have been killed since the protests began on March 15."

The New York Times reports:

The Syrian Army stormed the restive city of Dara’a with tanks and soldiers and helped detain dozens nationwide Monday in an escalation of the counteroffensive against Syria’s five-week-old uprising, according to residents and human rights activists. They said at least 25 people had been killed in Dara’a, with reports of bodies strewn in the streets.

Such was the alarm in the West about developments in Syria, a critical regional player adjacent to Israel and a close ally of Iran, that the United States State Department urged American citizens not to visit the country and said Americans already there should leave immediately.

What else is the Obama administration doing, besides warning folks not to "visit the country" and telling Americans to leave? CBS News reports:

The Obama administration is considering new "targeted sanctions" against Syria as part of "a range of possible policy options," in the face of a continued, bloody crackdown on its citizens by the regime of President Bashar Assad.