Reports from the Syrian city of Hama say 50 protesters arrested during the past few weeks have been released.
Residents told the BBC that government offices in the city have reopened after almost two weeks of closure. Meanwhile, in the city of Homs, south of Hama, activists report that 30 people were killed on Saturday and Sunday.
It appears the violence followed the discovery of the mutilated bodies of three regime supporters.
This latest violence, activists say, appears to be sectarian in character. The regime supporters were Alawites - the minority ruling sect of President Bashar al-Assad.
The Observatory for Human Rights reports residents of Homs as saying that the discovery of the corpses of the government supporters provoked a furious reaction from a pro-regime militia.
Members of the militia went on a rampage firing indiscriminately in a Sunni Muslim area of the city, residents said.
Hama 'understanding' The Syrian security forces pulled out of Hama last month in the face of growing protests, and activists have been keeping order in the city.
The BBC Arabic Service has learned that an understanding was reached between the authorities and a local cleric to remove activists' checkpoints and let businesses reopen in return for a halt to raids by security forces and the allowing of protests.
Overnight on Sunday, there was an opposition sit-in calling for the fall of President Bashar al-Assad's regime.
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