Now for a look at stories making headlines around the world and we start in Syria… <br />Thousands of Eastern Ghouta residents fled the area over the weekend in fresh evacuations that have further emptied the conflict-ridden region. <br />For more on this and other international news we turn to Ro Aram…<br />Aram…what's the latest?<br /><br /> Well Semin…. just under four thousand rebels and civilians left a ravaged pocket of Eastern Ghouta on Sunday.<br /> They follow about a thousand residents who left the day before as part of an agreement reached between rebels and the Syrian army.<br />That deal, mediated by Syria's key ally Russia, is set to see some seven thousand residents leave three remaining pockets.<br />It will also reportedly see the release of people kidnapped by the rebels. <br />It was struck over the weekend after the Failaq al-Rahman group declared a unilateral cease-fire to negotiate its withdrawal from the region. <br /> Pro-Syrian forces have now gained control of about 90 percent of eastern Ghouta after five weeks of intense bombardment. <br />The conflict is reported to be the deadliest in Syria's seven-year civil war, with more than one and a half thousand civilians being killed. <br />The UN also estimates that 400-thousand people were trapped inside the besieged area without access to food or medicine. <br />The Syrian government has used siege tactics followed by heavy bombardment to recapture swathes of territory lost to rebels. <br />Eastern Ghouta would be Damascus' second recaptured region after Aleppo in 2016. <br />
