"If you need to be sad, be sad, if you just need to not have to pretend you're happy, do that."

 

And a day a member of one of the hip-hop's biggest groups recalls how Christmas help to make them famous.

 

"... and we're like, ok, we're going to see how, we kick on Christmas like every year, we're on the stage to make music, that's it."

 

I'm Barbara Hall, and this is CNN radio news day.

 

We begin in Syria where fears are growing, that country's civil war which began nearly two years ago is getting worse. Opposition activists say the conflict has already claimed some 40,000 lives. International peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi was in Damascus today for meetings with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. Afterward, Brahimi told reporters the two men talked about ways to resolve the conflict.

 

"We had exchanged opinions about the possible steps that can be taken in the future. The Syrian president spoke about his view regarding the situation. I also talked about the meetings I have had abroad in several cities with various officials in the region and outside the region. I also talked about what steps which I see appropriate to be taken to help the Syrian people to get out of this crisis."

 

His visit comes on the heels of yet another massacre. Government warplanes bombed a Syrian bakery where dozens of people were killed as they waited for bread. CNN's Muhammad Jamjoom is following developments from Beirut. I spoke with him earlier today.

 

"Muhammad, can you tell us about the attack, what exactly happened?"

 

"Well, the Opposition activists say that around 4.pm on Sunday, that there were hundreds of people lined up outside of a bakery, in Halfaya, in Hama province, waiting to get bread, and that's when a warplane that was going to flying overhead, possibly more than one warplane, shelled the areas, that it shelled the bakery, and because of that, over 100 people were killed, they say that there were men, women and children there. And this is very very worrying situation, they were calling it throughout today a massacre, the details that we were getting hour after hour after the attack. They're from the activists, they're from residents and eyewitnesses, which is horrific and so incredibly gruesomely."

 

"Those Opposition activists, Muhammad say the town was specifically targeted, can you tell us why they think that?"

 

"Well, Barbara, the activists that we spoke with say that this is a town that harbors a lot of anti-Syrian regime and anti-Bashar al-Assad sentiment. They said that in the last week, the rebel Free Syrian Army battalions came into that town. That they wrestled and controlled it away from Bashar al-Assad troops, regime force that had been in that town. Activists and residents said, we spoke with, they say that because of, essentially those two factors, and that town was targeted. They told us that they believe the attack yesterday was deliberate, and they said that because this was an area where there was a large gathering of people, that perhaps the regime thought it was more of a threat, and that's why they targeted it, that specific bakery in that specific line at that hour. And we should remind of listeners, this certainly is not the first attack on a bakery that we've heard of in Syria. And many times when we reported on these planes the past several months, and the activists would say they believed that because there are dozens of, not hundreds of people lined up outside a bakery, because there have been severe fuel and food shortages in so many towns across Syria, so when there is bread to be served, there is a huge line, they said that they believed the regime whether be warplanes or troops on the grounds, see those gathering of people as threat and they target those gatherings."

 

"So what is the Syrian government saying about this attack, is the regime taking any responsibilities at all?"

 

"Well, they're not, Barbara, in fact they issued a statement today on the Syrian News Agency website, in which they said, that what happened yesterday in Halfaya was the work of terrorists, armed terrorist groups. This is the terminology that the Syrian regime typically uses to describe armed rebel, soldiers and Opposition fighters in Syria. This is what we hear again and again when they are blaming rebel factions. It's very different narrative from the Syrian government that we're hearing today. They Syrian government claiming that yesterday armed terrorist groups, in fact, the last several days there have been an infantry in that town. And that they carried out this massacre yesterday, and they attacked different neighbourhoods there. And they say the residents of that town, in fact, pleaded for the Syrian army to intervene, to come into there with the military mind, and fight off its terrorist. The Syrian regime is claiming that because of those calls for help, they did go into that town and they were able to kill and capture several as they called them terrorists that have been on the side carrying on, in their words, there is a chance."