Activists say Syrians are taking to the streets to continue a monthslong protest against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said thousands of people demonstrated in the flashpoint industrial city of Homs.
Elsewhere, security forces broke up a demonstration in the eastern city of Deir Ezzor. They also reportedly fired on protestors in the Damascus suburbs of Douma.
There was no immediate confirmation of casualties.
The new protests come a day after diplomats at the United Nations said envoys from Russia and China boycotted UN Security Council talks on a Western-backed proposal to impose sanctions on the Syrian regime.
Human rights groups say Syrian security forces have killed more than 2,000 people in a crackdown against the anti-regime protests that erupted in mid-March.
compiled from agency reports