UN Approves to Dispatch 300 Observers to Syria.

UN Approves to Dispatch 300 Observers to Syria.(AA).The U.N. Security Council on Saturday unanimously adopted a resolution to increase the number of international monitors in Syria from 30 to 300 and renewed demands for an immediate halt to violence that continues to rock the country despite a cease-fire agreement. The resolution gives Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon authority to decide when to deploy the additional observers, based on developments on the grounds including “the consolidation of the cease-fire.” Ban accused Syrian President Bashar Assad Thursday of failing to honor the cease-fire, expressing dismay at the upsurge in violence. The resolution merges rival Russian and European texts and dropped a European threat of non-military sanctions if Syria fails to withdraw troops and heavy weapons from towns and cities. A small team of observers currently deployed in Syria entered the battered city of Homs on Saturday after government forces halted their shelling there for the first time in weeks. U.N. spokesman Khaled al-Masri said the monitored met with the governor of Homs and were “now visiting districts of the city.” Activists in Homs said the shelling ceased only to make it look as if the government was abiding by a truce, mediated by international Peace Envoy Kofi Annan. They said that shelling would resume as soon as the monitors left. “It is very clear that the Syrian government can stop the violence whenever it wants at any time in the country,” Walid al-Fares, an opposition activist living in Homs told Reuters. The small advance team of monitors, who had previously been prevented from visiting Homs for “security reasons,” were able to enter the battered district of Baba Amr.Read the full story here.