Cease-fire | featured news

U.N. ceasefire monitors visited the battered Syrian city of Homs and met its governor on Saturday, hours before the U.N. Security Council was to vote on a draft resolution to authorize the deployment to Syria of up to 300 unarmed military observers.

The Syrian government renewed attacks on one besieged city and violently tried to take over another, opposition activists said Tuesday, five days after a so-called cease-fire that is showing more signs of disintegrating.

Cease-fire brokered by the U.N. is fragile as government troops halt widespread attacks, but still refuse to withdraw.

Kofi Annan appealed on Wednesday to President Bashar al-Assad’s Iranian backers to support a peace effort.

Hopes for a cease-fire in Syria this week have apparently fizzled, despite reports of an earlier promise by the Syrian government to withdraw its forces from cities by Tuesday.

The United States, Europe and Arab nations are preparing to demand that Syrian President Bashar Assad agree within days to a ceasefire and allow humanitarian aid into areas hardest hit by his regime's brutal crackdown on opponents.

Forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi showed no signs of backing down Saturday after officials spurned an opposition cease-fire proposal.

Col. Muammar Qaddafi has gained the upper hand on the Libyan battlefield, even as British and other Western officials maintain that his regime is "crumbling" from the inside. Benefiting from a change in tactics, Colonel Qaddafi's forces have made significant gains against rebels with more nimble units that are harder for Western allies to target by air. Rebels, now lacking the curtain of airstrikes that paved their rapid westward advance last weekend, appear to be relinquishing their determination to battle Qaddafi's forces all the way to Tripoli.

China escalated its opposition to American-led airstrikes on Libya on Tuesday, calling for an immediate ceasefire and warning of “a humanitarian disaster” caused by the three-day-old aerial assault.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, speaking after an emergency summit of world powers in Paris, announces 'our planes are stopping attacks' on Benghazi and that France and its partner nations are determined to stop Moammar Kadafi's 'killing frenzy.' Sarkozy says the summit agreed to demand and enforce an 'immediate cease-fire' in Libya.