UN blames Syria again

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon turned up the pressure on Syria on Friday, telling U.N. member states of "grisly reports" of Syrian government forces arbitrarily executing, imprisoning and torturing people in the battle-scarred city of Homs, the Reuters reports.

"The Syrian government has failed to deliver on its responsibility to protect its people," Ban told the 193-nation U.N. General Assembly. "Civilian populations are under military assault in several cities."

The Baba Amro district of Homs became a symbol of resistance to Syrian President Bashar Assad after government troops surrounded it with tanks and artillery and shelled it intensively for weeks, killing and wounding civilians cowering in its ruined buildings, the haaretz.com reports.