UN to send humanitarian mission to Syria

The UN has said it will send a humanitarian mission to Syria this weekend to assess the situation there.

Its team will be part of a delegation led by the Syrian government, which will also include staff from the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation.
The group will visit key opposition towns including Homs, Hama and Deraa.
The announcement comes on the first anniversary of the uprising against the Syrian regime, which to date has claimed more than 8,000 lives.
In a statement, UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos stressed the importance of "unhindered access to identify urgent needs and provide emergency care and basic supplies".
"There is no time to waste," she said.
The UN's announcement came after a coalition of 200 aid and rights groups called on Russia and China to support United Nations' attempts to end the violence in Syria.
At the political level, Russia and China have both blocked UN Security Council resolutions on Syria.
On the ground on Wednesday, the Syrian authorities began shelling the southern city of Deraa - the birthplace of the protests - after retaking Idlib, on the Turkish border in the north-west, earlier this week.
Turkey says it has seen a sharp increase in the flow of refugees across its border in recent days."The number of Syrian refugees currently staying in Turkey boomed by 1,000 in a single day and climbed to 14,700 total," foreign ministry spokesperson Selcuk Unal told reporters in Ankara, adding that he expected the numbers to continue rising.
Meanwhile, thousands of people joined a pro-government rally in the Syrian capital, Damascus, on Thursday to denounce the "year-old conspiracy" against the regime.Mr Assad has always insisted his troops are fighting "armed gangs" who are seeking to destabilise Syria.
In a statement, the aid groups from 27 countries - including Human Rights Watch, Christian Aid, Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, Civicus and International Federation of Human Rights - called on the Security Council to unite in passing a resolution condemning the Syrian government's use of violence, torture and arbitrary detention against civilians

The BBC's Jonathan Head says thousands of Syrian refugees are arriving in Hatay in Turkey

Souher Belhassen, president of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), said Syrians had "survived with outstanding courage one year of systematic and widespread crimes and bloodshed as the world stood by and watched".

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"The international community must unite and help Syrians bring an end to the horror."
They said the international community must give its full support to Kofi Annan, the former UN secretary general who is acting as the UN and Arab League's envoy to Syria.
Mr Annan visited Syria last week to deliver a proposed peace plan to Mr Assad, which includes demands for an immediate ceasefire by both sides, access for humanitarian aid, and the beginning of political dialogue.A spokesman said he had received a response from Mr Assad but had questions about it and "and was seeking answers".
Syrian foreign ministry spokesman Jihad al-Maqdisi told the BBC that Mr Assad's response had been positive because he wanted Mr Annan's mission to succeed.