• The UN Security Council will discuss the crisis in Syria later today. 
  • The unexpected meeting was announced by France's UN mission on its Twitter account after representatives of the council's five permanent members - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States held talks yesterday on the new resolution.
  • A new resolution giving strong backing to the Arab League's initiative to end the Syria crisis has been drawn up by Britain, France, Germany and a number of Arab nations.
  • The Arab League has called on President Bashar al-Assad to hand over powers to a deputy so that elections can be held in Syria where the UN says more than 5,400 people have died since protests started in March last year.
 
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