Syria unrest: Arab League set to discuss next move
Arab foreign ministers are meeting in Cairo on Sunday to decide their next move after a resolution on Syria failed in the UN Security Council last week.
Officials say the ministers could discuss a joint observer mission with the UN and recognition of the main opposition group.
Syrian government forces have continued to bombard Homs and entered the town of Zabadani on Saturday.
Activists say at least 35 people died, while a general was killed in Damascus.
Brig-Gen Dr Isa al-Kholi , the head of a Syrian military hospital, was shot dead by members of an "armed terrorist group" as he left his home in the north of the city, the state news agency said.
It is believed to be the first assassination of a senior officer in the capital since the uprising began.
Draft resolution
Foreign ministers from the Arab League are due to meet on Sunday afternoon.
Officials said the ministers were expected to discuss a joint Arab-UN observer mission to replace the Arab League monitors who left in January because of continuing violence.
Formal recognition of opposition group the Syrian National Council could also be discussed, but there was not full agreement on this, an unnamed official told reporters.
The league meeting will be preceded by a meeting of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC), which expelled Syria's ambassadors from its member countries during the week.
GCC and Arab League member Saudi Arabia is also circulating a draft resolution at the UN General Assembly, similar to the one vetoed in the Security Council by China and Russia.
The draft resolution "fully supports" the Arab League peace plan published last month, which called on President Bashar al-Assad to hand over power to his vice-president, and make way for the rapid formation of a national unity government including the opposition.
The General Assembly is scheduled to discuss Syria on Monday, when it will be addressed by the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, but no vote on the resolution is expected by then.
There is no power of veto at the General Assembly but its resolutions have no legal force, unlike those of the Security Council.
'Rare ceasefire'
After a week under shellfire and virtual siege, conditions in the western city of Homs are reported to be getting desperate, with basic supplies running low.
More than 400 people are reported to have been killed in Homs in the past week. Saturday's fatalities were reported in the Baba Amr district - a centre of anti-government protests - but residents said there had also been explosions and heavy gunfire in the neighbouring area of Inshaat.
Activists say more than 400 people have been killed since security forces launched an assault on opposition-held areas in Homs last Saturday.
Meanwhile, government forces have entered the mountain town of Zabadani, outside Damascus.
Exiled opposition leader Kamal al-Labwani told Reuters news agency a rare ceasefire had been agreed in the town, whereby rebel forces could withdraw if they gave up weapons and armour captured from the government.
Human rights groups say more than 7,000 have died throughout Syria since March. The government says at least 2,000 members of the security forces have been killed combating "armed gangs and terrorists".
Source: BBC
OP: I'm surprised by how little coverage of the ongoing war in Syria there is in _p.