The United Nations says the Syrian army is blocking UN inspectors from entering a village where a massacre has reportedly taken place. There have been reports that almost 80 people, many of them women and children, were brutally killed in the village …
Update: now UN monitors report they are being shot at. From the BBC:
The head of the UN hassaid monitors trying to reach the Syrian village of Qubair, where 78people are said to have been killed, were fired upon.
None were hurt in the shooting but they have pulled back for the night.
Addressing the UN General Assembly, Secretary General BanKi-moon condemned the "killing of innocents" at Qubair as "shocking andsickening".
UN envoy Kofi Annan said his peace plan was not being implemented despite having been accepted by Damascus.
Opposition activists blame the killings at Qubair on pro-government forces but the government accuses "terrorists".
The White House said it strongly condemned "the outrageoustargeted killings of civilians including women and children" in Qubair.
The UN has 297 unarmed observers in Syria to verify theimplementation of a peace plan negotiated by Mr Annan. It includes aceasefire, meant to have taken effect in mid-April.