The United Nations ceasefire monitoring mission in Syria gets under way, as government forces reportedly continue to shell the central city of Homs.

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UN monitors begin work in Syria

UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Saturday to send up to 30 U.N. blue berets to Syria as the spearhead of a U.N. monitoring mission charged with reinforcing a shaky two-day cease-fire between the Syrian government and armed insurgents. Read full article > >

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U.N. votes to send monitors to Syria amid shaky truce

The reports of the shelling of two neighborhoods on Saturday tested a tenuous cease-fire as a United Nations struggled to rapidly deploy observersons.

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Activists Report Shelling in Syrian City of Homs

The Toronto International Film Festival last year produced an unlikely star: a quiet, slight-of-stature leader of a tiny country few attendees might have been able to locate on a globe, much less care about. Read full article > >

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Mohamed Nasheed talks about ‘The Island President,’ keeping fragile democracy afloat

United Nations Security Council to vote on move Friday.

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Ceasefire Observers Head to Syria

An uncertain cease-fire went into effect in Syria early on Thursday with none of the familiar reports of shelling by government forces and mayhem in major cities.

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In Syria, Activists Report Quiet, but No Pullback of Forces

BEIRUT — A dawn cease-fire brokered by the United Nations appeared to take effect in Syria on Thursday after the government announced that it had succeeded in asserting control over the country and would stop fighting in time for the deadline. Read full article > >

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U.N.-brokered cease-fire appears to take hold in Syria

Kofi Annan appealed on Wednesday to President Bashar al-Assad’s Iranian backers to support a peace effort.

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Envoy to Syria Seeks Iranian Help As Cease-Fire Deadline Nears

A cease-fire plan was teetering, with the Syrian government making new demands, the opposition ridiculing them as unrealistic, and no sign that Syria’s military forces had withdrawn from cities.

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Violence in Syria Ahead of Cease-Fire

BEIRUT — Anti-government activists reported fighting across Syria on Tuesday, the day that U.N. officials, world leaders and Syrian protesters had hoped Syrian forces would complete a pullback from urban areas. Read full article > >

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Syria appears not to comply with U.N. deadline for pulling troops from urban areas

BEIRUT — Syrian officials on Sunday called for a written guarantee that rebels would lay down their arms before government security forces withdraw from towns, jeopardizing hopes that a U.N.-brokered peace plan could halt violence there. Read full article > >

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Syria demands guarantees from rebels before withdrawing from cities

Each side has accused the other of assaults before a cease-fire brokered by Kofi Annan, the special envoy appointed by the United Nations and the Arab League.

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Violence Intensifies in Syria Before Planned Truce

Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney is preparing to broaden his challenge to President Obama’s management of foreign affairs, sensing political vulnerability in an area in which the incumbent has received his strongest public support. Read full article > >

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Mitt Romney prepares to challenge Obama on foreign policy

“I’m saying in terms of a geopolitical opponent, the nation that lines up with the world’s worst actors, of course the greatest threat that the world faces is a nuclear Iran, and nuclear North Korea is already troubling enough, but when these terrible actors pursue their course in the world and we go to the United Nations looking for ways to stop them, when [Syrian President] Assad, for instance, is murdering his own people, we go to the United Nations and who is it that always stands up for the world’s worst actors? It is always Russia, typically with China alongside, and so in terms of a geopolitical foe, a nation that’s on the Security Council, that has the heft of the Security Council, and is of course a massive security power — Russia is the geopolitical foe.” Read full article > >

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Mitt Romney and Russia: ‘Geopolitical foe’ at the U.N.?

The United Nations says victims of Haiti’s 2010 earthquake are being placed at risk due to broken aid promises, with $231m needed this year.

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UN warns over displaced Haitians