U.N., Annan Condemn Syria Massacre

The United Nations condemned a massacre that left 49 children and 34 women dead in Syria last week as the country’s ambassador called the U.N.’s response a “tsunami of lies.” The brutal massacre in the town of Houla has been internationally denounced, and special envoy Kofi Annan traveled to the fractious nation’s capital Monday even as other leaders said his attempts to forge a peace plan had failed. The U.K. foreign secretary backed the Annan initiative at a press conference, however, saying the alternative is “ever-increasing chaos and a descent closer and closer to all-out civil war and collapse.” While most nations have heaped the blame for the massacre on President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, Syrian ally Russia said “both sides” share responsibility for the killings.