UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. General Assembly has approved a resolution backing an Arab League plan that calls for Syria's president to step down and strongly condemns human rights violations by his regime.
The vote in the 193-member world body was 137-12 with 17 abstentions.
Russia and China, who vetoed a similar resolution in the Security Council, voted against the resolution.
There are no vetoes in the General Assembly and while their resolutions are not legally binding, they do reflect world opinion on major issues.
Supporters were hoping for a high "yes" vote to deliver a strong message to President Bashar Assad Assad to immediately end all human rights violations and attacks on civilians and hand power to his vice-president.
As previously reported, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon accused the Syrian regime of potential crimes against humanity Thursday as activists reported fresh violence in Daraa, the city where the uprising against Assad erupted 11 months ago.
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Speaking to reporters in Vienna, Ban demanded the Syrian regime stop using indiscriminate force against civilians caught up in fighting between government troops and Assad's opponents.
"We see neighborhoods shelled indiscriminately, hospitals used as torture centers, children as young as 10 years old chained and abused," Ban told reporters in Vienna. "We see almost a certain crime against humanity."
Syrian activists said government forces attacked Daraa on Thursday, carrying out arrests and shooting randomly in the city seen as the birthplace of the uprising. They also reported intense clashes between army defectors and government troops in the central province of Hama.
The push into Daraa, located near the Jordanian border some 80 miles south of Damascus, followed sieges on the rebellious cities of Homs and Hama and appears to be part of an effort by the regime to extinguish major pockets of dissent.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said security forces killed at least one civilian in Daraa, and that clashes between defectors and government troops there left at least three regime soldiers dead.
Source: http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~r/CBSNewsMain/~3/1LdD8evB5gA/
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