Syria: UN plans to send observers 'in days'

A draft UN Security Council resolution has outlined plans to send monitors to Syria to oversee compliance with a UN and Arab League-backed peace plan.

The draft, prepared by the US, is expected to be voted on at the Security Council on Friday, with a monitoring team arriving by early next week. A ceasefire at the core of the peace plan is largely holding. But at least three people were reportedly killed on Friday, as large protests were held in several places. One person was killed by security forces as anti-government demonstrators tried to reach the main square in the central city of Hama, activists said. Another was shot dead after Friday prayers in the town of Nawa, in the southern province of Deraa, while the third died in the town of Salqin, in the north-western province of Idlib, they added.