UN rights body demands end to Syrian violence

GENEVA (AP) — The 47-nation UN Human Rights Council has again called for an immediate end to the horrific violence in Syria, and demanded that the government cooperate with its investigators.

By a vote of 37-1, the UN’s top human rights forum approved a resolution to condemn the abuses in Syria’s civil war and the involvement of foreign fighters, and to urge nations to give more money to Syria’s neighbors grappling with the flood of 1.6 million refugees. Nine countries abstained; only Venezuela was opposed.

The resolution Friday — one of a series of such measures since 2011 — also insists that Syrian authorities cooperate fully with a UN war crimes probe and facilitate access for humanitarian aid.

A day earlier, the UN raised the confirmed Syrian death toll to nearly 93,000 people.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.