United Nations

In a clear retort to the abuse of UN authorisation by the Western countries in Libya, China joined Russia in a rare double veto of a draft Security Council resolution threatening action against Syria's deadly crackdown on civilian protests. The resolution would "blindly impose pressure" on Syria which "would not help to ease the situation," a Chinese FM spokesman said. But later China called on the Syrian government to "respond to people's reasonable expectations and appeals, and resolve the issues through dialogue and consultations."