No Security Council probe of alleged Syrian chemical attack

Deferring to Russian and Chinese objections, the UN Security Council avoided calling explicitly for a UN probe into opposition allegations of a chemical weapons attack by Assad’s forces Wednesday and claims of up to 1,300 deaths. The council instead "welcomed" UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s calls for “a thorough, impartial and prompt investigation.” Western and regional countries have called for UN chemical weapons investigators, who arrived in Damascus three days ago to look into previous allegations of such attacks, to be dispatched to the scene of the latest reported attack, which occurred in suburbs east of Damascus.