She also said, “We don’t think more arms into Syria is the answer.” 
 
 Photo 
 
 The violence in Syria has escalated since Saturday, when Russia, seconded by China, vetoed an Arab League-backed resolution at the United Nations Security Council that called on Mr. Assad to give up some powers as part of a plan to defuse the crisis, which increasingly resembles a civil war. So Sergey V. Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, and Mikhail Y. Fradkov, the director of the Russian foreign intelligence service, were sent to Syria with what the Russians said was a proposal to end the crisis.
– Syria's regime is raining devastation down on Homs for a fourth day today, with the Telegraph reporting that hundreds of shells are hitting the city with each passing hour. Rebels there have been rendered defensively helpless, incapable of responding with anything more than gunshots. "We can't count all the bodies from the streets and the collapsed buildings," says an insurgent leader. "We are living in a tragedy. People can't even run away or flee, and are dying in their homes." The bombardment continues even as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrived today in Damascus for talks with Bashar al-Assad, and a day after the US shuttered its embassy. Russia voted against a UN resolution urging Assad to step aside on Saturday, and Lavrov was welcomed by enthusiastic crowds, but the country is said to be pushing its own plan to end the bloodshed, notes the New York Times. “It is in our interests for Arab peoples to live in peace and agreement,” Lavrov said. Others are losing patience: France and Italy today recalled their ambassadors, while British Foreign Minister William Hague yesterday termed Assad's rule a "doomed regime, as well as a murdering regime." Click through the gallery for more scenes from Syria.