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Arab League mission arrives in embattled Syrian city of Homs

An Arab League mission arrives in Homs amid reports of escalating violence. The team is in Syria to assess if the government is upholding commitment to end its crackdown.

(CNN) Cairo - Members of an Arab League observatory team have arrived in the besieged Syrian city of Homs, a senior official in the league's advance delegation to Syria said Tuesday.

The fact-finding team is visiting Syria this week to assess whether the government is upholding a commitment to end a brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters.

Observers from the team "will have access to any place they want, freely," said the senior official, who did not want to be identified because he is not authorized to speak with the media. "The protocol entails that Syrian security only escorts the monitors to the entrances of the city only. According to the protocol, any party on the ground has the right to contact the monitors as they please."

But shortly before the arrival, military forces began scurrying away from Homs' Baba Amr neighborhood, said resident and activist Omar al-Humsi. Baba Amr has been wracked with deadly violence at the hands of the Syrian regime, opposition activists say.

Al-Humsi estimated more than 2,000 people joined a sit-in waiting for the arrival of the Arab League team.

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Society

In The Shantytowns Of Buenos Aires, Proof That Neighbors Function Better Than Cities

Residents of the most disadvantaged peripheries of the Argentine capital are pushed to collaborate in the absence of municipal support. They build homes and create services that should be public. It is both admirable, and deplorable.

A person with blonde hair stands half hidden behind the brick wall infront of a house

A resident of Villa Palito, La Matanza, stands at their gate. August 21, 2020, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Guillermo Tella

-Analysis-

BUENOS AIRES – In Argentina, the increasing urgency of the urban poor's housing and public services needs has starkly revealed an absence of municipal policies, which may even be deliberate.

With urban development, local administrations seem dazzled, or blinded, by the city center's lights. Thus they select and strengthen mechanisms that heighten zonal and social inequalities, forcing the less-well-off to live "on the edge" and "behind" in all senses of these words. Likewise, territorial interventions by social actors have both a symbolic and material impact, particularly on marginal or "frontier" zones that are the focus of viewpoints about living "inside," "outside" or "behind."

The center and the periphery produce very different social perceptions. Living on the periphery is to live "behind," in an inevitable state of marginality. The periphery is a complex system of inequalities in terms of housing provision, infrastructures, facilities and transport.

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