Syria crisis widens faultlines at divided UN  As 120 world
leaders make annual trip to UN headquarters, unusually bitter
atmosphere has been compared to cold war UN general assembly
Ther UN general assembly meets this week in New York, but seldom
since the end of the cold war has the institution seemed so
biitterly divided. Photograph: Shen Hong/ Shen Hong/Xinhua
Press/Corbis  The police barricades are up and the traffic has
begun to congeal across midtown Manhattan as more than 120 world
leaders make their annual pilgrimage to the UN headquarters to
declaim, appeal, cajole and sometimes threaten each other.  It
is seldom an edifying spectacle but the mood this year is so
sour it is being compared to the cold war.  The root of the
bitterness lies in the worsening Syrian conflict, which has
divided the security council to the point of paralysis along
familiar faultlines. Russia and China have vetoed three
resolutions in a row aimed at curbing the slaughter, and the
council has not even been able to agree on hu