At least 200 have died in Syria in the two months since a UN-backed cease-fire went into effect, but Ban Ki-moon rejects assertions that part of the problem is the low number of monitors on the ground.

Read the full article in the Christian Science Monitor.

Francis Markus in Japan

As family disagreements go, the issue over Kenichi Sakuma’s beautifully cultivated traditional Japanese garden, seems gentle and good humoured by any standards. But it just may be emblematic of the tensions and splits which are being engendered as this community tries to get back to some semblance of normal life.

Surveying the perfectly positioned rocks and flowering trees and bushes, Mr. Sakuma, 66, says with his guffawing laugh: “It’s taken me years to get it this way! I couldn’t bear to see it torn up and flattened.”