DHAKA: Barrels packed with explosives and dropped from Syrian aircraft have killed 517 people in the northern province of Aleppo since 15 December, activists say.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says 151 were children and 46 women, reports the BBC.

The city of Aleppo has been the focus of bitter fighting between president Bashar al-Assad’s forces and rebels.

A Norwegian frigate is meanwhile preparing to collect chemical weapons from Syria for destruction.

The arms are due to be taken from the Syrian port of Latakia to Italy.

There, they will be loaded onto a US Navy ship and taken to international waters for destruction in a specially created titanium tank on board.

The global watchdog, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which is overseeing the destruction of Syria`s chemical arms stockpile, has called on Damascus to ‘intensify its efforts’ to help the operation.

The OPCW said it was up to Syria to mitigate the risks involved in transporting the stockpile to the port.

BDST: 2133 HRS, DEC 29, 2013
Edited by Robab Rosan, Current Affairs Editor