December 13, 2011 - 11:49 AMT
UN: death toll in Syria reached 5000

The United Nations high commissioner for human rights on Monday, December 12, raised the death toll from the Damascus government's crackdown on anti-regime activists to close to 5,000 people, CNN reports.

"This situation is intolerable," Navi Pillay said in a briefing for the UN Security Council.

The same day that Pillay spoke, the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and a resident of Homs - an opposition hotbed and frequent site of violence in recent months - reported that a gas pipeline exploded near the city, followed by gunfire and circulating military airplanes.

Pillay said more than 200 people have died in the last 10 days, and "the Syrian population continues to live in fear of further violent repression."