UN: Syria refugee numbers jump 10%

A U.N. official says the number of registered Syrian refugees has jumped by more than 10 percent in just one week as part of an escalating exodus, AP reported. Last week, the U.N. refugee agency said the number of Syrian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Turkey, Egypt and North Africa had reached 1 million. Agency spokeswoman Reem Alsalem said on Thursday that 121,000 have registered since then. She says Syrians are fleeing their country "at a rate faster than anyone anticipated." She says about 2,000 people fled each day in December, compared to 8,000 a day now. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says clashes erupted Thursday in the central city of Homs. Opposition last weekend retook parts of the city's Baba Amr neighborhood, an early battleground in the 2-year-old conflict.