UN: Syria peace talks to begin Jan. 22 in Montreux

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The United Nations says the opening of a Syria peace conference planned for next month has been moved from Geneva to the Swiss city of Montreux.

Khawla Mattar, a spokeswoman for the UN's special envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, says the conference will open on Jan. 22 in the Montreux Palace.

Mattar told reporters Tuesday that the move to Montreux, home of the famous jazz festival, was necessary because a luxury watch fair has taken up all the hotel rooms in Geneva.

She says foreign ministers will speak on the first day, then the conference will break up and reconvene on Jan. 24 at the UN European headquarters in Geneva.

The Syrian civil war has killed more than 100,000 people and sent millions of refugees fleeing the country.

On another note, the global chemical weapons watchdog is meeting to approve a definitive plan for ridding Syria of its declared stockpile of toxic chemicals in just over six months.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons already has drawn up a timeline for the destruction of Syria's poison gas and nerve agent program by mid-2014. Tuesday's meeting is expected to sign off on details of how exactly the unprecedented disarmament operation will happen.

Much of the plan already is known after different nations made public their offers of help to the mission.

The most toxic chemicals are to be destroyed on a US ship. Denmark and Norway are providing ships to transport the chemicals out of Syria and more than three dozen private companies have offered to destroy less toxic chemicals.

On the field:

Activists say Syrian military aircraft have targeted a rebel-held district in the northern city of Aleppo, killing at least 13 people.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says government war planes bombed the city's rebel-held Shaar district on Tuesday morning. At least two children were among those who died in the attack.

The airstrikes are the latest in the government's air campaign to drive out the opposition, which has controlled parts of Aleppo Syria's largest urban center for more than a year.

According to the Observatory, Tuesday's strikes were the third straight day the government's air campaign against Aleppo.

On Sunday, 76 people, including 28 children, died in such strikes and the city was also hit by another round of airstrikes on Monday.