U.N. seeks $6.5 billion for Syria crisis in 2014

By Stephanie Nebehay and Tom Miles GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations appealed for a record $6.5 billion for Syria and its neighbors on Monday to help 16 million people, many of them hungry or homeless victims of a conflict that has lasted 33 months with no end in sight. The Syrian appeal accounted for half of an overall funding plan of $12.9 billion for 2014 to help 52 million people in 17 countries, announced by U.N. emergency relief coordinator Valerie Amos at a meeting of donor countries in Geneva. The money requested for Syria, covering food, drinking water, shelter, education, health services and polio vaccines, was the largest U.N. appeal ever for a single crisis. Syria's currency has plummeted by 80 percent since the revolt began in March 2011, and destruction of the water network has left 10 million people - almost half the pre-war population - relying on the United Nations to chlorinate water.

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