Syria Talks devolved into shouts, insults
It started with avoiding eye contact, moved onto hurling insults and ended with plans to start again 10 days later.
In one of their early face-to-face meetings in Geneva last month, negotiators from Syria's government and its opponents abandoned talks about peace. Separated by more than 20 feet, they called each other traitors and puppets. Then came accusations of war crimes.
United Nations mediator Lakhdar Brahimi initially pleaded with both sides to stop, "but then he let us talk without interrupting in the hope that we will blow off steam," said Murhaf Jouejati, a member of the Syrian opposition who was at the talks.
On Monday, the Syrians will sit down again in the Swiss city almost three years after the protests that morphed into a civil war began.
Bloomberg News
Israel strikes Gaza after rocket attacks
The Israeli military said that it carried out an airstrike early Sunday against a Palestinian militant in Gaza responsible for firing rockets into Israel. Medical officials in Gaza reported that the target of the strike was critically wounded and that a bystander was hurt.
The airstrike was a return to the practice known in Israel as "targeted killing" that had all but halted after a cease-fire began more than 14 months ago. The resumption of such strikes comes amid an increase in rocket fire by small radical groups operating in Gaza, as well as Israeli retaliatory airstrikes, straining the cease-fire on both sides.
Israeli military officials say that Hamas appears to be having trouble controlling some of the smaller militant groups.
New York Times
