Opposition absent as Syria 'peace talks' start

A UN-led push to chart a way out of Syria's tangled civil war got off to a shaky start Friday, with only representatives of Bashar al-Assad's regime attending the first day of supposed peace talks in Switzerland. The main umbrella body representing the myriad opposition and rebel groups in the five-year-old conflict were refusing to take part at the start of what are meant to be six months of intra-Syrian negotiations in Geneva. A member of this group, the High Negotiations Committee (HNC), told