Syria peace talks grind toward pivotal Assad question

By Tom Miles and Suleiman Al-Khalidi GENEVA (Reuters) - Syrian government negotiators at Geneva peace talks are coming under unaccustomed pressure to discuss something far outside their comfort zone: the fate of President Bashar al-Assad. U.N. mediator Staffan de Mistura describes Syria's political transition as "the mother of all issues" and, emboldened by the Russian and U.S. muscle that brought the participants to the negotiating table, he refuses to drop the subject. "But I hope next week, a