Peace talks in Geneva struggle

GENEVA: The UN sought painstakingly on Friday to get a new round of Syrian peace talks off the ground, but there were few signs of progress as dozens more civilian deaths underlined the scale of the challenge. The UN’s Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura, who brought rival regime and opposition delegates symbolically together late on Thursday, held separate meetings with them on Friday to hammer out the format for the meetings. see pAGE 6