France: U.N. Syria Talks Begin

Negotiations on a United Nations proposal for Syria to hand over its chemical weapons arsenal have begun, a French official said Wednesday. But the talks already hit a stumbling block as Russian officials rejected U.S. and French demands for a non-binding resolution with “very serious consequences” if Syrian President Bashar al-Assad does not comply. The French official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Russia refused to make the resolution enforceable—and wouldn’t blame the Aug. 21 attack on the Syrian government. In Geneva, the U.N. said Wednesday that it had identified at least eight mass killings perpetrated by Assad’s forces and one carried out by rebels in the past year.