Effort needed to give Syrians respite from carnage

IT is good that the US and Russia - together with Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran - have begun talks towards a truce in Syria. After the meeting on Saturday, Russia revealed that "certain ideas" were discussed and more meetings will be held soon.

Two weeks ago, the US broke off talks amid rising tension over Russian and Syrian air strikes on Aleppo. Washington then also cancelled plans to provide information about its own operations to Moscow. In seeming retaliation, Russian President Vladimir Putin upped the ante and suspended nuclear cooperation - to process about 30 tonnes of weapons-grade plutonium, enough to make 17,000 nuclear weapons - which was signed…