INTERNATIONAL NEWS in brief

UN seeks common ground between Assad gov't, opposition

MONTREUX, Switzerland (AP):

The United Nations (UN) is taking a day to see if there is enough common ground between Syrian President Bashar Assad's government and the opposition to talk directly for the first time since the rebellion began in 2011.

Peace talks charting a path out of Syria's civil war got off to a tense start Wednesday, with Assad's future at the heart of bitter exchanges on the podium as dozens of the world's most powerful diplomats looked on. High-level mediating has yielded little so far, but Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN mediator who is meeting separately Thursday with each Syrian delegation, said there are signs that they might be willing to bend on humanitarian aid, ceasefires and prisoner exchanges.

Ukrainian president faces ultimatum to call elections

KIEV, Ukraine (AP):

Thick black smoke from burning tires engulfed parts of downtown Kiev as an ultimatum issued by the opposition to the president to call early elections or face street rage was set to expire with no sign of a compromise yesterday.

The three main opposition leaders urged protesters late Wednesday to refrain from violence for 24 hours until their ultimatum to President Viktor Yanukovych expires. They demanded that Yanukovych dismiss the government, call early elections, and scrap harsh anti-protest legislation that triggered the violence.

The largely peaceful protest against Yanukovych's decision to shun the European Union and turn toward Moscow in November descended into violence Sunday when demonstrators, angered by the passage of repressive laws intended to stifle the protest, marched on official buildings.

Gov't task force urges end to phone spying, records purge

WASHINGTON (AP):

A sharply divided government task force that reviewed the National Security Agency's surveillance programme for four months has urged President Barack Obama to shut down the agency's bulk collection of phone data and purge its massive inventory of millions of Americans' calling records, The Associated Press (AP) has learned.

The recommendation from the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board to abandon the NSA's phone surveillance was even more sweeping than a similar proposal from another panel of experts. That panel, the Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies, advised Obama in December to restrict phone surveillance to limited court-ordered sweeps.

The oversight board's new 234-page report - a copy of which was obtained by the AP - contained several strong dissents from two members of the five-member board - former Bush administration national security lawyers who recommended that the government retain its broad phone surveillance authority. The board disclosed key parts of its report to Obama earlier this month before he unveiled his plans during a speech last week to the nation.