The mother of a British doctor who died in Syria angrily confronted the country’s official delegation at the Geneva talks.<br /><br />Fatima Khan claims her son Abbas was trying to help bomb victims by travelling to Aleppo, where he was detained.<br /><br />He was due to be released from jail but was found dead. Damascus alleges he committed suicide. His family claim he was the victim of a political murder.<br /><br />“Face me,” Fatima Khan shouted in the direction of President al-Assad’s adviser Bouthaina Shaaban. “She’s running away from me, she can’t face me.”<br /><br />The first round of talks ends on Friday with precious little to show.<br /><br />‘‘No, there was progress today in fact,” Shaaban told reporters. “Because we spoke about the Syrian people who care about ending terrorism. And the opposition’s rejection of a document condemning terrorism in Syria is outrageous, it shows that they support terrorism and have no qualms about it.’‘<br /><br />The opposition is sticking to its demand that the starting point should be the formation of a transitional governing body.<br /><br />‘‘The regime wants to focus on six points of Geneva communiqué at this point, and leave the formation of a governing body to the end. We believe this is a wrong sequence, that is putting the cart before the horse,’‘ said Syrian National Coalition spokesman Louay Safi.<br /><br />The talks began with few expectations; even so the UN mediator is frustrated that no agreement has been reached even on getting an aid convoy through the besieged city of Homs.<br /><br />There was better news for the trapped residents of one poor Damascus suburb. The UN says the first food parcels for ten days were delivered.<br /><br />But it is by no means enough. Some 15 people have reportedly died from malnutrition in Yarmouk, a district of the capital that was once a Palestinian refugee camp but has become an impoverished district home to Palestinians and Syrians alike.<br /><br />The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) had blamed authorities on Sunday for preventing its convoy from delivering aid to the neighbourhood. <br /><br />Opposition activists said the government is using hunger as a weapon of war. The Syrian government said rebels are to blame for firing on aid convoys and fears food and medicine will go to armed groups.
