UN rights probe seeks unconditional Assad talks

Geneva: An independent panel probing alleged war crimes in Syria says it is demanding a meeting with President Bashar Assad as soon as possible.

The head of the panel, Brazilian professor and diplomat Sergio Pinheiro, said the members are seeking the meeting with Assad "without any conditionalities." The UN`s top human rights body has asked Pinheiro and the three other panel members, including renowned former UN war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, to continue to investigate at least until next March. Del Ponte, a former Swiss attorney general, said the probe is looking into suspected "crimes against humanity and war crimes, of course" during Syria`s increasingly bloody civil war. Activists say more than 35,000 people have been killed since the start of the uprising that began in March 2011. PTI