Whiners

The BBC has an article about Syria:

Syria's civil conflict has claimed well over a hundred thousand lives since it began in 2011.
The tranquil grounds of the United Nations (photo), with elegant gardens sweeping down to Lake Geneva, have been transformed, and not in a good way. The atmosphere is tense, and often angry.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem threatened to walk out of peace talks in Geneva. Muallem told UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi he would quit if "serious" discussions had not begun by Saturday. The regime and the opposition have refused to meet face-to-face and are communicating through Brahimi. Diplomats say they are now aiming at small concessions such as local truces rather than an overall peace deal. Both sides blame each other for the lack of progress.
Representatives from both the Syrian government and the opposition have been striding back and forth, followed by packs of journalists, pushing, shoving, and shouting in an attempt to get the best shot, or the best sound-bite. The long planned and much hoped for face-to-face meeting has not happened yet, and no one is sure whether it will. The UN special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi is instead holding closed bilateral talks with the government, and then separately with the opposition.
The differences are the same as ever: the opposition wants a promise of a new transitional government, including the removal of President Assad, the government says their president stays exactly where he is: in power.
The violence has also driven ten million people from their homes, creating a major humanitarian crisis within Syria and for its neighbors. Fighting has continued, with government forces bombing rebel-held areas in the northern city of Aleppo, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Preliminary talks had been held in Montreux, with Brahimi attempting to get both sides to agree to meet face-to-face. Friday was supposed to be the first day of official talks, but neither side would meet the other. Instead, Brahimi met government delegates in the morning, and the opposition in the afternoon.
The Damascus delegation has said the main issue of the talks is finding a solution to foreign-backed "terrorism", by which it means the whole of the armed opposition.
Syrian state media quoted sources as describing the meeting between Brahimi and Muallem as productive in searching for common ground.
But the sources said Muallem told Brahimi: "Should serious sessions fail to take place on Saturday, the official Syrian delegation will leave Geneva."
The opposition, however, has insisted that the regime commit in writing to the 2012 Geneva I communique, which called for a transition process. The communique urged Syria to form transitional governing authority that "could include members of the present government and the opposition and other groups".
The BBC's Bridget Kendall in Geneva says the talks are ostensibly about the implementation of the communique. But she adds that the views of the government and the opposition are so diametrically opposed that Friday's discussions may get no further than preliminary attempts to set a common agenda. 

Rico says we need to remove Assad from the planet, and that will go a long way to solving this problem...