Kofi Annan 'Optimistic' After Meeting Syria's Assad

Kofi Annan left a second round of talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad today without a deal to stop the bloodshed, but "optimistic for several reasons," the UN-Arab League envoy tells al-Jazeera. "It's going to be tough. It's going to be difficult but we have to have hope," he said, adding that he'd left Assad with "concrete proposals" and strongly encouraged him to "heed the African proverb which says you cannot turn the wind, so turn the sail." The Syrian leader needs to "start by stopping the killings and the misery and the abuses that are going on today," Annan said. A Syrian watchdog group says three soldiers and a civilian were killed in Idlib fighting this morning. (More Bashar al-Assad stories.)