No deal yet, but special United Nations envoy Kofi Annan said he was “optimistic” after meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad again Sunday in Damascus in hopes of getting the regime to end a yearlong brutal crackdown on the opposition. Although he was confident in an agreement, he acknowledged that “it’s going to be tough.” But fresh violence erupted once again across the country—at least nine people were killed Sunday as government forces shelled towns like Idlib, and fighting continued in Aleppo, Homs, and the Damascus countryside, opposition activists said.
