WORLD BRIEFS

SYRIA: Russians consult Assad

Days after blocking a peace plan at the UN, senior Russian officials pushed for reforms in Syria Tuesday in an emergency meeting with President Bashar Assad, promoting a settlement to end the uprising without removing him from power. Flag-waving government supporters cheered the Russians in Damascus, while to the north Assad's forces pounded the opposition city of Homs, underscoring the sharp divisions propelling the country toward civil war. France, Italy, Spain and Belgium pulled their ambassadors out of Damascus, as did six Gulf nations, including Saudi Arabia. Germany, whose envoy left earlier, said he would not be replaced. A day earlier, the United States closed its embassy and Britain recalled its ambassador.

ITALY: Heed victims, bishops told

Priests who rape and molest children lie when confronted with an accusation but victims usually tell the truth, psychologists told Catholic bishops Tuesday, advising them to listen first to the victims. The message came during a Vatican-backed symposium on clerical sex abuse that aimed to help bishops draft and enforce tough policies to protect children and root out pedophiles. Priests and bishops from 100 countries were at the four-day symposium at Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University.

CUBA: U.S. embargo at 50

The world is much changed since the early days of 1962, but one thing has remained constant: The U.S. economic embargo on communist-run Cuba, a near-total trade ban that turned 50 on Tuesday. Defenders say it is a justified measure against a repressive government that has never stopped being a thorn in Washington's side. Critics call it a failed policy that has hurt ordinary Cubans instead of the government. Said Wayne Smith, who was a U.S. diplomat in Havana in 1961 when relations were severed: "We talk to the Russians, we talk to the Chinese, we have normal relations even with Vietnam. We trade with all of them. So why not Cuba?"