US and Russia at Odds as Syria Talks Continue

GENEVA (Associated Press) – As the US and Russia follow up Friday on an apparently contentious opening round of talks the night before, their top diplomats will search for agreement on the nuts and bolts that go into a Russian proposal for securing Syria's chemical weapons stocks.

US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are being joined at the talks in Geneva by chemical weapons experts from their countries.

The diplomats are expected to meet again Friday to go over the mechanics, details and timing of the plan for the weapons to be inventoried, quarantined and destroyed.

When the talks began Thursday, Kerry bluntly rejected a Syrian pledge to begin a "standard process" by turning over information rather than weapons – and nothing immediately. The American diplomat said that words alone are not acceptable.