BNP walked out of Parliament

Nazma Akhter MP’s comment came a day after Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury issued a ‘tough warning’ against using ‘un-parliamentary’ language.
Speaking on the proposed budget, Akhter claimed: “Laxmi Rani Marma is the opposition leader’s mother… Her father, too, had a surname of Marma.”
She continued ignoring the Speaker’s call to speak on the budget and claimed to have gleaned the information from a book.
Khaleda is the daughter of Tayeba Majumder and Eskander Majumder.

Irked at the ruling MP’s remark, the opposition showed their back to the proceedings at around 9:30pm before returning 15 minutes later.
Parliament has been rocked by personal attacks in recent weeks.
Last week, both the opposition and the ruling party assured the Speaker that they would not use offensive remarks. However, such assurances seem to

have had little effect.

Bangladesh Jatiya Party’s Andaleeve Rahman Partho first stirred Monday’s session by attacking Awami League’s Tofail Ahmed, Suranjit Sengupta, and Syed Abul Hossain.

Last week, BNP’s Syeda Ashifa Ashrafi Papia MP, known for her rhetoric, had claimed Prime Minister’s daughter-in-law was a Jew.

Papiya’s remark had prompted Nazma Akhter to attack the BNP chief over her family lineage.

Akhter flayed Andaleeve’s remark that the government was getting ‘scared’ of BNP Senior Vice Chairman Tarique Rahman’s speech.

Tarique made his first appearance at a public meeting in nearly five years in London last month where he urged the expatriates to mount pressure on the government to reinstate the caretaker government provision.

In response to Andaleeve’s remark, Nazma Akhter said: “We are certainly afraid of him (Tarique). [Because] we’ll have grenade attacks like the one on Aug 21, women will be dishonoured at the Khowab (Hawa) Bhaban, militant attacks will take place, if he returns.”

She alleged Tarique, under the influence of liquor, had tried to rape the wife of an actor on a plane. 

Al-Qaeda confirms death of leader in Mali

A top leader in al-Qaeda's north Africa branch has been killed in fighting with France, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has said, according to a statement carried by the private Mauritanian news agency ANI.

According to the statement released by AQIM on Sunday, Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, considered a top commander within the group, was killed in the ongoing fighting in Mali.

The statement did not provide details of the date of Zeid's death, though it comes three months after France first announced he had been killed. 

The AQIM said the Algerian-born Abou Zeid, died "on the battlefield defending Umma (the Muslim community) and sharia law."

Paris had announced in March that Abou Zeid was killed in fighting with its forces after France led an offensive to rout al-Qaeda linked groups from northern Mali.

Both France and Chad, whose troops were also involved in the offensive, said the 46-year-old fighter was killed at the end of February.

"It is the first time that an AQIM statement has officially referred to the death of Abou Zeid," said ANI director Mohamed Mahmoud Ould Abou Al-Maali, a specialist on the armed group.

Born in Debdeb in Algeria, close to the border with Libya, Abou Zeid was a young activist in the FIS Islamist movement that won the country's first democratic elections in 1991 but was denied power.

He then disappeared underground for most of the 1990s.
He re-emerged in 2003 as second in command of the GSPC group which kidnapped dozens of foreigners in southern Algeria, and that would later, along with several other organisations, evolve into AQIM.
Mali descended into chaos in the wake of a March 2012 coup as al-Qaeda-linked Islamist rebels capitalised on the power vacuum to seize the desert territory in the north.

France launched its offensive in its former colony on January 11 to stop the rebels from advancing on the capital Bamako.

Five 9/11 accused appear in Guantanamo court

Five men accused of taking part in the September 11, 2001, attacks in the US have appeared in a court in Guantanamo Bay.

They appeared before the judge on Monday for the start of five days of pretrial hearings.

The accused have been charged with terrorism and nearly 3,000 counts of murder. If convicted, they could face the death penalty.

A judge is considering a long list of procedural issues that include whether the defence can have access to confidential records of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The men were last in court in February. That hearing was dominated by defence concerns that their private conversations with the accused were being monitored.

The government denied any monitoring.

The defendants include self-proclaimed mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. The government has asked for a trial in late 2014, though it's likely to be later.

Protest rallies held in Brazil's main cities

Protesters have massed across Brazil to demonstrate against the rising costs of both public transport and the 2014 World Cup to be held in the country, following clashes with police over several days.
Protesters gathered in four Brazilian cities on Monday in what they hoped would be their biggest demonstrations yet against the increase in transit rates.
The protest movement is mainly made up of the middle class and is critical of the government's decision to increase transit rates by 10 cents, to $1.60.
Police in Sao Paulo estimated that 30,000 people rallied in the city's biggest demonstration yet. Up to 20,000 people marched in Rio de Janeiro and another 6,000 took part in protests in the capital Brasilia.
Authorities said they would respond with force only if protesters destroyed property.
Riot police had fired rubber bullets and tear gas into crowds of protesters on Thursday in Sao Paulo. Protest organisers said more than 100 people were hurt. Police only confirmed about a dozen injuries.
On Sunday police used tear gas and rubber bullets again when several hundred protesters marched near Maracana stadium before a Confederations Cup match between Italy and Mexico, part of an eight-team warm-up tournament for next year's World Cup finals in Brazil.
The government of Brazil, where almost one-fifth of the population lives in poverty, estimates that hosting the 2014 World Cup will cost $14.5bn.
Some tickets to the international football tournament are expected to cost more than Brazil's minimum wage of $300.
The government, however, has asked FIFA to make 500,000 seats available for free to the poor.
Demonstrations also were being held in the capital of Brasilia and in Rio de Janeiro.
In Brasilia, several thousand people under heavy police escort marched on the Esplanada dos Ministerios thoroughfare that cuts between rows of government ministry buildings.

Brazilian officials are using drones, thermal cameras and thousands of troops to patrol the six stadiums hosting matches in six different cities across the country.

Snowden defends leaks on US spy programme

Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who revealed the US government's top-secret monitoring of Americans' phone and Internet data, has said the government's "litany of lies" about the programmes compelled him to act.

In a question-and-answer session with readers and journalists on website of the UK’s Guardian newspaper on Monday, Snowden urged President Barack Obama to "return to sanity" and roll back the surveillance effort.

Snowden also talked about his motivations and reaction to the debate raging about the damage or virtue of the leaks. Snowden remains in hiding, reportedly in Hong Kong.

"I did not reveal any US operations against legitimate military targets," he said.

"I pointed out where the NSA has hacked civilian infrastructure such as universities, hospitals, and private businesses because it is dangerous. These nakedly, aggressively criminal acts are wrong no matter the target."

Snowden said disillusionment with Obama contributed to his decision, but there was no single event that led him to leak details about the vast monitoring of Americans' activity.

"It was seeing a continuing litany of lies from senior officials to Congress - and therefore the American people – and the realisation that Congress ... wholly supported the lies," said Snowden, who had worked at an NSA facility in Hawaii as an employee of contractor Booz Allen Hamilton before providing the details to the Guardian and the Washington Post.

Snowden referred to US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper's testimony to Congress in March that such a programme did not exist, saying that seeing him "baldly lying to the public without repercussion is the evidence of a subverted democracy. The consent of the governed is not consent if it is not informed."

The Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into Snowden's actions, and US officials promised last week to hold him accountable for the leaks.

'No fair trial'

However, Snowden said the US government made it impossible for him to receive a fair trial.

"The US government, just as they did with other whistleblowers, immediately and predictably destroyed any possibility of a fair trial at home, openly declaring me guilty of treason and that the disclosure of secret, criminal and even unconstitutional acts is an unforgivable crime. That's not justice," he wrote on the online forum.

His actions ignited a renewed debate about privacy rights and national security, and in the US Snowden has been called both a hero and a traitor for his actions.

Former US Vice President Dick Cheney was the latest to call Snowden a traitor, but Snowden called that a badge of honour.

"Being called a traitor by Dick Cheney is the highest honour you can give an American, and the more panicked talk we hear from people like him ... the better off we all are," Snowden said.

Indonesians rally against fuel price hike

Thousands of protesters have rallied across Indonesia against government plans to hike the price of fuel, with police in one city firing tear gas to stop hundreds storming the local parliament.

Indonesia's parliament on Monday approved budget amendments that will pave the way for the government to announce the first price hike since 2008.

Demonstrations were held in the capital Jakarta and other cities to coincide with the parliament session that approved compensation measures for the poor that the government had demanded before it would agree to cut fuel subsidies.

Fuel prices have long been a flashpoint issue in Indonesia, with economists arguing that huge government subsidies are damaging Southeast Asia's top economy.

Millions are opposed to lowering the payouts, which keep down the cost of living.

In Jambi, a city on Sumatra island, hundreds of protesters tried to push through the gate in front of the local legislature, provincial police spokesman Almansyah told AFP news agency.

"The situation became somewhat chaotic and the police had to fire tear gas to disperse them," said the spokesman, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.

Nobody managed to enter and the situation was under control, he added.

A journalist was hit near the eye by a tear gas shell casing and was receiving hospital treatment, the spokesman said.

'Hang SBY'

In Jakarta, about 3,000 demonstrators gathered outside the national parliament in light rain, setting fire to tyres and waving banners that read "Reject the fuel price rise" and "hang SBY [President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono]".

"Get ready to occupy the parliament building if they raise the fuel price," shouted one protester through a loudspeaker.

About 19,000 police and military personnel were deployed across Jakarta, police said.

In the city of Makassar, on Sulawesi island, about 500 university students and teachers protested, burning tyres and yelling "revolution".

While only a small percentage of Indonesians are private car owners, the plan to increase the price of petrol by 44 percent is expected to push up the cost of everyday goods as they will be more expensive to transport.

The decision to raise fuel prices rests with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Government officials have repeatedly stated that the price rises would follow shortly after the parliamentary decision.

Vietnam jails blogger for 'erroneous' posts

Vietnamese police have arrested a blogger accused of posting "erroneous and slanderous" information about the communist government, the third blogger to be locked in the past month in an intensifying crackdown against dissent.

The state-run Thanh Nien newspaper reported on Monday that Dinh Nhat Uy was taken into police custody in southern Long An province on Saturday. He is accused of "abusing democratic freedoms," an offense that carries up to seven years in prison.

The 30-year-old is the brother of Dinh Nguyen Kha, a student who was sentenced last month to eight years in jail for spreading propaganda against the government.

Two well-known bloggers have been arrested over the past three weeks on the same charges.

Deadly monsoon rains sweep north India

Torrential rain and floods have washed away buildings and roads, killing at least 26 people in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, officials have said.

Monsoon rains have lashed all of India one month ahead of schedule, officials said on Monday.

"Twenty-six people have died and more than 50 persons are missing, due to flooding, landslides and building collapses caused by heavy rain," Piyush Rautela, director of Uttarakhand state's disaster management centre, said on Monday.

Three members of a single family, including a boy died when their house collapsed, crushing them in the state capital Dehradun, Rautela told the AFP news agency.

"Dehradun received a record 220 millimetres of rain in a 24-hour-period yesterday. It has been raining non-stop since Saturday morning," he said.

More than 10,000 pilgrims stranded along a mountain pass leading to a Hindu religious site were being evacuated by helicopter after roads to the pilgrimage spot were blocked by landslides.

Army and paramilitary troops were leading efforts to rescue scores of people from the rooftops of their flooded homes.

The state government was readying food parcels and drinking water pouches to be air dropped to villages cut off after roads were washed away.

The River Ganges and its tributaries are flowing above the danger mark in several areas in the Himalayan state.

"The situation is very grim. The meteorological office has predicted that the rain will continue for another three days at least," Amit Chandola, a state government spokesman, said.

State authorities were preparing to evacuate people from the worst-hit districts to relief camps, he said.

A high alert and flood warnings have been issued across Udhampur district and in the Hindu holy city of Haridwar as rivers breached their banks.

The rains usually cover all of India by mid-July, but this year it happened on June 16, the earliest such occurrence on record, a senior official at the India Meteorological Department said.

"We expected an early coverage, but not so fast," said the Meteorological Department official, who did not want to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media.

Boosting economic hopes

The early onset of the annual monsoon has boosted hopes for the country's farming sector and its slowing economy.

The rains that lash the subcontinent from June to September are dubbed the "economic lifeline" of India, one of the world's leading producers of rice, sugar, wheat and cotton.

The weather department has forecast India will receive normal rains this year, raising prospects of a stronger performance by Asia's third-largest economy.

Last year India got below-normal rain in the first half of the wet season.

The rains picked up in some areas later, but large areas of west and south India did not benefit.

The monsoon will be crucial for parts of Maharashtra state, India's biggest sugar-producer, which has been reeling from the worst drought in more than four decades.

Agriculture contributes about 15 percent to gross domestic product but the livelihood of hundreds of millions of Indians living in rural areas depends on the farming sector.

'Contaminated water' makes Bangladesh-Dhaka workers sick

More than 140 workers, mostly women, at two Bangladeshi garment factories near the capital Dhaka have fallen ill after drinking suspected contaminated water in their workplace, police said. Sunday's development comes less than two weeks after up to 600 workers at another garment plant were rushed to hospital after falling sick due to contaminated water. Humayun Kabir, a police inspector, told the AFP news agency that several garment workers fell sick at two garment plants at Joydevpur, an industrial town north of Dhaka. "At least 141 of them were rushed to one hospital. Some others were taken to other hospitals. The factories were closed for the day," he said. "Primarily we suspect the water supply of the factories could be contaminated," he added. The incidents follow the collapse of a building housing five garment factories in April that killed 1,129 people, highlighting appalling safety conditions in Bangladesh's 4,500 garment factories. A series of tragedies since last November when a fire killed 111 people in another factory have triggered renewed scrutiny of "made-in-Bangladesh" clothes commonly sold in the West. Officials said the workers were engaged in making garments for Western labels, but did not immediately identify the brands.

Turkey threatens to deploy army to end unrest

The Turkish deputy prime minister has said that the army could be deployed to halt protests that have swept the nation over the past two weeks.
Bulent Arinc on Monday said the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) could be pressed into action if the police failed to restore order.
"What is required of us is to stop if there is a protest against the law. Here is the police, if not enough gendarme, if not TSK," he said in a televised interview to the A Haber channel.
The threat came as members of two union federations in Turkey went on a one-day strike over the forced evictions of protesters from Istanbul's Gezi Park a day earlier.
Labour groups representing doctors, engineers and dentists are also said to have joined the strike on Monday. The striking groups represent about 800,000 workers.
The Turkish Interior Minister Muammer Guler said the strike was "illegal" and warned of police action.

The call for the strike came as police and protesters clashed sporadically in Istanbul overnight following a weekend of scuffles in the city.

Riot police, some in plain clothes and carrying batons, backed by a helicopter, fired teargas and chased groups of rock-throwing youths into side streets around the iconic Taksim Square and Gezi Park late on Sunday night, trying to prevent them from regrouping.

There were also disturbances in other parts of the city that had so far largely been spared the violence, including around the Galata bridge, which crosses to the historic Sultanahmet district, and the upmarket Nisantasi neighbourhood.

Erdogan supporters
The police had earlier during the day moved in to clear Gezi Park of protesters occupying the area adjoining Taksim Square, as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan addressed hundreds of thousands of his supporters at an Istanbul parade.

Erdogan told thousands of flag-waving supporters that two weeks of unrest had been manipulated by "terrorists" and dismissed suggestions that he was behaving like a dictator, a constant refrain from those who have taken to the streets.
"They say 'you are too tough', they say 'dictator'. What kind of a dictator is this who met the Gezi Park occupiers and honest environmentalists? Is there such a dictator?" Erdogan said to roars of approval from the crowd.

He dismissed the demonstrations as "nothing more than the minority's attempt to dominate the majority ... We could not have allowed this and we will not allow it."
A small-scale environmental protest against government plans to redevelop Gezi Park had developed into a larger movement against the government of Erdogan.
The clashes pose no immediate threat to Erdogan's leadership, but they have tarnished Turkey's image as a stable country on the fringes of the volatile Middle East, and presented him with the greatest challenge of his 10-year rule.
Show of strength

The prime minister has long been Turkey's most popular politician, overseeing a decade of unprecedented prosperity, and his AK Party has won an increasing share of the vote in three successive election victories.
Erdogan, who also addressed supporters of his ruling AK Party in Ankara on Saturday, said the rallies were to kick off campaigning for local elections next year and not related to the unrest, but they were widely seen as a show of strength.
The crowds who packed Istanbul's Kazlicesme festival ground, many of whom walked for kilometres, turned out to support a leader who they feel has been under siege.
"We are the silent majority, not the riff-raff who are trying to frighten us," said Ruveyda Alkan, 32, her head covered in a black veil and waving a red Turkish flag.
The two weeks of unrest have left four people dead and about 5,000 injured, according to the Turkish Medical Association.

UK and Ecuador in deadlock over Assange

Britain and Ecuador have failed to break the deadlock over the unresolved asylum case of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, nearly a year after he took refuge in the Ecuadorean embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden.

UK's Foreign Secretary William Hague and his Ecuadorean counterpart, Ricardo Patino, agreed on Monday to establish a working group to try to resolve the diplomatic standoff.

"The two ministers held a bilateral meeting this morning for 45 minutes," the Foreign Office said in a statement.

"Ministers agreed that officials should establish a working group to find a diplomatic solution to the issue of Julian Assange, but no substantive progress was made."

The Foreign Office said any solution would have to fall within the law of the United Kingdom.

Patino, who is on a visit to Britain, met Assange at the South American country's central London embassy on Sunday.

He told reporters after meeting Hague: "The Ecuadorean government maintains that the reasons for which Ecuador granted asylum are still relevant and therefore there is going to be no change in his circumstances."

Assange, 41, fled to the embassy last June to avoid extradition to Sweden to face allegations of sexual assault and rape, which he denies.

Ecuador granted him political asylum last August, saying it feared for his safety, but Britain has made it clear he will be arrested if he tries to leave the embassy.

Assange fears that if he is sent to Sweden he might be liable for onward extradition to the US to face potential charges over the release of thousands of confidential US documents on the whistleblower website WikiLeaks.

Ecuador says that Assange's extradition to a third country without proper guarantees is probable, and that legal evidence showed he would not get a fair trial if eventually transferred to the US.

Iran President-elect Hassan Rouhani vows to 'build trust' with West

President-elect Hassan Rouhani has expressed hope that Iran can reach a new agreement with Western powers over its disputed nuclear programme, saying a deal should be reached through more transparency and mutual trust.

"The idea is to engage in more active negotiations with the 5+1, as the nuclear issue cannot be resolved without negotiations," Rouhani said on Monday, referring to the UN Security Council's five permanent members plus Germany.

During his first press conference since being declared winner of Iran's presidential election on Saturday, Rouhani also described as unfair and unjustified US and EU sanctions imposed against the Islamic Republic over the nuclear issue.

But Rouhani also ruled out a halt to his country's controversial enrichment of uranium. "This period is over," Rouhani said, referring to international demands for an end to the programme.

There were "many ways to build trust" with the West, he added, as Iran would be "more transparent to show that its activities fall within the framework of international rules".

"Our nuclear programmes are completely transparent. But we are ready to show greater transparency and make clear for the whole world that the steps of the Islamic Republic of Iran are completely within international frameworks," he said.

"I hope that all countries use this opportunity," the president-elect said.

The news conference came to an abrupt end when a man in the audience sprang up and shouted a slogan in favour of reformist leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, held under house arrest since 2011.

"Mir Hossein should be here" the man shouted live on state television as security guards bundled him away. 

Committed to dialogue 

On Monday UN nuclear agency chief told the Reuters news agency that Iran was making "steady progress" in expanding its nuclear programme despite international sanctions.

Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), also said he remained committed to dialogue with Iran to address concerns of possible military dimensions to its nuclear activity.

But no new meeting had yet been set after 10 rounds of talks since early 2012, he said.

Meanwhile, UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said it hoped the new Iranian government would make efforts to reach a negotiated settlement on its nuclear programme following Rouhani’s election.

Hague said efforts to reach a settlement would be met "in good faith" by Britain, adding that Iran should not doubt British resolve to prevent nuclear proliferation.

Nuanced approach

Rouhani won Friday's presidential election with more than 18 million of the votes.

The country's Interior minister, Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar, said 72 percent of the 50 million eligible Iranians had turned out to vote, and that Rouhani had secured just over the 50 percent of the vote needed to avoid a run-off.

His closest rival, Tehran mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, garnered six million votes.

Though an establishment figure, Rouhani was known for his nuanced, conciliatory approach when he was Iran's chief nuclear negotiator.

He inherits an economy that has been badly hit by Western sanctions targeting the key oil and banking sectors because of its nuclear programme.

Rouhani has previously vowed to restore diplomatic ties with the US, which cut relations in the aftermath of the 1979 revolution and seizure of the US embassy by Islamist students.

The US was behind a 1953 coup that overthrew the democratically-elected prime minister and put into power the Shah who ruled Iran until the 1979 revolution.

Syrian 'Dozens dead' in Aleppo car bomb attack

A car bomb has struck near the Syrian northern city of Aleppo, killing at least 60 members of President Bashar al-Assad's troops, activists have told Al Jazeera.

Monday's blast, carried out by a jihadi group affiliated with al-Qaeda, hit near a military complex in the town of al-Douwairinah near Aleppo's international airport, Mohammad al-Hadi, an activist in the city, said.
"The car was filled with six tonnes of explosives," he told Al Jazeera.
The blast was one of the largest attacks targeting regime forces. Activists posted a video on social media that purports to show the moment of the explosion. However, the authenticity of the video could not be verified. 
It came hours after a car bomb attack targeting a checkpoint near a military airport in Damascus, the Syrian capital.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said there were 20 casualties in the blast on Sunday night in the western Damascus district of Mazzeh, but did not state how many were killed or injuried in the attack.
Syrian state media confirmed the blast that occurred late on Sunday, but have not released the number of those killed and injured.
Mazzeh is an upscale neighbourhood of Damascus that houses several embassies and a military airport.
At least 93,000 people have been killed in Syria's two-year-old conflict.

More MERS virus deaths in Saudi Arabia

Four more people have died from the MERS virus in Saudi Arabia, bringing the death toll from the SARS-like virus in the kingdom to 32, the health ministry has said.

A statement on the ministry's website said on Monday two people had died in the western city of Taif and the other two were pronounced dead in the Eastern Province, where most cases have been registered.

Two weeks ago, the World Health Organisation (WHO) had raised the global death toll from the SARS-like virus MERS to 31, after a new fatality in hard-hit Saudi Arabia.
Previously known as novel coronavirus, the disease was last month renamed Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus, or MERS-CoV, reflecting the fact that the bulk of the cases are in that region.

Taliban 'set to open office in Qatar'

Taliban will open a political office in the Gulf state of Qatar on Tuesday, Al Jazeera has learned.

The office of the Afghan armed group in Doha will aim at facilitating peace talks.

In March, Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, met the emir of Qatar to discuss plans for the Taliban to open an office in the Gulf state.

He discussed "issues of mutual interest" with Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the state news agency QNA said, without elaborating on the substance of their talks. 

Karzai also met Afghan and Arab officials and business people.

The delegation travelling with the Afghan president included Zalmai Rassoul, the foreign minister; Salahuddin Rabbani, the head of the High Peace Council.

Until earlier this year, Karzai was strongly opposed to the Taliban having a meeting venue outside Afghanistan, but the US has pushed for the Taliban to be present at the negotiatiing table as Washington prepares to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan in the next two years.

Syria crisis set to dominate G8 summit

The G8 summit of leading industrial nations has kicked off in Northern Ireland with Western leaders upping pressure on Russia over its support for Syria's regime.
Host Prime Minister David Cameron welcomed the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States on Monday, and said there was "a big difference" between the positions of Russia and the West on Syria.
Western leaders have criticised Russian President Vladimir Putin for supporting Syria's Bashar al-Assad in his battle to crush a two-year-old uprising, setting the stage for what could be a difficult meeting of world leaders over Monday and Tuesday.
Moscow said it would not permit no-fly zones to be imposed over Syria.
Barack Obama, the US president, will meet Putin later on Monday and will try to convince the Kremlin chief to bring Assad to the negotiating table. They are due to meet at about 6:30pm local time (0530 GMT) at the luxury lake-fringed Lough Erne golf resort in County Fermanagh.
Both leaders now offer military support to opposing sides in the war. The European Union has also dropped its arms embargo on Syria, allowing France and Britain to arm the rebels.
Germany, France, Japan, Italy and Canada will be represented in the two-day summit at the resort.

'Little trust'
In London, Putin insisted that Moscow had abided by international law when supplying weapons to Assad's regime and demanded that Western countries contemplating arming the opposition do the same.
"We are not breaching any rules and norms and we call on all our partners to act in the same fashion," Putin said.

The Russian leader referred to a video released last month purportedly showing a rebel Syrian fighter eating the heart of a dead soldier.
He asked if the West really wanted to support rebels "who not only kill their enemies but open up their bodies and eat their internal organs in front of the public and the cameras".
Obama in his meeting with Putin will emphasise that Washington wants to keep alive a mooted Geneva peace summit co-organised with Moscow.
"There will be a lot of talk in the next couple of days about the idea of a peace conference in Geneva," Al Jazeera’s James Bays, reporting from County Fermanagh, said
"The reality, though, is this: the Russians believe the US has not done enough to bring the opposition to the negotiating table. The US and its western allies for their part believe that Putin could do more to stop Assad's ongoing onslaught.
"There's very little trust here and not much hope of a breakthrough."
Trade talks

The leaders of the most industrialised countries - representing just over half of the $71.7 trillion global economy - will also discuss global economy and trade.
The British prime minister has made tackling tax avoidance - which campaigners say costs about $3 trillion a year - a main part of the formal agenda at the summit.
He has turned up the pressure to clamp down on secretive money flows by pressing Britain's overseas tax havens into a transparency deal and announcing new disclosure rules for British firms.
The EU and US are due to announce the start of formal negotiations on a free trade deal that could be worth more than $100bn a year to each economy.
The summit is surrounded by the biggest security operation in Northern Ireland's troubled history, with around 8,000 officers on duty.
Heavily armed police in armoured vehicles are stationed at frequent intervals along the country roads leading to the summit venue near the town of Enniskillen.
Police say the expected anti-globalisation demonstrations have been smaller than expected so far. They expect about 2,000 protesters to take part in an anti-G8 march in Enniskillen on Monday.