US, UK may offer Assad clemency

Britain and America are willing to offer the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, safe passage and even clemency as part of a diplomatic push to convene a UN-sponsored conference in Geneva on political transition in Syria.
The initiative comes after David Cameron and Barack Obama received encouragement from Russia's President Vladimir Putin in separate bilateral talks at the G20 in Mexico.
The Independent newspaper said the peace conference could take place in Geneva at the end of this month, and said a clemency offer could involve Assad being allowed to flee to another country such as Russia or Iran.
Meanwhile, a Syrian pilot was granted political asylum after landing his MiG fighter jet in neighbouring Jordan yesterday, in the first such defection of a revolt a watchdog says has killed more than 15,000 people.
Tens of thousands of soldiers have defected from Syria's armed forces since the revolt against Assad's rule erupted in March last year, thousands of them joining the rebel Free Syrian Army, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Diplomats, meanwhile, stepped up efforts to stem the bloodshed, with Arab states demanding that Russia stop supplying arms to Syria and the United States and Britain reportedly working on a transition plan.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon yesterday discussed the situation in Syria with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the sidelines of an international conference in Rio de Janeiro, a spokesman said.
In the latest bloodshed, at least 93 people were killed in violence across Syria yesterday, among them 52 civilians, 38 soldiers, and three rebels, the Syrian Observatory said.
Pope Benedict XVI yesterday warned that Syria risks a full-blown conflict which would affect the entire region, as he called on the international community to act.
"There should not be any effort spared, by the international community as well, in getting Syria out of the current situation of violence and crisis, which has already gone on for a long time," he said.