Refugees trying to cross from Syria into Turkey say the Syrian army has
cut off
a border town which had been providing those fleeing with vital supplies. Foreign journalists are being denied entry to Syria, but our correspondent Matthew Price has been inside, close to Bdama.
Women and children were using a stream today to wash their clothing. It runs through a camp that now houses many of Syria's displaced. The number of people living here
squeezed up
along the Syrian-Turkish border has been growing, and over the weekend, more people have come to this particular camp from the town of Bdama, which Syrian forces went into. It's clearly as far as the people here are concerned, a very frightening situation, and they all say they don't know when they will return to their homes.
The United States Defence Secretary Robert Gates has confirmed that there have been what he described as "preliminary" contacts with the Taliban in Afghanistan. Speaking on American television, Mr Gates said that along with other countries the US State Department had been conducting what he called "outreach" talks, but he stressed that military pressure on the Taliban was still needed.
"My own view is that real reconciliation talks are not likely to be able to make any
substantive
headway until at least this winter. I think that the Taliban have to feel themselves under military pressure, and begin to believe that they can't win before they're willing to have a serious conversation."