delegates

Watching then-President Reagan addressing the delegates at the 1988 GOP convention, Didion witnessed a speech “rhetorically pitched not to a live audience but to the more intimate demands of the camera.”

Thousands of delegates are gathering in the capital this week to take part in an annual parliamentary session, most of which will focus on the economy.

But the negotiations broke down in dramatic fashion after the talks ran so far into overtime delegates had to leave to catch scheduled flights home.

The 600 delegates have been asked to provide recommendations on transitional justice, the economy, the new constitution and other topics to guide a new transitional government.

The US and Russia held preliminary talks in Saudi Arabia this week - without delegates from Europe, including Ukraine, present - which resulted in European leaders holding a hastily-arranged summit in Paris.