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for the U.S. and allies who have spent the last 18 months trying to negotiate a transition of power from Assad to a new, representative government.
• But even if the Syrian National Coalition agrees to attend the Jan. 22 peace meeting -- as Secretary of State John Kerry will push this weekend in Paris with the coalition's newly re-elected president -- analysts say it does not have enough credibility with other Syrian groups to sit as an official counterbalance to Assad's regime. And it might not matter, in the long run, if they don't show.
• "If the expectations to begin with are very low, then you can't really fail -- can you?" Kamran Bokhari, a Toronto-based expert on Mideast issues for the global intelligence company Stratfor, said Friday. "The constraints that the U.S. has are clear to the international community, and it's not going to be a surprise.
• "What would be a surprise is if they are able to make a difference," Bokhari said. "So nobody has too high of expectations."
• ___

• SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Gay couples in Utah have experienced a helter-skelter wave of emotions over the last three weeks: They were suddenly allowed to marry, then saw the weddings stopped by the U.S. Supreme Court and were told the state wouldn't recognize the unions.
• Now, the federal government has intervened and said it will recognize their weddings.
• The announcement Friday by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder that the government will honor gay marriage in Utah marked the latest strong show of support for same-sex weddings from the Obama administration. The action means that more than 1,000 same-sex couples who were married in Utah in the last month can file federal taxes jointly, get Social Security benefits for spouses and request legal immigration status for partners, among other benefits.
• Gay couples rejoiced over the news.
• Seth Anderson and Michael Ferguson were the first gay couple to legally marry in Utah, and they were thrilled at the thought of having the same federal benefits as straight couples. They plan to file their taxes jointly because of the change.
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