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We're following several stories regarding Syria Sunday, including new comments from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. There are also reports that an Islamist group with ties to al-Qaida has seized a town with a large Christian population. Elsewhere, officials in the U.S. and its allies are debating how to respond to the conflict that began in 2011, as President Obama's administration tries to shore up support for military action.

We'll update this post with news as it emerges today.

Update at 5 p.m. ET: Sampling Of Political Debate

As the Obama administration pushes for congressional support for its plan to punish Syria, White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough appeared on all five major Sunday talk shows today.

Below, we've collected a sampling of opinions that aired Sunday, using transcripts from the Federal News Service.

McDonough, speaking on NBC's Meet the Press:

"Nobody doubts the intelligence. That means that everybody believes that Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons against his own people to the tune that you just said of killing nearly 1,500 on August 21st.

"So the question for Congress this week is what are the consequences for his having done so? How Congress chooses to answer that question will be listened to very clearly in Damascus but not just in Damascus, also in Tehran and among the Lebanese Hezbollah."

... Later in the show, discussing the Obama administration's plan:

"Here is what this is not: No boots on the ground; not an extended air campaign; not a situation like Iraq and Afghanistan; not a situation even like Libya. This is a targeted, limited, consequential action to reinforce this prohibition against these weapons that unless we reinforce this prohibition will proliferate and threaten our friends and our allies."

New Mexico Sen. Tom Udall, a Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, speaking on Meet the Press:

"I haven't changed my mind, and I think the most important thing here is we all know, first of all, that what he did, Bashar Assad, was a heinous act. It's despicable. My heart is broken when I see that video, and you see women and children dying as a result of chemical weapons....

"But the big question for the Congress right now is what is the most effective way to move forward? And I think the American people don't want to be embroiled in a Middle Eastern civil war. This is an act of war that we're going to take. We haven't exhausted all of our political, economic, and diplomatic alternatives, and that's where I want to be focused. "

... Later in the show, discussing other options:

"I think what we're talking about is moving much too rapidly down the warpath and not trying to find a political solution through the international community. And Russia — we haven't even made them vote. You know, everybody says, well, Russia is going to veto it. They keep saying they haven't seen the intelligence. We ought to show them the intelligence. We ought to take the intelligence to the world and like has been done in the past, at the United Nations and the Security Council, a presentation as to exactly what has happened here and why Russia is complicit in all of this.

"And I think we have a real chance to move us forward in a very, very positive vein."

New York Rep. Peter King, a Republican on House Panels on Intelligence and Homeland Security, speaking on Meet the Press:

"I would vote yes in spite of the president's conduct."

... Later in the show, discussing regional concerns:

"I do believe, though, that there is a real axis between Syria and Iran that for Syria to be allowed to use chemical weapons, to continue to have their chemical weapons, at the same time, we're issuing a red line to Iran not to go ahead with nuclear weapons. That makes that Iran/Syria an axis predominant in the Middle East. It endangers Jordan, it endangers Israel, and that necessarily endangers our national security.

"I just wish president had laid this out better. I wish he'd quit backing away from his own red line, and I wish he was more of a commander-in-chief than the community organizer."

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, speaking on Fox News Sunday:

"Well, the interesting thing is when I see the horror of those attacks, my first impulse is that whoever would order that deserves death. I mean, someone who is a war criminal who would execute citizens and kill innocent people with any kind of weapon deserves death. But the question is the attack as I've seen the plan, as I've heard about the plan from the administration is not to target Assad, not to target regime change and to really be so surgical and so specific that it doesn't affect the outcome of the war.

... Later in the show, discussing possible outcomes:

"The worst case scenario is that the stockpiles of sarin gas begin to move about the country and maybe they go to Hezbollah and they go into Lebanon and become more of a threat to Israel. I think that is more likely to happen if we attack Assad than if we don't attack Assad.

"With regard to North Korea, I think the North Koreans know and should know absolutely if gas or conventional weapons were used on our troops ever that there would be an overwhelming response against them. They're completely separate situations."

Update at 11:30 a.m. ET: Assad Speaks To Charlie Rose

In an interview that will air on Monday, Syria's President Bashar al-Assad tells CBS News' Charlie Rose about the looming threat of a U.S. military strike and the claims that he used chemical weapons against his own citizens.

Speaking from Beirut, Rose described the interview on Face the Nation Sunday morning, saying that Assad repeated his denial of having ordered a chemical weapons attack. Assad also said the U.S. hasn't shown evidence of such an attack.

CBS News reports:

"'He does accept some of the responsibility' for the attack that killed almost 1,500 Syrian civilians — including hundreds of children, Rose said. 'I asked that very question: 'Do you feel any remorse?' He said, 'Of course I do,' but it did not come in a way that was sort of deeply felt inside. It was much more of a calm recitation of anybody who's a leader of a country would feel terrible about what's happened to its citizens."

Two large investors — Ares Management LLC and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board — have reached a deal to purchase Neiman Marcus for $6 billion, the companies said Monday. The two buyers will hold equal shares of Neiman, which is based in Dallas.

"This investment fits with our longstanding approach of accelerating growth in companies in the consumer and retail sectors," said David Kaplan, co-head of the Private Equity Group of Ares, in a news release announcing the deal.

The two large investors will take over the luxury retailer from Warburg Pincus and TPG Capital. The transaction would be finalized late this year.

"Neiman's private-equity owners TPG Capital and Warburg Pincus LLC paid about $5.1 billion for the Dallas-based retailer in 2005," reports The Dallas Morning News.

In the release announcing the purchase, Ares lists its other business holdings: "Floor & Decor, General Nutrition Centers, House of Blues, Maidenform Brands, Samsonite, Serta, Simmons, Smart & Final and 99 Only Stores."

Neiman Marcus says it has 79 stores, including 41 Neiman Marcus stores, two Bergdorf Goodman locations in Manhattan and 36 Last Call outlet centers, in addition to its online offerings that include the upscale Horchow housewares site.

On the character of Douglas, whose unexpected death brings the friends together

"Douglas is one of these characters who turns up who has what you might call limited charisma, or charisma limited to a particular circle of people, but with ambitions for it to be broader. ... Ned and the others, too, in each of their own ways, were susceptible to the antic opposition persona presented.

"... [They'd] fallen under a spell and gotten with a kind of unstated program, an oppositional program, opposition to the culture."

On Ned's wife, Nina, who is trying to get Ned to have a baby with her

"The problem for Nina with Ned is that he's been brought along to the point of being willing to do it. But she wants him to want to do it, and that means embracing the possibility of the child living in a decent world, a happier world, a better world, a world that would be [nurturing] and decent. ... He's struggling with the feeling."

Read an excerpt of Subtle Bodies

The weekend brings some higher-profile screenings, and my schedule on Saturday and Sunday reflects that. If some of the Thursday/Friday films were an opportunity to see what you may never hear about again, some of the Saturday/Sunday films are a chance to get a jump on the next four or five months of chatter.

12 Years A Slave (directed by Steve McQueen; screenplay by John Ridley): It's not for nothing that everybody is talking about how tremendous this film is and how earth-shaking is the lead performance from Chiwetel Ejiofor as a free black man in 19th century New York who's kidnapped, stripped of his identity, and sold into slavery. It really is that good. The rare film about American slavery that manages to be primarily about black people's experiences and not white people's, 12 Years is wrenching, awful, moving, beautifully rendered, and sorely needed.

Gravity (directed by Alfonso Cuaron; screenplay by Alfonso and Jonas Cuaron): The story of two astronauts (Sandra Bullock and George Clooney) who encounter serious trouble in space, Gravity is a jaw-dropping display of visual imagination and technical achievement, and it's well worth the attention it's receiving on that basis. The script is somewhat beside the point, but it does unfortunately lapse with some frequency into schlock. Nevertheless, the performances — especially from Bullock — hold up, and it's one of the best and most thoughtful uses of 3D since the technology leaped forward a few years ago.

Can A Song Save Your Life? (directed by John Carney; screenplay by Carney): John Carney's first film, Once, made him a hero to people who like musical films and sweet romances. It's a little jarring to see him making a film with stars as big as Mark Ruffalo and Keira Knightley — The Hulk and Lizzie Bennet! — not to mention an interesting turn from, of all people, Adam Levine. Nevertheless, while it lacks the delicate touch and the rough surface of Once, Can A Song Save Your Life? still shows off Carney's reverence for music, friendship, happy bands of conspirators, and complicated connections. For a movie that could have come off like a Hollywood version of something beautiful and tiny, it's actually quite successful.

The F Word (directed by Michael Dowse; screenplay by Elan Mastai): The "F" word, you see, is "friends." This romantic comedy from Michael Dowse, who most recently directed the hockey comedy Goon, stars Daniel Radcliffe and Zoe Kazan as dear pals who may or may not be destined for some greater, or at least different, bond. While it occasionally tips into indie preciousness, for the most part, The F Word (based on a play by T.J. Dawe) represents a heartfelt and very funny telling of a story that's been told a million times in the movies, usually badly and glibly. It's not perfect, but it's really a lovely piece of work, and it benefits from fine performances, including from Adam Driver, who has maybe the best delivery of a line about nachos you'll see this year.

The Double (directed by Richard Ayoade; screenplay by Ayoade): Adapted from Fyodor Dostoevsky's novella of the same name, The Double stars Jesse Eisenberg as a miserable clerical worker adrift in anonymous misery until the arrival of his doppelganger, a more assertive, successful, confident man than he's ever been. Ayoade builds a grim, greenly lit world that seems to exist at no particular moment in time other than what is suggested by the stubbornly analog technology and low-quality video, and Eisenberg is strong as both the cocky guy he usually plays and the quiet, contemplative guy he rarely plays anymore. It's a very odd, genuinely offbeat film (there were a noteworthy number of walkouts, though that can have as much to do with the timing of other screenings as the reaction to the film), but it burbles and crackles with imagination.

Life Of Crime: (directed by Daniel Schechter; screenplay by Schechter): An Elmore Leonard adaptation starring Jennifer Aniston as a wealthy woman kidnapped by two criminals, Life Of Crime is only okay, unfortunately. It always seems like it wants to be more fun than it is, and although there are a few nice moments, the conspicuous playfulness that elevates the best Leonard adaptations never emerges.