A big protest gathering has been in London to highlight huge popular opposition to Britain's military intervention in Syria.

Protesters chanted slogans against war and urged the government to learn lessons from the experiences of lies and deception circulated to justify the illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003.

The overwhelming majority of the population who attended Saturday's protest voiced strong opposition to an invasion of Syria based on U.S.-led attempts to proclaim the popular government of President Bashar al Assad in Syria of using chemical weapons against its own people in Ghouta.

Various speakers from the Stop the War Coalition (STWC) hailed the British parliament's vote against an invasion of Syria as a "victory".

STWC convenor Lindsey German, lauded the vote saying "it was a victory in parliament. It was a vote that the politicians should have had the guts to hold 10 years ago and they didn't."

German described STWC's objective as to remind British imperialism of its national interests.

"We've said for some years that one of our aims as a movement should be to break Britain from following the US in every step of its foreign policy," she said. "This week we made that possible".

The Dear Leader has Decided to pause - briefly - for a perfunctory congressional approval before triggering what could be TEOTWAWKI - the end of the world as we know it - by lobbing bombs at Syria. Which will likely result in Syria (and perhaps Iran, allied with Syria) lobbing bombs at Israel, the proxy poodle (or is it the reverse?) of the United State ("s" left of in the interests of accuracy). Whereupon the entire region - then the world - may well go up in flames. At least, until it runs out of oil.

It is shit statue-carving crazy.

Yet, "we" - meaning, they - Dear Leader and his relative handful of minions who control the missiles, the ships and "the troops" - appear determined to pursue this course nonetheless. Despite the obvious implications - and in spite of the equally obvious horn o' plenty of reasons not to do it. Wait. Check that. There is a reason - several of them, actually. Just not the ones publicly stated. No one but a madman could entertain the idea of deliberately batting at a hornet's nest that one could just as easily walk around.

What goes on inside Syria may be tragic, but it's not our tragedy. We - that is, the Dear Leader, et al, - are neither wanted nor requested - and have about as much right to lob bombs at the Syrian government over its alleged abuse of its people as Syria has to lob bombs at America over its government's abuses of its people - none of them mere assertions based on iffy "intel" but admitted to, openly, by its government. For instance, rendition.

And torture as state policy. Indefinite detention. And that's only the recent stuff. Let's not forget who helped "Saddam" gas Iranians back in the '80s. Or helped violently depose the "democratically" elected leader of Iran - ushering in the Shah and his Savak. "We" are in no position to lecture anyone about "human rights." Much less bomb them over it.

Will the "Coalition of the Willing" bomb jihadists into power in Syria?

Most Syrians are much more afraid of the anti-government jihadists than of any other force fighting on the ground. NATO member Turkey is mainly responsible for the growing number of al-Qaeda affiliated jihadists in Syria.

This report shows how Turkey allows jihadists from all over the world to use its land as a stonghold in order to fight the Syrian government. Turkey also arms the jihadists, provides them with medical treatment, and allows them to cross the Turkish-Syrian border freely without any restrictions.

The US has said it has evidence that the chemical nerve agent sarin was used in a deadly attack in Damascus last month.

When asked if the Syrian government had used chemical weapons, Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad told the BBC's Jeremy Bowen that they were used by Western-backed armed groups aka 'al-qaeda'.

He said that if there was an attack by the US, terrorism would flourish everywhere, and that US evidence for a CW attack by the Syrian government was the same as the 'evidence' for Saddam Hussein's WMDs.

King Abdallah of Saudi Arabia wished to thank France for it's offensive position in Syria by ordering the signature of a state to state contract, Life Extension Sawari 1 (LEX), for over 1 billion dollars of worth.

The public firm ODAS (the consortium gathering the DCNS, Thales and MBDA) will upgrade four frigates of Al Medinah class and two supply tankers of Boraida class, in service since 1985-1986, at the time of the Sawari I contract.

This contract could be followed by an even juicier one : the sale of six multi-mission Fremm frigates.

However, LEX was signed before the French backtracking in the Syrian bombing and it isn't certain that the favours of the monarch will persist.

Translation:
Alizée Ville

Egypt's state prosecutor says he has referred ousted President Mohammed Morsi for trial on charges of inciting the murder of protesters.

The accusations relate to violence outside the presidential palace in Cairo last December when at least seven people were killed in clashes. Fourteen other members of the Muslim Brotherhood are to stand trial on the same charges.

Mr Morsi has been held at a secret location since he was deposed in July. He faces a number of charges but this case is his first referral for trial. Since he was ousted from power, the military-backed interim government has cracked down on Brotherhood supporters, who are demanding Mr Morsi's reinstatement.

Last month, hundreds of protesters died when security forces stormed pro-Morsi camps in the capital.

Russia says the evidence provided by the United States and its allies to prove that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons is not convincing.

Russian Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said during an address to the students of the Moscow State University of International Relations on Monday, "What our American, British and French partners have shown us before - as well as now - does not convince us at all."

"There are no supporting facts. There is only repetitive talk in the vein of 'we know for sure.' And when we ask for further clarification, we receive the following response: 'You are aware that this is classified information, therefore we cannot show it to you.' So there are still no facts," Lavrov stated.

"If there truly is top secret information available, the veil should be lifted. This is a question of war and peace. To continue this game of secrecy is simply inappropriate."

Lavrov added that there were "many doubts" about the images posted on the Internet that allegedly relate to the chemical attack in Syria.

Egyptian security forces have destroyed a number of tunnels connecting the Gaza Strip and Egypt.

Video footage showed explosions and then clouds of smoke rising up in the town of Rafah, on the border between the Palestinian territory and Egypt on Saturday.

About 80 percent of the tunnels, which are used to transfer goods and medicines into Gaza from Egypt, are no longer functional due to similar incidents carried out by the Egyptian security forces.

United States intelligence documents leaked by former contractor Edward Snowden now confirm that US authorities positively identified the body of Osama bin Laden with a DNA test shortly after his May 2011 execution.

According to the Washington Post, top-secret documents provided by the national security whistleblower revealed that a DNA sample was taken from bin Laden's body around eight hours after he was killed inside his Abbottabad, Pakistan compound.

The sample, the Post reported, "provided a conclusive match" between the DNA taken from the corpse and other bin Laden intelligence.

When the Associated Press filed a Freedom of Information Act request after the May 2, 2011 killing, the Pentagon responded that it had no such testing documents in its possession. Post reporters Craig Whitlock and Barton Gellman wrote Thursday that information about the test was included within the secretive "black budget" document leaked by Mr. Snowden and published in part by the paper this week.

Anabel Hernández, journalist and author, accuses the Mexican state of complicity with the cartels, and says the 'war on drugs' is a sham. She's had headless animals left at her door and her family have been threatened by gunmen. Now her courageous bestseller, extracted below, is to be published in the UK

During January 2011, Anabel Hernández's extended family held a party at a favourite cafe in the north of Mexico City. The gathering was to celebrate the birthday of Anabel's niece. As one of the country's leading journalists who rarely allows herself time off, she was especially happy because "the entire family was there. There are so many of us that it's extremely difficult to get everybody together in one place. It hardly ever happens."

Anabel Hernández had to leave early, as so often, "to finish an article", and it was after she left that gunmen burst in. "Pointing rifles at my family, walking round the room - and taking wallets from people. But this was no robbery; no one tried to use any of the credit cards - it was pure intimidation, aimed at my family, and at me." It was more than a year before the authorities began looking for the assailants. And during that time the threats had continued: one afternoon last June, Hernández opened her front door to find decapitated animals in a box on the doorstep.

Hernández's offence was to write a book about the drug cartels that have wrought carnage across Mexico, taking some 80,000 lives, leaving a further 20,000 unaccounted for - and forging a new form of 21st-century warfare. But there have been other books about this bloodletting; what made Los Señores del Narco different was its relentless narrative linking the syndicate that has driven much of the violence - the Sinaloa cartel, the biggest criminal organisation in the world - to the leadership of the Mexican state.