Over the last couple of weeks a western-backed (and armed) military junta slaughtered many hundreds of Egyptians in broad daylight live on television. The death toll, still concealed, may have been thousands.

The west confined itself to disapproving words and calls for "restraint" on "both sides" - even though the victims were unarmed.

In Syria hundreds of people have just been slaughtered in circumstances which are entirely unclear, and the west is about to launch (in our case without parliamentary approval with the prime minister acting from a beach in Cornwall) a military attack with entirely unforseen consequences on Damascus.

There is a "Wag the Dog" element about this, and indeed the war of President Clinton's penis satirised in that masterful award-winning movie has already proved a handy diversion from Egypt before its even started.

It is entirely implausible that the Syrian regime chose the moment of the arrival of a UN chemical weapons inspection team to launch a chemical attack on an insurgency already suffering reverse after reverse on the battlefield and steadily losing international support with each new video showing them eating the hearts of slain soldiery and sawing of the heads of Christian priests with bread knives.

In the absence of conclusive evidence one would have to believe that the Assad regime was mad as well as bad to have launched such a chemical attack at a time when it is in less danger than it has been for almost a year. I do not believe that Bashar is mad.

© Jacquelyn Martin/APBarack Obama addresses the media from his holiday home on Martha's Vineyard.

I voted for Obama reluctantly, but never did I imagine he would become another Richard Nixon

What are you thinking, Mr President?

Is this really the legacy you want for yourself: the chief executive who trampled rights, destroyed privacy, heightened secrecy, ruined trust, and worst of all, did not defend but instead detoured around so many of the fundamental principles on which this country is founded?

And I voted for you. I'll confess you were a second choice. I supported Hillary Clinton first. I said at the time that your rhetoric about change was empty and that I feared you would be another Jimmy Carter: aggressively ineffectual.

Never did I imagine that you would instead become another Richard Nixon: imperial, secretive, vindictive, untrustworthy, inexplicable.

I do care about security. I survived the attack on the World Trade Center and I believe 9/11 was allowed to occur through a failure of intelligence. I thank TSA agents for searching me: applause for security theater. I defend government's necessary secrets. By the way, I also defend Obamacare. I should be an easy ally, but your exercise of power appalls me. When I wrote about your credibility deficit recently, I was shocked that among the commenters at that great international voice of liberalism, the Guardian, next to no one defended you. Even on our side of the political divide, I am far from alone in urgently wondering what you are doing.

As a journalist, I am frightened by your vengeful attacks on whistleblowers - Manning, Assange, Snowden, and the rest - and the impact in turn on journalism and its tasks of keeping a watchful eye on you and helping to assure an informed citizenry.

Part 1

Prince Charles's friend Nicholas Soames threatened Diana six months before her death and warned her to stop meddling in a controversy over landmines, the inquest heard yesterday.

The jury was told that Diana's friend Simone Simmons had listened in on a telephone conversation at the Princess's invitation in February 1997 and heard the then Armed Forces Minister warn her "accidents can happen".

Jurors heard that Diana became embroiled in political controversy after fronting a Red Cross campaign to bring in an international ban on landmines at a time when the British government wanted an exemption for its forces.

Several senior figures in the then Tory administration spoke out against the Princess, accusing her of being a "loose cannon" and interfering in party politics at a time when Labour favoured the ban - and later brought it in.

'I've got to talk to my British colleague,' said the Russian president as he left a key fuel and energy session to take the phone call.

The contents of the call were not immediately revealed but earlier Russia warned the the US and UK that if they launches military strikes without UN approval they will commit a 'very grave violation of international law'.

UK premier David Cameron earlier returned from holiday and convened a session with military aides before the call with Putin.

Britain, France, Turkey and the US say the recent horrific 'chemical' was perpetrated by the regime of Bashar al-Assad, while Russia suggests it was a ploy by rebels aimed at discrediting the Damascus government.

President Bashar al-Assad stressed that Syria is a sovereign country that will fight terrorism and will freely build relationships with countries in a way that best serves the interests of the Syrian people.

In an interview with the Russian newspaper of Izvestia, President al-Assad stressed that "the majority of those we are fighting are Takfiris, who adopt the al-Qaeda doctrine, in addition to a small number of outlaws."

On the alleged use of chemical weapons, President al-Assad said that the statements by the US administration, the West and other countries were made with disdain and blatant disrespect of their own publics' opinion, adding that "there isn't a body in the world, let alone a superpower, that makes an accusation and then goes about collecting evidence to prove its point."

His Excellency stressed that these accusations are completely politicised and come on the back of advances made by the Syrian Army against the terrorists.

Here is the full content of the interview:

The United States helped Saddam Hussein attack Iran with chemical weapons in the 1980s during the Iran-Iraq war, it has been claimed.

Ronald Regan's administration, who supported the Iraqi dictator topple two decades later by the Bush government, fed information to Baghdad that helped them launch strikes.

U.S. officials gave Saddam's army details about the whereabouts of Iranian forces in 1988 knowing that he would deploy chemical weapons, Foreign Policy magazine reported.

Iraq used mustard gas and sarin in early 1988 in four major offensives which helped bring about the end of the eight-year conflict.

During the whole war, up to 20,000 Iranian troops were killed by mustard gas and nerve agents from Iraq and 100,000 were wounded.

They were able to launch the strikes after being given maps, satellite pictures and other intelligence by the U.S.

The Americans have always said that Iraq did not reveal that they would launch chemical strikes.

But documents released in the National Archives and interviews with former serviceman show that the U.S. acquiesced in the use of chemical weapons as they tried to help Saddam with the war.

As US Army veteran Eric Harroun awaits trial in Virginia for allegedly fighting alongside al-Qaeda supporters, the man's father claims he was working for the CIA and was reporting back to the agency from Syria.

Harroun, a 30-year-old American from Phoenix, Arizona, has been charged by the US government for conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction (namely a rocket propelled grenade launcher) to conduct an attack against the Syrian government. The US Army veteran dubbed by media 'Phoenix jihadist' appeared in numerous videos alongside members of the al-Nusra Front, designated by the State Department as a terrorist organization in December, but which has also been fighting alongside the Syrian opposition to take down the Assad regime. To date, 29 US-backed Syrian opposition groups have linked with al-Nusra, and have signed a petition calling for the support of the Islamist group that the White House believes is a branch of al-Qaeda.

Palestinian children are systematically subjected to torture and violence, including threats of rape, by Israeli interrogators, in order to force them to confess to stone-throwing.

The brutality, at the Etzion police station, in an illegal Israeli colony near the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem, is documented in a new report by the Israeli group B'Tselem:

In November 2009, B'Tselem began receiving reports of violence against Palestinian minors during interrogation at the Etzion police station. Until July 2013, B'Tselem field researchers collected 64 testimonies from residents of eight communities in the southern West Bank who reported such incidents. Fifty-six of them were minors at the time of their interrogation. The testimonies described severe physical violence during the interrogation or preliminary questioning, which, in some cases, amounted to torture. The violence included slaps, punches and kicks to all parts of the body, and blows with objects, such as a gun or a stick. Some of the former interrogatees also reported threats: in twelve cases, they claimed that the interrogator had threatened them or female relatives with sexual assault, such as rape and genital injury. In six cases, the interrogatees claimed that the interrogators had threatened to execute them; in eight cases, the interrogators allegedly threatened to harm family members; and in five other cases, they allegedly threatened to electrocute the interrogatees, including in a way that would damage their fertility.

Israel has granted oil exploration rights inside Syria, in the occupied Golan Heights, to Genie Energy. Major shareholders of Genie Energy - which also has interests in shale gas in the United States and shale oil in Israel - include Rupert Murdoch and Lord Jacob Rothschild.

This from a 2010 Genie Energy press release:

Claude Pupkin, CEO of Genie Oil and Gas, commented, "Genie's success will ultimately depend, in part, on access to the expertise of the oil and gas industry and to the financial markets. Jacob Rothschild and Rupert Murdoch are extremely well regarded by and connected to leaders in these sectors. Their guidance and participation will prove invaluable."

"I am grateful to Howard Jonas and IDT for the opportunity to invest in this important initiative," Lord Rothschild said. "Rupert Murdoch's extraordinary achievements speak for themselves and we are very pleased he has agreed to be our partner. Genie Energy is making good technological progress to tap the world's substantial oil shale deposits which could transform the future prospects of Israel, the Middle East and our allies around the world."