BBC News with Charles Carroll
The White House says that President Obama authorizes military intervention against Syria, it will be solely in response to last week's apparent chemical weapons attack on the outskirts of Damascus. Earlier, the US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel said the US armed forces were ready for military action. From Washington here's David Willis.
There is growing sense the United States is preparing for the possibility of a military strike against Syria. A White House spokesman said the Obama administration was firmly of the view, not only that chemical weapons had been used in Syria but that it was the Syrian government that used them. The US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel told the BBC that the armed forces were ready to go should the president give the order. But Mr. Obama is still said to be weighing his options.
The British Prime Minister also stressed that any military action would aim specifically deterring the future use of such weapons. Meanwhile, Syria's key allies - Russia, Iran and China - have stepped up their warnings against the intervention. The Syrian Foreign Minister, Walid Muallem, said that his country would defend itself by all possible means for attacked. He described the allegations about chemical weapons as lies.
Police in Spain have arrested a former investment banker wanted by the US over a 2012 forged scandal which led to senior resignations of JP Morgan and several government probes into bank practice. Here's Tom Burridge.
Javier Martin-Artajo, a former investment banker JP Morgan Chase, handed himself in to police in Madrid. He is wanted in the United States on charges that he and former colleague fixed bank records on a portfolio of investments to high losses amounting to more than $6bn. After his arrest, Javier Martin-Artajo was released on bail, and his case is now being considered by Spain's High Court which will decide whether he should be extradited to the United States.
A former bank executive in the United States has admitted using nearly $400,000 of government bailout money to buy a luxury holiday home in Florida. Darryl Layne Woods was a chairman of a bank in Missouri has pleaded guilty to misleading investors of the use of the funds. Andrew Walker reports.
In late 2008, the global financial system was reeling from the collapse of the American investment bank Lehmans and the US government set up a program using taxpayers' money to restore its ability. The owner of Mainstreet Bank in Ashland, Missouri sought help, but the bank's chairman Darryl Woods now admits that he used $380,000 of the funds to buy a luxury waterside home in Florida. The US prosecutor described him as a disgraced business leader who took advantage of the situation to benefit himself and other executives. He has not been sentenced yet, but could face up to a year in prison.
World News from the BBC
Colombia's second largest rebel group, the ELN, had freed a Canadian hostage seized seven months ago. The Vice President of a Toronto-based mining company Gernot Wober was handed over to the international committee of the Red Cross at an undisclosed location in the north of the country. Mr.Wober was taken hostage by the left-wing rebels in January alongside five other workers who were released shortly after. The Colombian government has said that the ELN would only be allowed to take part in peace talks if they release all their hostages.
The Afghan President Hamid Karzai has condemned the killings by the Taliban of 12 Afghan civilians while he held two days of talks in Pakistan with the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Karen Allen reports on the Mr. Karzai's comments.
He's condemned the attacks in Herat, in the west of the country, and also attacks in the east of the country. And he basically said that there were some countries want to keep Afghanistan underdeveloped now, that was a fairly, clearly pointed to dig neighbouring Pakistan which Afghanistan has long accused of having links to the insurgency here in Afghanistan. Interesting because he comes just as he was leaving two-day talks in Islamabad, of course, he's been meeting Nawaz Sharif, the new Prime Minister of Pakistan.
Both sides are saying that they had not root out the possibility of further discussion to put stalled negotiations with the Taliban back on track.
The French President Francois Hollande has urged the United Nations and the African Union to take immediate action to bring stability to the Central African Republic which he said was at risk of going the way of Somalia. The country has become increasingly lawless since the successful rebel coup in March with accusation of widespread recruitment of child soldiers, weapons proliferation, rape and population displacement. The UN officials have warned the country on the verge of collapse, saying the crisis could affect neighbouring countries.