BBC News with Julie Candler
Divisions over Syria remain as wide as ever at the end of G20 summit in the Russian city of St Petersburg. President Putin said most leaders at the summit were opposed to military action against President Assad, and he restated his belief that such intervention would be a breach of international law.
“The use of force against a sovereign state is possible only if self-defence is involved, but Syria doesn’t pose a threat to the United States. And second, under the mandate of the United Nations, as it was said yesterday by one of the participants of our discussions, those who act unilaterally violate international law.”
President Obama said there had been unanimity around the dinner table that the convention against the use of chemical weapons should be upheld, and that most people believe President Assad had been responsible for their use last month.
“Here in St Petersburg leaders from Europe, Asia and the Middle East have come together to say that the international norm against the use of chemical weapons must be upheld and that the Assad regime used these weapons on its own people, and that as a consequence, there needs to be a strong response.”
Eleven countries have condemned the use of chemical weapons in Syria and said evidence clearly indicated that the government in Damascus had been responsible. In a statement, the countries including ten of those which attended the G20 summit, said the use of chemical weapons diminished the security of people everywhere. The signatories said that while they supported strong action by the UN Security Council, the world could not wait for endless failed processes that would only lead to increased suffering.
Polls opened shortly in Australia’s general election after a campaign dominated by the economy, immigration and a controversial carbon tax. Opinion polls put the centre-right opposition coalition led by Tony Abbott ahead of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s Labor Party, which has been power for six years. But Mr Rudd has not given up.
“So what I’d say to each and every one of you is to get out there and to fight and to fight and to fight.”
For his part, Mr Abbott has been trying to avoid sounding complacent.
“Yes, there is a sense of anticipation, but there is no sense here tonight that this is a done deal.”
Both candidates have vowed to toughen up the country’s policies on asylum seekers.
A judge in the US state of Montana who admitted he’d been too lenient when sentencing a man for rape has been told he can’t modify the sentence. There was an outcry after Judge G Todd Baugh sentenced an ex-teacher to a month in jail for raping a 14-year-old student who later killed herself. The judge had also faced criticism for his remarks that the girl was, as he put it, as much in control of the situation as the teacher. As anger mounted, Judge Baugh ordered a hearing to review the sentence, but the Montana Supreme Court has ruled that he cannot unilaterally proceed with it.
World News from the BBC
The Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has said that the Farc rebels will be allowed to keep their weapons until any agreement to end five decades of armed conflict is ratified by the Colombian people. Mr Santos said no one could expect the rebels to give up their weapons before a peace accord gets final approval in a referendum. He added that an immediate ceasefire would be implemented once a deal was reached in talks underway in Cuba. Critics of the process have said a referendum should not be held until Colombia’s largest rebel group disarms.
American spy agencies have said their work is likely to be damaged by the latest media revelations based on documents from the former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden. With more details, here’s Katy Watson in Washington.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence said it shouldn’t come as a surprise that intelligence agencies look for ways to counteract activities by their enemies; otherwise, they wouldn’t be doing their job. The comments come a day after UK newspaper, the Guardian, and the New York Times reported that American and British intelligence agencies had developed ways of cracking the technology for secure sites such as internet banking. US intelligence said the leaks, while adding to the public debate, could also damage intelligence efforts.
The authorities in Zimbabwe have arrested five people suspected of killing more than 40 elephants with cyanide poison. The animals were killed in Hwange National Park and had their tusks removed. A spokeswoman for the Zimbabwean parks authority said it was the largest number of elephants poached in a single incident.
Researchers in the United States are starting human clinical trials of a vaccine implant which targets skin cancer. The implant, the size of a fingernail, is placed under the skin and re-programmes a patient’s immune system to destroy cancerous melanoma cells. The technique was trialled successfully in mice in 2009 after the mice that received two doses of the vaccine showed complete regression of their tumours.