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Syrian Minister says US strike would benefit al-Qaeda

Any US military action against Syria would amount to “support for al-Qaeda and its affiliates,” Damascus has said.

Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad also told the BBC that armed groups backed by America – not Syrian troops – had used chemical weapons.

The US says it has evidence that Damascus used the nerve agent sarin in a deadly attack in August.

President Barack Obama has vowed punitive action but wants Congress to vote on the issue first.

The alleged chemical attack took place on 21 August in the eastern suburbs of Damascus. The US says more than 1,400 people were killed, including 426 children.

The French government has said it will hand over its own evidence to French lawmakers on Monday, linking the Syrian regime to the attack.

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UN says Syria conflict has reached new levels of brutality

Syria’s war has reached “new levels of brutality”, the UN says, with evidence of fresh suspected massacres, sieges and violations of children’s rights.

Children have been taken hostage, forced to watch torture and even participate in beheadings, it says; others have been killed while fighting.

It says it suspects there are “reasonable grounds” to believe chemical weapons have been deployed.

It urges foreign powers not to increase the availability of arms in Syria.

The issue of arms has been high on the international agenda of late, with the EU lifting an embargo on the sale of arms to Syria while Russia has insisted it is going ahead with the sale of an advanced S-300 surface-to-air missile defence system to Syria.

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Outrage at Syrian rebel seen eating soldier’s heart

A video which appears to show a Syrian rebel taking a bite from the heart of a dead soldier has been widely condemned.

US-based Human Rights Watch identified the rebel as Abu Sakkar, a well-known insurgent from the city of Homs, and said his actions were a war crime.

The main Syrian opposition coalition said he would be put on trial.

The video, which cannot be independently authenticated, seems to show him cutting out the heart.

“I swear to God we will eat your hearts and your livers, you soldiers of Bashar the dog,” the man says, referring to President Bashar al-Assad as he stands over the soldier’s corpse.

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Russia and United States agree to hold Syria Conference

Russia and the US have agreed to work towards convening an international conference to find a political solution to the conflict in Syria.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Secretary of State John Kerry announced it would follow on from an Action Group for Syria meeting in Geneva last June.

Mr Kerry said they would try to “bring both sides to the table”.

Relations between Moscow and Washington have been strained in the last two years by differences over Syria.

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G8 ministers condemn North Korea nuclear moves

Foreign ministers from the G8 group of nations have condemned in the “strongest possible terms” North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes.

Tensions have risen on the Korean peninsula in recent weeks.

The ministers also expressed “deep concerns about the increasing human tragedy of the conflict in Syria”.

They also endorsed what they called a historic pledge on preventing sexual violence in conflict.

The Group of Eight nations comprises the US, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada and Russia.

Britain currently holds the rotating chairmanship of the G8 and the talks are a prelude to the annual G8 summit later this year in Northern Ireland.

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