Edging toward a punitive strike against Syria, President Barack Obama said he was weighing "limited and narrow" action as the Administration bluntly accused Bashar Assad's Government of launching a chemical weapons attack that killed at least 1429 people.

The American and British governments should have seen this coming.

The US administration has bluntly accused Bashar Assad's government of launching a chemical weapons attack that killed at least 1,429 people - far more than previous estimates- including more than 400 children.

President Barack Obama yesterday prepared for the possibility of launching unilateral American military action against Syria within days as Britain opted out in a stunning vote by Parliament.

British PM David Cameron has lost a vote endorsing military action against Syria by 13 votes, a stunning defeat after his government was poised to join the US in strikes.

Al Jazeera correspondent Wayne Hay, formerly a TVNZ reporter, was arrested while covering events in Cairo on Tuesday along with three others, Al Jazeera reported.

Analysts believe Bashar al-Assad's regime is more likely to respond indirectly to any Western strike.

Any international action on the Syrian crisis should be mandated through the United Nations, Foreign Minister Murray McCully has emphasised.

There are two main options. America and its allies could punish President Bashar al-Assad for using chemical weapons and deter their future use.

Over the past few days, American officials have spent a lot of time studying the 1999 Kosovo conflict, with it's parallels to the Syrian conflict readily apparent.

Almost exactly a year ago US President Barack Obama promised "enormous consequences" if Syrian President Bashar al-Assad crossed a "red line" and used chemical weapons.

United States President Barack Obama has the authority to launch air strikes against Syria.

He hasn't been seen for over a year, remaining in the shadows while Bashar al-Assad has been Syria's public face.

If the casualty figures emerging from Syria this week are correct, then Wednesday's massacre on the outskirts of Damascus will be the worst poison gas attack the world has witnessed.

The United States plans to start supplying arms directly to Syrian rebels within a month, American officials said yesterday, as it emerged that the CIA has begun shipping weapons to a secret network of warehouses in neighbouring Jordan.

It's unlikely belated Western military aid will help moderate rebels attend peace talks as equals, Instead, Washington should orchestrate an accommodation.

Syrian state media had announced that "Operation Northern Storm" would retake Aleppo "within days" after regime forces captured Qusair at the beginning of June.

Regime change would geographically isolate Hizbollah from critical Iranian support, significantly weakening Iran's influence in the region, writes Chris Mahony.

More than half a million people fled Syria's civil war last year, and the UN says that number could double by the end of 2013.

Two years ago, at the beginning of the violence in Syria, I was asked to write a blog in the British Medical Journal on behalf of Medecins Sans Frontieres.

Israel is worried about continued arms supplies to the Syrian regime from Russia.

British Prime Minister David Cameron has made an attempt to bounce Russia into supporting a future for Syria without President Bashar al-Assad.