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.

This is why the rest of the world cares about America's choice of president: what President Barack Obama decides on Syria is what matters.

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.

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.

Gwynne Dyer asks, " What, if anything, should the rest of the world do about the tragedy in Egypt?"

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.

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.

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

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

Photographs of the bloodied face of a 14-year-old boy executed in front of his parents by jihadists in northern Syria show the extreme justice meted out in rebel-held areas.

Al-Qaeda's high command staked its interest in the outcome of Syria's civil war yesterday as its leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, called on jihadist fighters to build an anti-Western state after toppling President Bashar al-Assad.

Sometimes, in diplomacy, a translator is not enough. You need a code-breaker.