Delhi Gang Rape: Four Men Sentenced To Death

By Neville Lazarus, Sky News Producer, in Delhi

Four men have been sentenced to death for the fatal gang rape of a 23-year-old woman on a bus in Delhi.

A judge said Akshay Thakur, Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta and Mukesh Singh should be hanged after they were convicted of the brutal attack.

In his 230-page judgement, Yogesh Khanna said the severity of the crime meant it fell into the "rarest of rare" category, telling the men: "We cannot turn a blind eye towards such a gruesome crime. There cannot be any tolerance.

"The victim was tortured to the end. There is a zero tolerance in society for such a crime."

A police vehicle carrying the four men arrives at a court in Delhi

Thakur, 28, Sharma, 20, Gupta, 19, and Singh, 26, lured their victim and her male friend onto the bus last December before raping the woman, assaulting her with an iron bar and dumping her on the roadside with her friend.

She suffered serious internal injuries and died in hospital in Singapore 13 days after the attack, which triggered violent protests across India.

New laws were introduced and existing ones amended, while fast-track courts were set up to try men accused of sexual crimes.

Police used CCTV images to track the bus and arrested two of the accused within 24 hours of the attack.

Tight security was in place outside Delhi's Saket District Court

The court case relied on evidence from the victim given to a magistrate before her death, as well as statements from her friend, forensic evidence, fingerprints and DNA samples.

Bite marks were also matched with dental impressions of the men.

A defence lawyer in the case had asked for sentences of life imprisonment, saying Indian law calls for execution only in exceptional cases.

The counsel referred to their family background and economic status and said they had clean past records.

However, prosecutor Dayan Krishnan joined the victim's family and leading politicians in calling for the men to be given the death penalty, telling the court: "There can be nothing more diabolic than a helpless girl put through torture."

Protesters outside court had called for the men to face the death penalty

The father of the victim said he was satisfied with the verdict, telling reporters: "We are very happy. Justice has been delivered."

Besides rape and murder, Thakur, Sharma, Gupta and Singh were found guilty of three abduction offences and various other counts, including attempted murder, banditry, destruction of evidence, voluntarily causing hurt in committing robbery and dishonestly receiving stolen property.

Defence lawyers said they will appeal to the High Court and, if necessary, the Supreme Court.

A fifth defendant in the case, Ram Singh, was found hanged in his cell in Delhi's Tihar prison in March.

A woman lights a candle at a vigil for the 23-year-old victim

A sixth person, who was a juvenile at the time of the attack, has already been found guilty of murder, rape and kidnapping and sentenced to three years in a correction facility.

On an average, judges in India hand down 130 death sentences a year, although in the last 17 years only three executions have taken place.

India, which voted against a draft UN resolution calling for a global moratorium on executions, currently has 477 death row prisoners.

According to the National Crimes Records Bureau, 1,121 rape cases were recorded in Delhi in the first eight months of the year - double the number in the same period in 2012.

Police say the increase is due to more cases being reported.

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Mark Bridger: Prisoner Admits Knife Attack

A prisoner has admitted slashing child killer Mark Bridger across the face at one of Britain's most secure jails.

Bridger, who was jailed earlier this year for abducting and murdering five-year-old April Jones, needed hospital treatment after he was attacked with a makeshift blade on July 7.

Bridger was sentenced on May 30 and was sent to HMP Wakefield, a category A prison where some of Britain's most dangerous offenders are held.

Juvinai Ferreira, 22, admitted attacking Bridger as he appeared via videolink for a short hearing at Leeds Crown Court.

On screen in court, Ferreira, originally from Gambia, looked bored and propped his head up with his hand for most of the proceedings.

At one point, he could be heard asking his guards: "I thought this was going to be quick?"

After judge Christopher Batty told him the case was going to be adjourned until sentencing on October 2, Ferreira said to him: "Can you just not sentence me? I can't keep coming back. Just give me anything and move on."

Ferreira is serving a life sentence for the murder of Elaine Walpole in Dereham, Norfolk, in April 2008.

Bridger was attacked by a fellow prisoner at HMP Wakefield

At the time police said Ferreira moved to Dereham in 2007 with a relative after escaping civil war in Africa.

He befriended Miss Walpole, an alcoholic who lived alone, after they met at a shop and she bought him cigarettes.

A post-mortem examination showed the 47-year-old mother-of-three had been stabbed three times and bitten.

Prosecutors in the case described Ferreira as "sex-crazed".

Father-of-six Bridger, 47, abducted April as she played near her home in Machynlleth in Powys before murdering the schoolgirl.

A judge at Mold Crown Court sentenced the former slaughterhouse worker to a whole-life tariff in May.

The five-year-old's body has never been found.

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Vince Cable Raises Help-To-Buy Doubts

Vince Cable has called for the Government's flagship help-to-buy property scheme to be reconsidered in comments likely to anger George Osborne.

The Business Secretary told Sky News there was a risk of a "new housing bubble" because of recent changes in the market.

Mr Osborne's plans were a key plank of his Budget last year but prompted fears of a price surge because they do not address property availability.

Under the first stage, an equity loan scheme allows buyers with only a 5% deposit to buy a new-build property worth up to £600,000.

In January, the scheme will be extended to include a mortgage guarantee for buyers of any home up to the same value with deposits of 5-20%.

It is due to last for three years.

Asked if it should be rethought, Mr Cable said: "We should certainly think about how it should come into effect, indeed whether it should come into effect in the light of changing market conditions.

"We don't want a new housing bubble."

He cited warnings from experts including from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors this week about the "real risk" involved.

George Osborne recently hailed the change in economic fortunes

"I think in many parts of the country it clearly isn't a problem. If you are in Northern Ireland or Wales or indeed the East Midlands you would wonder what all this is about," he said.

"But certainly in London and the South East, in the north east of Scotland, in other areas, there are serious housing inflationary pressures."

Despite the warning, Treasury sources confirmed the Government's commitment to the policy and its launch next year.

Government sources added there were no plans for a rethink but that Mr Cable wants the Bank of England to keep a close eye on the scheme's effects.

His comments came as he was due to warn about "complacency" over Britain's economic recovery, insisting ministers cannot "rest on our laurels".

The Business Secretary will say later that a "few quarters of good economic data" does not mean the country is out of the woods.

The comments, in a speech to business leaders, follow Mr Osborne's declaration on Monday that the economy was finally "turning a corner".

The senior Lib Dem's intervention is likely to revive old tensions with the Chancellor after several clashes in the past.

It will also be seen as a piece of political positioning ahead of the party conference season, with the Lib Dems keen to put some distance between themselves and their Tory coalition partners.

In his address at Warwick University, Mr Cable will admit there are "encouraging" signs on the economy, but declare there is still further to go.

"We can't rest on our laurels. The kind of growth we want won't simply emerge of its own volition. In fact, I see a number of dangers. One is complacency, generated by a few quarters of good economic data," he will say.

"It isn't difficult to see evidence of confidence returning, and there are positive trends in production. Taken together with success stories like the car industry and export growth in emerging markets, we have the beginnings of a recovery story.

"But there are risks, not least the housing market getting out of control. Recovery will not be meaningful until we see strong and sustained business investment - and this is still 13% down on its 2008 peak and, as a share of GDP, is currently the lowest in the G7."

Mr Cable will stress that the improving economic news does not mean that the need for long-term restructuring and rebalancing could be forgotten.

"If we are to turn the British economy around on a sustainable basis there will have to be relatively rapid growth of exports and import substitutes," he will say

In a further sideswipe at Tory critics, he will also emphasise the need for the Government to have an industrial strategy, following a series of "classic market failures".

He will point out that Britain's growth rate for creating advanced skills put the UK just 20th out of the 27 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries.

But he will also argue that his work on industrial strategy will last beyond the election because it is supported across the business world and political parties.

Shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna said Mr Cable had delivered an "embarrassing slap-down" to Mr Osborne.

However, he insisted the Lib Dems could not distance themselves from the Chancellor's economic strategy.

"It also reminds everyone that you can't trust a word the Lib Dems say. Vince Cable has supported the Chancellor's policies which choked off the recovery in 2010," he said.

"Three wasted years of flatlining that has left families worse off and done long term damage to our economy is his record and he should take responsibility for it."

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Syria: UN Accuses Assad As Obama Backtracks

President Barack Obama has confirmed that a vote on air strikes against Syria is off - for now.

In an address to the nation he said he had asked Congress to postpone any decision on military action so a diplomatic solution could be pursued.

It came ahead of the release of a UN report that confirmed at least eight massacres had been carried out in Syria by President Bashar al Assad's regime and one by rebels over the past year and a half.

The UN commission investigating human rights abuses in Syria described the country as a battlefield where "massacres are perpetrated with impunity," and said it was looking into nine more suspected mass killings since March.

Despite Mr Obama's decision to postpone the Congress vote, he said he remained cautious about Russia's plan for Syria to declare its chemical weapons - saying it was "too early to tell" if an agreement could be reached.

Towns and cities across Syria have been destroyed

He said the images and videos of men, women and children dying in the suspected gas attack by the Assad regime were sickening and demanded a response.

But speaking from the East Room in the White House, he said he had asked Congress to postpone a vote on action in Syria while the possibility of a diplomatic solution is pursued.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al Moallem said the regime was ready to co-operate fully with the Russian proposal to put its chemical weapons under international control, and would stop producing more.

Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to Geneva to meet his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Thursday.

But Mr Obama has ordered the US military to maintain its current posture to keep the pressure on Mr Assad's regime should diplomacy fail.

"It is too early to tell whether this offer will succeed," he said. "And any agreement must verify that the Assad regime keeps its commitments. But this initiative has the potential to remove the threat of chemical weapons without the use of force."

Poison gas canisters

Mr Obama once again ruled out putting American "boots on the ground", but added that with "modest effort and risks", limited strikes could make Syria safer.

"A targeted strike can make Assad - or any other dictator - think twice about using chemical weapons," he said.

He accepted that many Americans were weary of military action after the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Mr Obama said the limitations he was imposing on the potential strike would ensure against the US sliding down a slippery slope into another prolonged war.

"The purpose of this strike would be to deter Assad from using chemical weapons, to degrade his regime's ability to use them and to make clear to the world that we will not tolerate their use," he explained.

Mr Obama insisted the US was not the "world's policeman", but said when ideals, principles and security are at stake, his country must act.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was quoted by state TV as saying: "We hope that the new US attitude toward Syria would be a serious policy and not a media campaign.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said he hoped the US was serious about its stance

"The latest developments, if they can be taken seriously, show that they (US and its allies) have stepped back from the inconsiderate and mistaken actions that they had taken in the past few weeks."

At the United Nations, Britain, France and the US discussed elements of a draft Security Council resolution that would include a timeline for Syria to declare the full extent of its poison gas arsenal and to cede control of it to the UN.

An official close to French president Francois Hollande, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said tense negotiations had begun on a proposed resolution.

They said Russia objected not only to making the resolution militarily enforceable, but also to blaming the Syrian government for the chemical attack on August 21 that sparked the recent crisis.

The official said Russia also refused to agree on a demand that those responsible for the attack be taken before an international criminal court.

Russian President Vladimir Putin previously insisted the handover of weapons would only work if the US rejected a use of force against Syria.

Sky Moscow Correspondent Katie Stallard said: "Russia would be quite content for this now to get bogged down at the UN Security Council, because they are keenly aware here that there's a clock ticking down all the while, that President Obama is making his case for military action now.

"As long as the perception remains that there is a peaceful solution available, whether or not in the long term that is enforceable, they will be satisfied that it is taking the wheels off his argument and the momentum behind the calls for military action."

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Le Vell Trial: Prosecutor Denies 'Witch-Hunt'

One of Britain's top prosecutors has denied actor Michael Le Vell was subjected to a celebrity "witch-hunt", as the debate about whether to give anonymity to those accused of sex crimes continues to rage.

Nazir Afzal, the Crown Prosecution Service lead on child sexual exploitation, insisted "nobody should be above the law" and said he would not shy away from high profile cases.

It comes after Le Vell, who plays Kevin Webster in the ITV soap Coronation Street, was cleared of all 12 charges against him by a jury at Manchester Crown Court.

"I absolutely detest this word witch-hunt. It is not a witch-hunt," Mr Afzal said.

"We look at the evidence. We follow the evidence. We present the evidence."

He said it "does not matter" if, when looking at the evidence, "it takes us to someone who might have drawn attention to themselves publicly in some way, shape or form".

Mr Afzal says evidence against celebrities will continue to be investigated

Defence lawyer Nick Freeman told Sky News that Le Vell's acquittal "urgently highlights" the need for anonymity for those accused of sexual offences until they are convicted.

"These heinous allegations carry a terrible social stigma and a revulsion that transcends most other criminal offences," he said.

"These don't die with an acquittal - they say with a person for the rest of their life."

However, Mark Williams-Thomas, a child protection expert, argued that under the current system victims feel "more confident" in coming forward and speaking to the police.

"We need to look at the detrimental effect not naming individuals could have," he said.

"We know that as a result of the (Jimmy) Savile investigations, people came forward and made allegations.

Ex-broadcaster Hall is serving a 30-month jail sentence for sexual assault

"Stuart Hall was then prosecuted, having initially vehemently denied the allegations ... and is now in jail."

Le Vell's legal team argued it was a "strange case of child rape" without any DNA evidence or injuries to the alleged victim, who claimed she had been raped and abused when she was younger.

Jurors were told to decide whether the girl was telling the truth or had set out to "quite literally destroy" the actor's life.

Sky News Correspondent Nick Martin, outside the Manchester studios of ITV, which is in talks with Le Vell about a return to Coronation Street, said the debate about anonymity had divided opinion.

"In the past, it's been very difficult for people who have been acquitted to move on," he said.

"Many people think the slur and the stigma can go on to ruin people's lives.

"On the other side of the argument ... other victims see that person going through the court. It's claimed they are then encouraged to come forward and that their evidence can bolster cases."

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Newlywed Accused Of Pushing Husband Off Cliff

A woman in Montana has been accused of killing her husband of eight days by pushing him off a cliff at Glacier National Park after an argument.

Jordan Graham, 22, was charged with second-degree murder in a court in Missoula for the death of her husband Cody Johnson, 25.

Mr Johnson was reported missing on July 8, a day after he is believed to have died.

According to court documents, Graham told officers her husband had texted her the evening of July 7 to say he was going for a drive with friends.

She said he left in a dark car and never returned.

Days later, she told emergency dispatchers at Glacier National Park that she had found her husband's body below a hiking trail on the famous Going-to-the-Sun Road.

However, Graham later told authorities she had lied about Mr Johnson's death and that she had shoved him off a cliff during an argument while hiking, according to a court affidavit.

Graham said Mr Johnson had grabbed her arm during the dispute.

A view of Jackson Glacier in Montana from the Going-to-the-Sun Road

"Graham stated she could have just walked away, but due to anger, she pushed Johnson with both hands in the back and as a result, he fell face first off the cliff," according to a sworn statement by FBI Special Agent Steven Liss, who took her confession.

A post-mortem examination confirmed Mr Johnson's injuries were consistent with a fall from a cliff.

The two were married on June 29. Soon after the wedding, the woman told a friend that she was having second thoughts about marrying him, according to Special Agent Liss.

The evening of July 7, she texted the friend: "Oh well, I'm about to talk to him."

In a subsequent text message she said: "But dead serious if u don't hear from me at all again tonight, something happened."

Family friend Tracey Maness told Western Montana newspaper Missoulian: "She'd been telling people she knew she never wanted to be married, she just wanted to have a wedding, and that's apparently what they were arguing about."

Graham made an appearance in court on Monday and is being detained, news reports say.

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Turkey: Mother Dead After British Family Shot

A gunman reportedly shot a British woman dead and injured her son and mother during a family holiday in Turkey.

The woman killed was named locally as Catherine Anne Bury, aged 56, from Swainby, North Yorkshire.

Also shot and now recovering in hospital were her son Alex, who is in his early  20s and who lived with her, and her mother Celia Bury, in her 80s from Nunthorpe, Middlesbrough.

According to reports, the family were shot while celebrating a birthday party at the villa in the resort of Dalyan on Turkey's south coast.

The Yorkshire Post newspaper said the gardener had argued with the family, who reported him to Turkish police.

He was detained, but headed back to the villa on his release and opened fire. He is said to have given himself up after the shooting and is due in court.

Stephen Garbutt, 72, who lives in the adjoining bungalow to the dead woman in Swainby, said: "I never ever heard a bad word, or a cross word or anything like that from any of them.

"How on earth they got into this situation I cannot imagine. I have never known Anne, for want of a better word, in trouble."

The Foreign Office confirmed in a statement: "We are aware of the death of a British national in Turkey on September 9.

"We are providing consular assistance to the family at this difficult time."

The statement added: "We can confirm the hospitalisation of two British nationals in Turkey on September 9."

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Ed Miliband Stands By His Union Reforms

Ed Miliband has warned union leaders they must have the "courage to change" as he rejected criticism of his controversial reforms.

The Labour leader told the TUC Congress he is "absolutely determined" to drive through the plans to overhaul his party's union links.

Union leaders are furious at the plans, accusing the Labour leader - who was elected to the top job on the back of their votes - of living in "cloud cuckoo land".

MPs have also warned Labour faces financial meltdown because of the changes, which have already prompted the GMB union to slash its funding by more than £1m.

Mr Miliband, in a speech made without notes, admitted ending the automatic affiliation of union members to Labour would be a "massive challenge".

But he told delegates in Bournemouth, who included some of his toughest union critics, that sticking with the current system was a "bigger risk".

Ed Miliband reading through his speech on the train to Bournemouth

Mr Miliband claimed party membership could soar to 500,000 or more if his plans are embraced by union chiefs, making Labour a "genuine living, breathing movement".

"It will be a massive challenge for the Labour Party to reach out to your members in a way that we have not done for many years and persuade them to be part of what we do," he said.

"And like anything that is hard, it is a risk. But the bigger risk is just saying let's do it as we have always done it ...

"We have to have the courage to change ... It is the right thing to do ... and I am absolutely determined this change will happen."

In an attempt to mollify union chiefs, Mr Miliband also gave a robust defence of trade unionism as he accused David Cameron of ignoring ordinary workers.

He used the word "friends" at least three times in the address and hailed union members as "the backbone of Britain".

The leader claimed the Tories only looked out for the rich and vowed to build an economy for working people if he wins power in 2015.

His pledge to ban zero-hours contracts was the most warmly received part of the address, which otherwise only generated polite applause in the hall.

He also outlined plans to help young people out of unemployment with a greater focus on apprenticeships, and for a new British investment bank to fund small businesses.

But during a follow-up Q&A session, a delegate who accused him of giving "contradictory" messages on the economy was applauded for speaking out.

Janice Godrich, from the PCS union, said: "Ed Balls says this is the wrong sort of recovery but you are also fundamentally committed to the Tories' spending plans.

"You say the next election will be about living standards but you are committed to extending the pay cap.

"Your policies seem contradictory and they are confusing people. Can we get a clear answer: are you for or against austerity?"

Mr Miliband said he was "absolutely clear" that the party was anti-austerity but warned Labour would face tough choices if it regained power and had to be "credible".

Unite boss Len McCluskey expressed his support after the address, hailing Mr Miliband for looking like a "real leader" and laying down lots of "flags" for the future.

He said he was "beginning to seal the deal" with workers, adding: "We look forward to getting more meat on the bone in the coming months."

Unison's general secretary Dave Prentis also welcomed the measures on the economy but warned talking about reforming union ties was a "turn-off".

"He talks about having the 'courage to change' but I was always told if something ain't broke, why fix it?," he said.

Bob Crow, leader of the Rail Maritime and Transport union, called the speech a "wasted opportunity" and claimed Mr Miliband looked "like a terrified rabbit caught in the glare of of the Tory headlights."

The party leader unveiled proposals to change Labour's relationship with the unions after allegations of ballot-fixing by Unite in Falkirk surfaced earlier this year.

There was immediate concern about how this would affect party coffers and last week the GMB and Unison both cut their funding.

The row intensified over the weekend after an internal Labour investigation cleared Unite and its preferred candidate of any wrongdoing in the Scottish selection race.

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Syria Agrees To Hand Over Chemical Weapons

Weapons Handover 'Is Unrealistic'

Updated: 1:31pm UK, Tuesday 10 September 2013

By Tim Marshall, Foreign Affairs Editor

The Russian proposal for Syria to voluntarily give up its chemical weapons is logistically unrealistic but diplomatically clever.

US Secretary of State John Kerry either blundered into a Russian trap, or disguised an offer as an off-the-cuff remark when he suggested Syria could avoid air strikes by handing over its chemical weapons within a week. Most analysts believe it to be the latter.

Either way, it took about an hour for his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov to seize the moment and make his proposal.

A giant smokescreen quickly enveloped the international stage, but behind it you could hear a large ladder being dragged on to give everyone an opportunity to climb down from their current positions, especially Barack Obama.

The UN quickly embraced the proposal, the British and French gave it a cautious welcome, the Americans said they would look at it, the Syrians did what they will continue to do - they prevaricated.

Everyone spoke with a straight face. They either don't know the complexities behind the reality of the Russian idea, or they felt it better to ignore them until the smoke clears and the route down the ladder becomes apparent.

Who would actually go to Syria and secure the weapons under the auspices of the UN is unclear. It would take hundreds of scientists and others, and it could take months.

Syria is thought to have 1,000 tons of chemical weapons spread across dozens of sites.

In the event of full co-operation by the government, which has yet to even admit it has such weapons, the UN would have to beg, borrow and steal the experts from a variety of countries prepared to put their top scientists at risk.

It would also have to assemble a support team.

In the meantime Syria would have to sign and ratify the Convention on Chemical Weapons.

When the UN teams arrived they could venture to some of the relatively safe areas under government control, but getting to sites in contested areas would be problematic.

To put that into English, the UN inspectors would risk being shelled by the Syrian army as it attacked other targets, shot at by rebels for being part of the process which stopped US air strikes, blown up by roadside bombs, and kidnapped by whichever local gang wanted to get themselves into trouble.

This is not the type of job the world's top chemical weapons scientists are best suited for even with a UN security force alongside them.

In a controlled environment the Russian proposal can work. Syria is not a controlled environment.

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England Fans Injured In Ukraine Knife Attack

A group of England football fans have been attacked in Kiev ahead of the World Cup qualifier with Ukraine, local media reports.

Around 30 hooded Ukrainians armed with knives brawled with England supporters in a coffee shop, the Komsomolskaya Pravda reported.

The attackers then fled, and no one has been arrested.

Three of the England fans were taken to hospital – one with a stab wound, one with a head injury, and a third with severe bruising.

Three England fans were taken to hospital

It is understood two of the supporters have been released from hospital.

Amateur video showed one of the injured men lying on the pavement with other people attending to him while police and ambulances arrived.

The Foreign Office said: "We are aware of incidents in Kiev involving British nationals. We are providing consular assistance."

England will take on their Ukrainian opponents in Kiev's Olympic Stadium on Tuesday night.

A win for England would move them to within touching distance of a place in next summer's finals in Brazil.

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Syria: Live Updates As US Congress Meets

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8:27am UK, Monday 09 September 2013

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Michael Le Vell Rape Trial: Live Updates

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9:46am UK, Monday 09 September 2013

Michael Le Vell denies 12 charges of sex abuse

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Syria Warns America 'To Expect Everything'

Syrian President Bashar al Assad has warned America "to expect everything" if it attacks in retaliation for his alleged use of chemical weapons that killed more than 1,400 civilians in Damascus.

Speaking in an interview to US television network CBS, Mr Assad denied he was behind the chemical atrocity on August 21 and said the US had provided "not a single shred of evidence" that his forces were involved.

When pressed by CBS correspondent Charlie Rose about what would happen if the US attacked Syria, he replied "every action".

Asked if that could include the use of more chemical weapons, he said: "That depends. If the rebels or the terrorists in this region or any other group have it, it could happen. I don't know. I'm not a fortune teller to tell you what's going to happen..."

Meanwhile, America has urged President Assad to hand over his chemical weapons, saying it was the only way to stop a military strike against his forces.

US Secretary of State John Kerry made the demand after flying into London for talks with British Foreign Secretary William Hague in the latest stage of his diplomatic tour to garner support for attacking Mr Assad's regime.

President Assad said war would not bring the US economic or political gain

He told a news conference at the Foreign Office that the US "was not going to war" with troops on the ground, but was instead planning a "very limited, very targeted, very short-term" strike.

But, conversely, he added: "Let me be clear, the United States, President Obama, myself, others, are in full agreement that the end of the conflict in Syria requires a political solution. There is no military solution, we have no illusions about that."

He again set out the evidence America claims it has that the Syrian government was behind the gas attack, saying the "risk of not acting is greater than the risk of acting".

Sky's Foreign Affairs Editor, Tim Marshall, said that by telling President Assad he could avoid American action by turning over every chemical weapon he has in the next week, Mr Kerry was giving him an option.

"Damascus could now engage in linguistic gymnastics, admit it has small quantities of chemicals, and suggest the United Nations comes to secure them as quickly as possible," Marshall said.

A Free Syrian Army fighter in Raqqa province, eastern Syria

"Given that 'quickly' and the 'UN' do not usually belong in the same sentence, that could drag things out for weeks. This is an unlikely scenario, but it is puzzling as to why Mr Kerry even bothered to formulate what can be taken as an ultimatum."

Mr Kerry also stressed the importance of the "special relationship" between the US and Britain and said the two countries were "enormously tied together".

Mr Hague said the US has Britain's "full diplomatic support" and supported "mustering a strong international response" to Mr Assad's alleged use of chemical weapons.

It came as Mr Assad thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin for his support during the G20 summit last week.

This morning, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned Western leaders that any military strikes would cause an "outburst of terrorism" in the region and spark a new wave of refugees.

"The possibility for a political solution remains," he said after talks with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al Muallem, saying Damascus was still "ready for peace talks".

Congress will vote on whether to launch military action in Syria

US politicians are set to discuss backing for military action against Syria as President Barack Obama prepares to make a series of TV appearances to push his case.

Congress will start debating the issue today and are expected to vote later this week on whether to authorise force against the Syrian regime.

While the White House believes an endorsement from the Senate could be within reach, Mr Obama faces a wall of opposition from both Republicans and from many of his Democratic allies in the House of Representatives.

The White House has refused to state whether Mr Obama, elected in 2008 promising to end foreign wars, would order a strike even if Congress votes "no".

In a determined final effort for military backing, Mr Obama is due to appear on six US TV networks today, ahead of delivering a live address to the nation on Tuesday.

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