BBC News with Jonathan Izard

The US Secretary of State John Kerry has warned US senators before their debate on Syria next week that they must not fail to respond to what he called an undeniable chemical attack by President Assad on his own people. He said standing aside would give the green light to other dictators. But Mr. Kerry said he wanted to make it clear that President Obama's objectives were limited.

He is asking only for the power to make clear, to make certain that the United States means what we say, that the world, when we join together in a multilateral statement, mean what we say. He's asking for authorization to degrade and deter Bashar al-Assad's capacity to use chemical weapons.

The leader of the Republicans in the US House of Representatives John Boehner has said he supports Barack Obama's call for military intervention in Syria, a significant boost for the president.

The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said that if it is proved that chemical weapons were used in Syria the Security Council has an obligation to act but he added that the use of force would only be legal with UN approval. Nick Bryant reports.

While the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon stop short of using the word illegal to describe any possible military action by America against Syria. He said the use of force would only be lawful in self-defense or it backed by the Security Council. If confirmed the use of chemical weapons would mark a serious violation of international law, he said but a military response could unleash more turmoil.

“I take no to the argument for action to prevent a future uses of chemical weapons. At the same time, we must consider the impact of any punitive measure on efforts to prevent further bloodshed.”

The Secretary General said that the weapons inspectors who left Syria over the weekend were trying to expedite the process of testing their samples to find out if chemical weapons have been used.

A UN team in Iraq says it’s counted 52 bodies at a camp for Iranian dissidents where killings were reported on Sunday. A statement said most of the victims were shot in the head. The UN called on the Iraqi government to mount an impartial investigation.

Eighty thousands gold miners have begun a strike in South Africa. As the strike began the national union of mine workers said it would accept a 10% raise instead of their original demand of 60%. From Johannesburg here's Will Ross

The General Secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers Frans Baleni told the BBC that if the gold companies offered a 10% wage increase, this would be accepted and the strike would called off Despite this development, the main gold mining union has also issued a hard-hittingstatement saying the strike would change the gold mining landscape forever. It said it was aware of the devastating impact industrial action would have on the economy, calling it largely a white man's economy with no benefits for poor black mine workers..

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Parliament in Kenya has been recalled for an emergency session to debate ending the country's membership of the International Criminal Court. Kenya's Deputy President William Ruto is due to appear at the ICC next week on charges of crimes against humanity. President Uhuru Kenyatta will appear in November.

The German agency responsible for hunting down Nazi era war criminals has recommended that 30 former guards of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland face charges of helping to commit murder even if they didn't personally kill anyone. The move follows the case of former death camp guard John Demjanjuk. Two years ago, a judge decided that he was guilty of facilitating mass murder even without evidence of his direct involvement.

Efraim Zuroff of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Israel welcomedtoday's decision

This is a good indication, this is an indication that some of the prosecutors in Germany are taking their tasks very seriously, and of course, the important messages that all they should not protect people committed crimes and a passage of time no way diminished the guilty of the killers. So, certainly today, these prosecutions sent a very important, positive message.

A Communist-era prison governor in Romania has been charged with genocide. It's the first such case since the execution of the former leader Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena in 1989. Our Central Europe correspondent Nick Thorpe has the details.



Alexander Visinescu now 88 years old was commander of the prison in Ramnicu Sarat in eastern Romania from 1956 to 1963. He stands accused of responsibility for the beating and starving of prisoners and denying them basic health care during his seven years in charge. Up to 100,000 are believed by historians to have died. In his defense, Mr. Visinescu has said he was simply following orders. The prosecution is widely seen as a test case and could lead to more trials.

And that's the BBC World Service News