Speaking on Friday about the alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria earlier this week, the US President Barack Obama said that it was a "big event of grave concern" and would "require America's attention".

Despite calls from many states for the Assad regime to effectively 'prove' its innocence by the allowing the UN's chemical weapons inspectors immediate access to the area and investigate, there is no sign of the Assad regime relenting.

Speaking to CNN, Obama added,

The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced the assignment of a disarmament official to negotiate a visit for UN investigators to verify alleged chemical weapons usage.

Former Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, could be freed from prison on Thursday, after a court in Cairo ordered his release.

The 85-year old was sentenced for life in a corruption case last year, however an appeal was successful and a retrial was ordered.

He was imprisoned over the acceptance of gifts from a state-run publisher and still faces separate charges for the killing of protestors in the 2011 uprising.

Hundreds of people are believed to have been killed in an evident gas attack on rebel-held parts of eastern Damascus.

The Syrian government acknowledged it had launched a major offensive though denied using chemical weapons.

The former Pakistani president, Pervez Musharraf, has been charged with the killing of opposition leader and former Prime Minister Benezir Bhutto.

The ex-army chief denies all charges and claims they are politically motivated.

Bhutto was killed at an election rally in 2007, blamed by the then Musharraf-government on the Taliban.

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The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal (KLWCT) will hear cases of war crimes and genocide against a retired Israeli army general, Amos Yaron, from the 21^st to the 24^th of August.

The European Union held a first round of talks today to address the escalating violence in Egypt.

The ambassadors of the EU’s political security Committee were called away from their summer break for talks in Brussels.

Spanish fishermen have protested over an artificial reef created by the government in Gibraltar.

Several boats sailed into disputed waters around the British territory, saying the reef restricted their rights to fish in the seas around Gibraltar.

Tensions between Spain, Great Britain and Gibraltar have risen recently, after the creation of the reef and retaliatory measures by the Spanish government, who is questioning the legitimacy of the British territory.

China is to open its first diplomatic mission in Kurdistan by the end of the year, following discussions between China's ambassador to Iraq, Ni Jian and Kurdistan's regional government's Head of the Department of Foreign Relations, Minister Falah Mustafa Bakir.

Minister Mustafa said,

"I am pleased to hear the developments we are making with establishing your Consulate General in Erbil, and I am confident that this presence will take this relationship further."