Tuesday news roundup

 

The British public is opposed to air strikes in Syria (Image: Voice of America News: Scott Bobb)

The British public has its say as two-thirds oppose strikes in Syria

The Iraq War has turned the British public against military intervention in the Middle East, according to a new ComRes survey published today in The Independent. Despite an apparent shift of mood towards intervention at Westminster, as more horrific evidence of a chemical weapons attack in Damascus emerges, the British people oppose Obama’s plan for air strikes against the Assad regime by a margin of two-to-one. The results of the survey suggest that MPs were right to veto military action by Britain last Thursday. Despite growing all-party pressure from MPs and peers for David Cameron and Nick Clegg to call another vote, the Prime Minister shows no signs of risking another humiliating defeat in the Commons.

Children 'should be taught about porn on the net'

The thorny issue of sex education is back on the agenda after one of David Cameron’s leading advisers has called for children to be taught about the “negative impact of online pornography”. Claire Perry, the Prime Minister’s minister for children, said in a blog post for The Telegraph, that sex education should be overhauled for the digital age, highlighting the fact that children are exposed to sexual imagery much often and earlier through the Internet and social media. Her argument is supported by leading charities such as the NSPCC who describe the government’s current sex education provision as “woefully inadequate”.

Dennis Rodman returns to North Korea to visit his 'friend' Kim Jong Un (£)

For the second time this year, among frustrated diplomacy between North Korea and the outside world, Rodman will land behind the bamboo curtain for a dinner appointment with his self-proclaimed “friend” Kim Jong Un. The former basketball star is playing down speculation that his trip is linked to an attempt to free the jailed American missionary Kenneth Bae, stating the visit is merely a “friendly gesture”, the Times reports.

Syria crisis: Vladimir Putin under growing pressure

Russian President Vladimir Putin will come under pressure at the G20 summit to reduce his support for the Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad. The Guardian reports that Putin, who is hosting the summit of world leaders in St Petersburg later this week, is to be urged to accept new western intelligence which links the Syrian government directly to a chemical attack on August 21, which caused hundreds of civilian deaths. Meanwhile, Assad in an interview with the French newspaper Le Figaro, again denied using chemical weapons, saying; “We have challenged the US and France to put forward a single piece of proof. Mr Obama and Mr Hollande have been incapable of doing so. The Middle East is a powder-keg, and today the spark is getting closer."

Major supermarkets have avoided punishment for the horsemeat scandal

The Daily Mail has today uncovered that those supermarkets and food suppliers, which facilitated the sale of horsemeat to the public, will face no fines, prosecution proceedings or indeed, regulation. This comes six months after the Prime Minister himself pledged that the scandal required “the full intervention of the law” after certain meat items were found to contain an alarming 29 per cent horsemeat.