Japan and Saudi Arabia condemned "grave" human rights violations by Syria's regime which they said has lost its "legitimacy", in a joint statement on Wednesday after a meeting of top officials. Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe arrived Tuesday in the OPEC kingpin, where he met with Crown Prince and Defence Minister Salman bin Abdulaziz. "Both sides condemned the continuation of grave violations of human rights by the Syrian authorities," said a joint Saudi-Japanese statement. They also stressed that the "regime had lost its legitimacy."

The U.S. government said Thursday it is likely that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons including sarin in its war against opposition forces in the country, citing intelligence assessments. In a letter to U.S. lawmakers, the U.S. administration of President Barack Obama said, "Our intelligence community does assess with varying degrees of confidence that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons on a small scale in Syria, especially the chemical agent sarin."

President Barack Obama said Tuesday that the United States would "rethink" its policy on Syria if he receives proof that the Damascus regime has used chemical weapons. But he expressed caution about recent intelligence reports, telling a White House news conference: "I've got to make sure I've got the facts. That's what the American people would expect." "If I can establish in a way that not only the United States but also the international community feel confident in the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime, then that is a game changer," he warned.

LONDON - The Guardian newspaper said Monday that its Twitter accounts have been hacked, and it cited a claim of responsibility from the group calling itself the Syrian Electronic Army. The British paper reported on its website that several of its feeds on the social media site were broken into over the weekend. It said that it has since discovered that the attack apparently originated from Internet protocol addresses within Syria.