What do the Boundless Informant and Verizon stories mean for India?

The White House claims that the Syrian army has used chemical weapons:

In the backdrop of the recent National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance program leaks, Newsclick discusses with Prabir Purkayastha on how governments use telephone records and internet traffic as methods of surveillance, and how that information contributes to intelligence briefing. Questions on breach of privacy have become more or less insignificant. The most important question now is how to prevent misuse of the data that has already been collected.

The Syrian rebel coalition –- the rag tag band that the US and the so-called “Friends of Syria” have put together –- calling it the Syrian National Coalition –- have been unable to agree to anything in its latest fiasco of a meeting in Istanbul.

The brutal murder of an off-duty British soldier in broad daylight in the southeast London district of Woolwich raises new questions about the British government's national security strategy, at home and abroad.

Newsclick discusses with Satyajit Rath from the National Institute of Immunology the issue of Gene Patenting, in the background of Angelina Jolie’s mastectomy. The patenting of BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes by Myriad Genetics is a classic case of a discovery permitted to be patented. Rath says allowing a company to own genetic information, is under no circumstances healthy. The Myriad Genetics patents restrict public interests unreasonably. The patents effectively mean privatising the results of public funded research.

Elections in Pakistan are over. Though the mandate is regional, as no party has shown a nation wide presence, PML-N has attained a majority in Pakistan’s national assembly after 18 independent candidates joined the party. D. Raghunandan of Newsclick.in discusses the factors governing the present political environment of Pakistan with the senior journalist Seema Mustafa.

As Newsclick turns four, we look back at the various videos we have done on several topics. We bring you snippets from a selection of our videos on "International Affairs". From Syria, to Libya to Palestine to the Red Shirt Rebellion in Thailand to Chavez's death, we have tried to get experts, from India and abroad, to give us an insight on all the major developments across the world.

Syria using chemical weapons and crossing of a “red line” painted by Obama is now being used to justify possible military intervention, or if not, at least direct weapons supplies to the Syrian rebels.