Two French journalists who had been smuggled out of Syria flew to France today, a week after one of them suffered injuries in the restive central Syrian city of Homs, officials said.

A former England caretaker manager was at the centre of extraordinary events on the final day of preliminary qualifying in Asia for the 2014 World Cup. Peter Taylor's Bahrain, needing a nine-goal turnaround to progress to the next stage, beat Indonesia 10-0 in a fixture that may yet attract closer investigation from Fifa, but were denied a place in the next round by Qatar's 86th-minute equaliser against Iran.

As Syria slides towards a civil war, a wealthy Syrian exile is racing to provide additional arms and ammunition to the loosely organised bands of rebels fighting under the umbrella of the Free Syrian Army (FSA).

Tewfik Mishlawi was the first Palestinian to report for The Times.

The first person to ride around the Velodrome, one of the Olympic Park's signature constructions with its sweeping roof and wood-panelled exterior, was appropriately enough Sir Chris Hoy. The second, slightly less appropriately, was Boris Johnson. That was nearly two years ago, which only goes to show how far ahead of the game the entire project has been.

The Syrian war cost the life of Mohamed Bathish and he was buried amid volleys of gunfire yesterday in the city where he died – in Lebanon.

The siege of the beleagured city was spark that blew across the border, reports Robert Fisk from Tripoli

Two stories dominated the news agenda last week – Harry Bloody Redknapp and Homs. I loathe football at the best of times, but the story of whether Redknapp might be considered as England manager when he's finished with Tottenham Hotspur is about as interesting as one of Piers Morgan's Tweets.

How come people like historical memory holes?

German police on today arrested two men on allegations they were spying on Syrian opposition groups in Germany, prosecutors said.

A Syrian rebel army chief urged the world today to protect civilians in Syria, saying Arab peace monitors had failed to curb President Bashar al-Assad's violent response to a 10-month-old revolt against his rule.

Building collapse highlights rental laws which have left Beirut's poorest tenants living in danger

Lebanese security officials said today that the death toll from the collapse of a five-story residential building in Beirut has risen to 18, most of them foreigners.

It was the Assad Speech of the Year. There was an international conspiracy against Syria. True. Arab states opposed to Syria were under "outside pressure". True, up to a point. Nobody could deny the seriousness of these plots. True. After all, the Syrian government itself registers 2,000 dead soldiers, while the UN estimates civilian dead at 5,000. And when Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan warned that the violence in Syria was "heading towards a sectarian, religious war", there were few supporters of President Assad who would disagree with him.