For Salah Paulis, it came down to a choice between his faith and his crop.

The al Qaida breakaway group that has seized much of Syria and Iraq has formally declared the establishment of a new Islamic state.

An offshoot of al-Qaeda which has captured swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria has declared itself an Islamic "Caliphate" and called on factions worldwide to pledge their allegiance, a statement posted on jihadist websites said yesterday.

THE crisis over chemical weapons in Syria has underlined a central dilemma for the West as it tries to deal with the country’s civil war — the lack of attractive alternatives to President Bashar Assad.