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Syria: from national conflict to global mission impossible

Kofi Annan has resigned from his "mission impossible" role as UN peace envoy for Syria, saying "finger-pointing and name-calling" in the security council had prevented him from implementing his six-point plan. The news came after a bloody week in the country, with fierce fighting in the country's most populous city, Aleppo.

The bloodshed and brutality continued as rebels gained control of several key neighbourhoods in the city, whose 3m beseiged inhabitants are running out of food and cooking gas. Assad's forces also shelled a suburb in the capital Damascus killing unarmed civilians and Amnesty International said the government was responsible for crimes against humanity in Aleppo too – where it has used extrajudicial executions and torture. Videos suggest the rebels were also carrying out revenge killings of Assad loyalists in Aleppo.

The UN is likely to pull out its monitors as international forces started ratcheting up their involvement. Barack Obama and Al Qaida are both supporting the rebels – with the US media signing a covert order authorising the CIA to help the rebels overthrow Assad, while rebels are abandoning the Free Syrian Army to fight under al-Qaida's (apparently better disciplined) commanders against the regime in the east of the country. Russia, which is more supportive of the Assad regime, is, according to some reports, sending landing ships with marines to its naval base in Syria.

In the UK on Monday Syria's most senior diplomat quit his post, saying he was "no longer willing to represent a regime that has committed such violent and oppressive acts against its own people". And yesterday Cameron tried to help by talking to Putin about Syria when the Russian leader was watching the judo at the Olympics. Homa Khaleeli

The mysterious case of Carole Waugh

The discovery on Thursday night of a body in a lock-up garage in New Malden, outside London, may soon bring to an end the summer's most gripping criminal investigation.

Carole Waugh was last seen alive on 16 April; since then hundreds of thousands of pounds have been plundered from her possessions. Police said this week they were treating the disappearance of the wealthy one-time oil executive, who may also have led a double life as an escort, as murder.

Detectives also revealed this week that several items of gold Cartier jewellery – including a ring, a necklace and a pair of bracelets – were missing from the 50-year-old's Marylebone flat. That wasn't all.

Waugh's estate had seen "significant plundering", investigating officer Det Ch Insp John McFarlane said, with her bank accounts the subject of "high-value suspicious fraudulent activity". Suspects in her disappearance also apparently tried to sell her flat.

A 47-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder, one of 10 people now detained in the investigation on counts ranging from conspiracy to defraud to suspicion of kidnap.

Waugh, originally from a mining village in County Durham, worked for eight years as a finance executive for the nationalised oil company in Libya, and her family believed she was still a tough, independent energy world high-flyer.

But police say her possible double life as an escort is a "definite line of inquiry". They are working on the theory that she was abducted by a criminal group who took over her identity, raided her bank accounts, and tried to sell her home: one man reportedly walked into an estate agents posing as her brother; another was caught on CCTV using her bank card at an ATM.

"We know she goes to see her family at Easter, they talk about [her upcoming 50th] birthday. She comes back to London, makes contact – and then she vanishes," McFarlane said. Jon Henley

India's blackout leaves 10% of the world's population in the dark

On Tuesday, India experienced the world's worst blackout when power failed across the north and east of the country for at least five hours. An estimated 710 million people live in the affected area, or to put it another way: a tenth of the world's entire population.

What is arguably more shocking is that a few hundred million of those in the dark zone won't have noticed: two-thirds of Indians do not consume enough power annually to power a single lightbulb, according to the 2011 census. The richest households weren't affected either. They have long given up on municipal electricity and water supplies, installing their own generators and digging personal bore wells.

So did heads roll? Far from it. On Tuesday evening, as half of his electorate sat in the dark, prime minister Manmohan Singh promoted his power minister, putting Sushilkumar Shinde in charge of the home affairs ministry. "It was a pre-planned move," shrugged Shinde, insisting he had done an "excellent" job. "Like changing the captain of the Titanic when it's reeling after hitting a giant iceberg," was the Times of India's verdict. "Had there been an Olympics for underachieving governments, India would have won all the medals,'' said the Economic Times.

Three days on and the power calamity is long gone from the Indian front pages. There has been no serious debate on whether India has any real chance of becoming a future superpower alongside China and the US if it can't even keep the lights on. Here, they are more excited about one of their badminton players reaching the Olympic semi-final. Helen Pidd

Depressed Britain reaches for more pills

Whether it is due to the ageing of the population, the economic slump or the lousy weather, prescriptions for antidepressants have soared in the past year. Between 2010 and 2011, antidepressant prescriptions went up in England by 9.1%, the highest rise of any category of drug, according to figures from the NHS Information Service. Just under 46.7 million prescriptions were dispensed – which would be more than enough for one for each adult in the country. Many people will be on the drugs for long periods of time, however, and collected perhaps four prescriptions or more per year.

Unfortunately for the NHS, the net cost of ingredients in antidepressants rose by 22.6% over the period, which increased the bill for the drugs by nearly £50m. The total drugs bill fell by 0.3%, however, to £8.8bn.

Paul Farmer, the chief executive of the mental health charity Mind, told the Times: "We have seen a similar increase in anti-depressants prescriptions for several years now and, while there are possible explanations for this, it is concerning that the increase is so significant and so consistent. I think we are beginning the see the scale of unmet need as more and more people are coming forward to seek help for their depression."

The surge in antidepressant prescribing may underline the need for greater attention to the nation's wellbeing, which David Cameron has promised, arguing – as well he might in times of financial gloom – that happiness is about more than money.

But it may also raise concerns about the way we deal with people who are distressed or struggling to deal with long-term sadness. Pills work for many as a temporary solution, but talking therapies are much more successful in enabling people to find permanent ways forward. A major training programme got underway to bring more therapists into the NHS following concerns about the drugs, so the talking therapies ought to be more accessible than ever before and drug prescriptions should, if anything, be going down, not up. Sarah Boseley

Russia's punk protest inspires artists worldwide

For the past five days, a small courtroom in the centre of Moscow has been hosting the best show in the country, as three members of feminist punk band Pussy Riot face off against the state. They stand accused of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred and face up to seven years in prison if found guilty. A maximum sentence looks like less of a possibility now that Vladimir Putin has spoken out against a punishment that is "too severe", a statement he made before leaving London after a one-day visit on Thursday.

Musicians around the world have come out in support of the jailed trio – Maria Alyokhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Yekaterina Samutsevich – two of whom are young mothers. It began with Faith No More, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Franz Ferdinand, who issued messages of support during performances in Moscow last month.

It has now spread worldwide. On Thursday, a group of musicians, including Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker and Johnny Marr of the Smiths, signed a letter calling on Putin to ensure the trio get a fair trial. Legendary punk rocker Patti Smith has been photographed holding a T-shirt reading: "Putin has pissed himself, Free Pussy Riot!" And it's not just musicians. Both Stephen Fry and actor Danny Devito took to their Twitter accounts to spread support for the women.

Lawyers for the defence have decried what they call a modern "show trial", saying the notoriously politicised courts of the Soviet Union were even fairer. As the trial's first week comes to a close, it is time for the defence to call its witnesses, among them leading opposition thinkers and activists. A verdict could come next week. Miriam Elder

The eurozone: still deadlock in the waiting game

So has it been saved, or not? Mario Draghi, the head of the European Central Bank, put some flesh on the bones this week of his recent announcement that the ECB and the eurozone's two bailout funds would "do anything" to save the euro – but not much.

Draghi had calmed markets last week by insisting it was "pointless to bet against the euro" because, come what may, the single currency "stays". But in outlining plans this week for a bond-buying operation aimed at cutting the soaring costs of borrowing for Spain and Italy, he fell short of pledging unlimited resources to defend the euro.

The ECB's governing council, it seems, once again took no formal decision on direct intervention in the bond markets – and Draghi made clear it was Germany, in the shape of the mighty Bundesbank, that remained implacably opposed to the idea. Despite his talk, he plainly faces a tough task in convincing Berlin of the wisdom of a more muscular approach.

Spain and Italy are, for the moment, the most urgently in need, with the prime ministers of both countries urging action to reduce their unsustainable borrowing costs – but unwilling to openly ask for bailout funds or accept the accompanying conditions.

(Greece, whose fragile governing coalition agreed the parameters of an €11.5bn package of spending cuts demanded by creditors in return for further EU-IMF rescue loans, seems – if only momentarily – out of the fire.)

So for the time being, the euro still hasn't been definitively saved. All that's happened is that a little more time has been bought for the eurozone to decide what it really wants. Jon Henley

• The first Russian motherboard based on ARM-processor Baikal-M