SYRIA - Intelligence reports claim that members of the al-Qaida terrorist network are streaming into Syria to join the rebel ranks. But the rebels deny the allegations and say that jihadists are not welcome. In any case, it is the Assad regime that has long had ties to al-Qaida. Some rebel checkpoints in Syria are currently flying the black flag of al-Qaida. When asked whether they know they are flying the al-Qaida flag, one of the fighters responds: "Of course we know, but is it al-Qaida's invention? It's also the flag of the Prophet, and we fly it because we are Muslims and we are waging a holy war."

GREECE - Greece has disappointed its creditors yet again. Now its government plans to ask for more time - and needs billions more in aid. But Greece's euro-zone partners are unwilling to provide any more help, meaning that the only hope now is to admit defeat and let the country make a fresh start.

EUROPE - Antonis Samaras' trip to Germany next week will be a complicated one. The Greek prime minister is expected to ask Angela Merkel for his country to be given two more years to adhere to the austerity conditions attached to the country's EU-IMF bailout program. With political resistance growing in Berlin, the chancellor has little leeway for compromise. In both the CSU and the FDP, public statements about the prospect of Greece's leaving the euro soon have been growing louder in recent weeks. "We don't want Greece to become insolvent but, if necessary, we could cope with the consequences," FDP party boss and Vice Chancellor Philipp Rösler told Spiegel Online.

USA - The mayor of Dallas declared a state of emergency in the ninth largest US city on Wednesday to combat the spread of West Nile virus infections, which has been more prevalent than usual in Texas and other states this year. There have been more cases of West Nile virus reported so far this year than any year since the disease was first detected in the United States in 1999, the Centers for Disease Control said on its website. Nearly half of the 693 human cases of the mosquito-borne West Nile virus infections reported this year to the CDC have been in Texas, along with 14 of the 26 deaths confirmed by the federal agency as of Tuesday.

IRAN - With the US sending clear public signals to Israel that it is opposed to military action now against Iran, and a cacophonous debate on the matter in Israel, senior Iranian officials continue to threaten Israel with destruction. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Wednesday that he was confidant “the fake Zionist (regime) will disappear from the landscape of geography,” Iran’s Mehr News Agency reported. “The light of hope will shine on the Palestinian issue, and this Islamic land will certainly be returned to the Palestinian nation,” Khamenei was quoted as saying.

USA - A massive so-called galaxy cluster, one of the largest structures in the universe, has been discovered about 5.7 billion light years from Earth and credited with setting several important new cosmic records, US-based researchers said on Wednesday. The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said in a news release that observations of the cluster, which has shown a prodigious rate of star formation, may force astronomers to rethink how such colossal structures and galaxies that inhabit them evolve over time.

USA - Wildfires roared out of control across the sun-scorched US West on Wednesday and threatened to roll into two small towns in Idaho as firefighters managed to partially dampen a monster blaze that has destroyed 60 homes in Washington state. All told, the fires have charred more than half a million acres across Idaho, Washington, Oregon and California, destroying homes and outbuildings, forcing hundreds of people to evacuate ahead of the flames and killing a young firefighter. In California, 8,000 firefighters battled wildfires up and down the state that forced the evacuation of three Southern California communities.

UK - London, widely known as a perfect example of surveillance society with its watchful CCTVs, is now a perfect example of a police state after the massive Olympics militarization, a fact even organizers implicitly acknowledge.

USA - Every night in America, millions upon millions of people roll around endlessly in their beds and stare at their ceilings for hours because they can’t sleep. They are sick to their stomachs because their money is gone and nobody will hire them.

SAUDI ARABIA - The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has attempted to block a Vatican bid to create new web addresses ending in .catholic, arguing that it “cannot demonstrate that it possesses a monopoly over the term ‘Catholic’.”

USA/ISRAEL - Two top American defense officials spoke out against possible Israeli plans to strike Iranian nuclear sites Tuesday, as the US ramps up efforts to hold Jerusalem back from launching a unilateral campaign. General Martin Dempsey, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also spoke out against reported Israeli plans, saying Israel’s air force did not have the capability to deliver a knockout blow to Iran’s nuclear program.

RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA - Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah seated Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at his side to welcome leaders to a summit on Wednesday, an apparent conciliatory gesture before the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation suspends the membership of Iran's ally Syria. Foreign ministers of the 57-member body have already agreed to suspend Syria over President Bashar al-Assad's crackdown on protests. The decision, which requires support of two thirds of members and is strongly opposed by Tehran, is expected to be implemented on Wednesday at a summit called by Abdullah in the holy city of Mecca.

IRAN - Iran on Tuesday said it is dismissing Israeli threats of an imminent attack against it, explaining that even some Israeli officials realised such a "stupid" act would provoke "very severe consequences. In our calculations, we aren't taking these claims very seriously because we see them as hollow and baseless," foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told reporters in a weekly briefing. "Even if some officials in the illegitimate regime (Israel) want to carry out such a stupid action, there are those inside (the Israeli government) who won't allow it because they know they would suffer very severe consequences from such an act," he said.

ISRAEL - War with Iran would probably turn into a month-long conflict on various fronts with missile strikes on Israeli cities and some 500 dead, Israel's civil defense minister said in an interview published on Wednesday. "There is no room for hysteria. Israel's home front is prepared as never before," Matan Vilnai, a former general who is about to leave his cabinet post to become ambassador to China, told the Maariv daily.

JAPAN - Genetic mutations have been found in three generations of butterflies from near Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, scientists said Tuesday, raising fears radiation could affect other species. Around 12 percent of pale grass blue butterflies that were exposed to nuclear fallout as larvae immediately after the tsunami-sparked disaster had abnormalities, including smaller wings and damaged eyes, researchers said.