Top news: Speaking from Croatia on Wednesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for an overhaul of the Syrian opposition, saying that the current leadership body, the Syrian National Council (SNC), is out of touch with fighters on the front lines. "This cannot be an opposition represented by people who have many good attributes, but have, in many instances, have not been inside Syria for 20, 30 or 40 years," she said. "We've made it clear that the SNC can no longer be viewed as the visible leader of the opposition." Clinton's remarks hint at a more active role for the United States, which has expressed dismay at the opposition's lack of discipline and perpetual infighting. Next week, members of the opposition are due to gather in Doha, where their leadership will likely be restructured.
Inside Syria, violence continued Wednesday amid renewed airstrikes and clashes between rebels and forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad. A bombing in the Sayyida Zeinab area of Damascus left at least six people dead. Meanwhile, Syrian rebels said they had begun arming Palestinians living in the Yarmouk enclave of Damascus against Assad and fighting between rebels and Kurds in northern Syria threatens to open a new front in the war.
Hurricane Sandy: As of Wednesday evening, roughly 6 million homes and businesses spread across 15 states were still without power.
Middle East
- Police in Kuwait dispersed thousands of protesters outside a prison where opposition leader Musallam al-Barrack is being held on charges of insulting the emir.
- Libya's General National Congress approved Prime Minister Ali Zidan's cabinet line-up.
- Militants bombed a natural gas pipeline feeding Yemen's only export terminal.
Africa
- Security guards shot dead two miners in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa.
- Gunmen killed 20 people in the village of Kaboro in northern Nigeria.
- CIA Director David Petraeus arrived in Cairo Wednesday for two days of meetings with Egyptian security officials.
Europe
- Eurozone unemployment hit a new high of 18.49 million or 11.6 percent for September.
- Italy cut the number of provinces in the country from 86 to 51 in an effort to lower administrative costs.
- German Chancellor Angela Merkel reassured Turkey that the EU would continue "good faith" negotiations on Turkish membership in the regional bloc.
Asia
- Roughly 120 people are missing after a boat capsized in the Bay of Bengal.
- The U.N. called on Myanmar to halt ongoing sectarian violence and end discrimination against Rohingya Muslims.
- A tropical storm has claimed six lives and displaced more than 100,000 people in India and Sri Lanka.
Americas
- Argentinian authorities arrested Colombian drug lord Henry de Jesus Lopez in Buenos Aires.
- Brazil ended a three-week military operation in the jungle regions bordering Bolivia and Peru during which it confiscated four tons of drugs.
- Haitian authorities revised the death toll from Hurricane Sandy to 54, bringing the regional total for the Caribbean to 71.
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