Al-Qaida fights alongside rebels in battle for Syria "According to Abu Khuder, his men are working closely with the military council that commands the Free Syrian Army brigades in the region. 'We meet almost every day,' he said. 'We help them with IEDs and car bombs.'"
India power outage hits 350 million people "The worst blackout to hit India in more than a decade left seven northern states without power for more than eight hours. Hundreds of overnight trains were stopped in their tracks and Delhi's metro system was badly hit. Water supplies in the capital, always patchy, were worse than usual, as was road congestion after most traffic lights failed."
China: The people's republic of rumour "Again, it is impossible to know for certain whether this blogosphere account is true or not. People don't know whether a story circulating on the web has been kept out of the official press because it didn't happen or because the censors have been instructed to cover it up, but there does seem to be a tendency to assume the latter."
Pool prodigy churns wave of speculation "At 16, the Chinese swimmer Ye Shiwen is one of the youngest competitors in the Olympics and so far the most remarkable... Ye not only shattered the world record in the 400 individual medley, she also swam the final 50 meters faster than Ryan Lochte did in winning the men's race."
