UPDATED DEC. 7 Virtually no one in the Syrian government links the country's uprisings to the sentiment inspiring revolutions across the Arab world and to a public fed up with the status quo. Instead, they say the United States and Israel, allied with certain quisling Arab governments, are plotting to destroy Syria, to silence its lone, independent Arab voice and to weaken its regional ally, Iran. To achieve this aim, Syrian officials say, they are arming and financing Muslim fundamentalist mercenaries who enter the country from abroad.

UPDATED DEC. 6 The emir of Kuwait dissolved Parliament, setting the stage for elections in the oil-rich Persian Gulf nation that has faced some protests but has thus far been spared the revolutionary wave of the Arab Spring.

UPDATED DEC. 7 Under a power-transfer plan signed last month, the General People’s Congress party of President Ali Abdullah Saleh agreed to divide cabinet posts with its opponents in a coalition government led by an opposition leader, Mohammed Basindwa, a former foreign minister. Mr. Basindwa said he would be sworn in Dec. 10. Presidential elections are set for Feb. 21.

UPDATED DEC. 7 Egypt’s military rulers said they would control the process of writing a constitution and maintain authority over the interim government to check the power of Islamists who have taken a commanding lead in parliamentary elections. In an unusual briefing evidently aimed at Washington, Gen. Mukhtar al-Mulla of the governing council asserted that the initial results of elections for the People’s Assembly did not represent the full Egyptian public, in part because well-organized factions of Islamists were dominating the voting. The comments, to foreign reporters and not the Egyptian public, may have been intended to persuade Washington to back off its call for civilian rule.

UPDATED DEC. 7 The Mexican government said it had broken up a plot to smuggle into Mexico one of the sons of the former Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, and hide him and his family at a Pacific beach resort. Saadi el-Qaddafi, who fled to Niger in September as his father’s government crumbled, as well as his family were to receive false documents identifying them as Mexican. Alejandro Poiré, the interior minister of Mexico, said the elaborate plan had been uncovered by Mexican intelligence agents and had resulted in the arrest of several people, including two Mexicans, a Canadian and a Dane.