5.55pm BST

Here's a summary of the latest developments:

Syria-Turkey tensions

• Turkey's prime minister says the intercepted Syrian passenger plane was carrying military equipment and ammunition from Russia for the Syrian defence ministry.

• The incident has created a diplomatic spat between Moscow and Ankara, as well as further escalating Syrian-Turkish tensions. Russia accused Turkey of endangering the lives of 30 passengers, including 17 Russians. Turkey summoned Russia's ambassador.

• Syria accused Turkey of "air piracy" over the incident and claimed passengers were traumatised. A Syrian Airlines engineer who was on board claimed armed Turkish officials boarded the plane and handcuffed the crew before inspecting packages that contained electrical equipment

Syria

• A female army officer has become the first Alawite woman to defect from the Syria army, according to activists. In a video defection statement, Zubaidah al-Miqi, said the conflict has never been about religious sects.

• Syrian security forces have conducted raids on houses in previously calm neighbourhoods of Damascus as they consolidate gains across the city and beyond, according to a witness. Majd Arar told the Guardian: "Everyone here understands that the time for the government offensive has come."

• Greece says it is considering a plan to accommodate 20,000 Syrian refugees on the islands of Crete and Rhodes.

• A Syrian opposition conference that was due to have taken place in the Qatari capital Doha has now been postponed until November to encourage wider representation at the urging of western governments, diplomats say. Plans are afoot to include a Turkmen bloc and Nasserists as well as representatives from activist groups involved in the uprising inside Syria.

• The foreign supply of weapons to the Free Syrian Army is drying up because of regional anxiety about arms proliferation, US nervousness about funding jihadis ahead of the US presidential election, and divisions between the rebels' main backers Qatar and Saudi Arabia, Martin Chulov and Ian Black report. One well placed source said: "The Qataris are much more proactive than the Saudis. The Saudis are not interested in democracy, they just want to be rid of Bashar. They would be happy with a Yemeni solution that gets rid of the president and leaves the regime intact." Mustafa Alani of the Saudi-financed Gulf Research Centre in Abu Dhabi, added: "The Saudis fear that there will be blowback from Syria like there was from Iraq and Afghanistan. They don't want chaos. They want the Syrian military to take over. The whole region wants that, including the Israelis. Everyone wants an organised structure of army officers who will keep weapons under control and make sure that they are handed in."

• The joint UN-Arab League envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, has arrived in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on the first stop of his second regional tour, AFP reports. His spokesman said Brahimi will hold wide-ranging talks on the crisis in Syria. He is expected to visit Damascus as part of the tour.

• Britain has sent military personnel to Jordan, according to the Times after it confirmed it had sent troops to the Jordan-Syrian border to as part of a taskforce aimed at stopping the Syrian conflict spreading south. A foreign office spokesman told the Times: "We are working with international partners and countries neighbouring Syria to improve border controls to reduce the risk of weapons proliferating to third parties. We have made clear to Assad, directly and through other parties, that any use or proliferation of CBW [chemical and biological weapons] would be completely unacceptable."

Libya

• Two former heads of US diplomatic security in Libya have told a congressional hearing that requests for additional agents to protect diplomats from the growing threat of armed militias were rejected by the state department ahead of the killing of ambassador Chris Stevens and three others in Benghazi. Republicans painted a picture of an incompetent state department failing to heed warnings of a growing terrorist threat or to prepare for a possible attack on the anniversary of 9/11, and then covering up the circumstances of the full scale militia assault that killed Stevens.

Egypt

• The authority of Egypt's president will be curbed by parliament, according to a partial draft of the new constitution released on Wednesday, the Egypt Independent reports. Kamal Gibril, head of the political systems committee, said the committee felt that a mixed system that divides power between the president and a prime minister who represents the parliamentary majority is best suited to Egypt.

• A court has acquitted all 25 former senior Egyptian officials accused of sending men on horseback and camels to attack protesters during the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak, Ahram Online reports. Infamous lawyer Mortada Mansour, who allegedly recorded a speech the night before the battle inciting thugs to attack Tahrir Square, was among the accused. Blogger Zeinobia expresses her disgust at the verdict: "I can not believe it !! I am so angry. Who killed those protesters ??"