As hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees languish in camps or risk their lives to reach Europe, questions are being asked about why wealthy Gulf states have accepted so few.

By the end of August, more than four million Syrians had fled their country but very few if any refugees have been officially accepted by the six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council.

As thousands of refugees arrive every day in Germany, calls are growing louder from business leaders in Europe's biggest economy to offer them jobs.

"If we can integrate them quickly into the jobs market, we'll be helping the refugees, but also helping ourselves as well," the head of the powerful BDI industry federation, Ulrich Grillo, said this week.

From his office in Strasbourg in eastern France, Hatem Gheribi picks up the phone to a desperate woman who says she has washed up on a tiny Greek island.

As part of the "Watch the Med" team, Gheribi answers lots of calls like this.

The sensation of drowning, short-term memory loss, insomnia and suicidal tendencies: they may have made it safely to Italy, but many asylum seekers are plagued by symptoms of trauma and the psychological help they need is in short supply.

Between 10 percent and 30 percent of asylum seekers reaching Europe are estimated to have been tortured in their home countries. All are at risk of trauma during desert crossings, a lawless Libya, or treacherous boat journeys.

A record influx of refugees to Germany has cast an ugly spotlight on its formerly communist east, which has been rocked by a disproportionate wave of racist protests and hate crimes.

Small towns such as Heidenau and Freital have earned nationwide notoriety as neo-Nazis and angry residents have hurled abuse at people fleeing war and misery -- and rocks at police sent to protect those seeking a safe haven.

Europe's cherished system of borderless travel is increasingly at risk as countries grapple with record numbers of refugees and migrants clamoring to enter their territory, officials and analysts say.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel issued an unusually sober warning this week that the passport-free Schengen zone of 26 countries -- hailed as a European success story -- was under threat.

Anti-government demonstrators in Lebanon have staged three large rallies in the past two weeks and a small group Tuesday stormed the environment ministry to press demands for reform. Here's a look at what's behind the protests, the most significant public expression of frustration with Lebanon's dysfunctional system of government in years.

___

The killing of a former Irish Republican Army militant has revived fears that the notorious paramilitary group is still operating in secret and has shaken Northern Ireland's fragile power-sharing government.

Seventeen years after the Good Friday peace agreement ended three decades of largely sectarian strife, Kevin McGuigan's murder on August 13 has been widely seen as score-settling within paramilitary ranks.

Less than five months after the last legislative elections, Turks on November 1 will vote again in one of the biggest gambles of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's political career. 

But the outcome of the snap election, analysts say, risks being exactly the same as in the last polls on June 7. 

Jihadists occupying the Iraqi town of Sinjar are so close that Kurdish fighters can watch them without binoculars and battles are often fought with hand grenades.

Yet eight months after Kurdish forces retook Mount Sinjar from the Islamic State group, the recapture of the nearby town -- the ancestral hub of the Yazidi minority, which has been brutally targeted by IS -- remains a distant prospect.