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Cypriot politicians are busy trying to come up with an alternative plan to raise the cash needed to stave off a collapse of its banking sector after they unanimously rejected an international bailout package that would have imposed a levy on the nation's savings accounts.

Here's a quick look at some of Wednesday's developments:

— German Chancellor Angela Merkel says she regrets the decision by Cyprus to turn down the $13 billion bailout package: "From a political point of view, I say that Cyprus needs a sustainable banking sector. Today's banking sector is not sustainable," she said. "We will continue negotiations ... Germany wants a solution."

— Cyprus' Finance Minister Michael Sarris is in Moscow Wednesday for talks with his Russian counterpart, Anton Siluanov. The two discussed the possibility of financial help from Russia, whose citizens have billions of dollars deposited in Cypriot banks.

— Officials from the European Central Bank, International Monetary Fund and European Commission — the so-called troika of lenders — were in Cyprus discussing capital controls and the possible extension of a bank holiday aimed at preventing a wholesale withdrawal of money from Cyprus' banks. Germany's Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said that without the approval of some sort of bailout plan, he believes "there's a danger that they won't be able to open the banks again at all."

— Meanwhile, despite Tuesday's thumbs down on the bailout, European stocks and the euro gained as investors bet that the European Central Bank will keep supporting the Cypriot banks, at least for the time being.

In practical terms, a project known as E-1 would provide 3,000 or so new housing units for Israelis in an area between east Jerusalem — which the Palestinians hope will someday be their capital — and the large Israeli settlement of Maaleh Adumim.

But numbers can be deceiving: Palestinians are renewing their objections to the growing number of Israeli settlements, and many fear E-1 could tip the balance in a way that makes an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement impossible.

To understand why the Israeli government wants to build E-1, climb to the top of Mount Scopus. From there, former government spokesperson Miri Eisin says, it's obvious that Jerusalem doesn't have much room to grow.

Abu Dhabi, the most oil-rich of the United Arab Emirates, is now home to the world's single-largest concentrated solar power plant.

The 100-megawatt Shams 1 plant cost an estimated $750 million and is expected to provide electricity to 20,000 homes, according to the BBC.

Why, you might ask?

Bloomberg says the less oil Abu Dhabi uses for local consumption, the more it can export.

Sultan Ahmed al Jaber, head of Abu Dhabi Future Energy Co., speaking at a news conference for the plant's opening over the weekend, said it is part of a "strategic plan to diversify energy sources in Abu Dhabi."

"Together, with clean energy and nuclear energy, it will make up 7 percent of Abu Dhabi's energy sources from renewable energy sources," he said.

Shams 1 uses 768 adjustable parabolic "trough mirrors" to focus sunlight onto a water boiler that produces steam, activates turbines and finally generates electricity, reports the website Clean Technica. The middle step in the process, it says, is to use natural gas to superheat the water.

The plant, located about 75 miles southwest of Abu Dhabi, is similar in design to Solar Energy Generating Systems (SEGS) located in California's Mojave Desert. Although Shams 1 claims to be the single-largest plant, the nine SEGS plants taken together generate more than three times as much energy and serve more than 10 times as many households at peak output.

Officials in Abu Dhabi hope Shams 1 will save 175,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually, the equivalent of taking 15,000 cars off the road. The plant is the first of several more on the drawing board.

The UAE's neighbor, Saudi Arabia, is on a similar tack with the most extensive renewable-energy program in the Middle East, Bloomberg reports:

"The country is seeking about $100 billion in investments to generate about 41,000 megawatts, or a third of its power, from solar by 2032. That compares with about 3 megawatts now, which puts it behind Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and the United Arab Emirates in capacity, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance."

Syria's main opposition has elected a new interim prime minister: He's Ghassan Hitto, a naturalized U.S. citizen who until recently lived in Texas.

Here's more from The New York Times:

"After a prolonged day of maneuvering and voting on Monday that lasted into the early-morning hours, representatives of the opposition coalition, meeting in Istanbul, chose Ghassan Hitto, 50, a former information technology executive, who emigrated from Syria many years ago and until recently had lived in Texas. Mr. Hitto was heavily involved in volunteer efforts to help Syrians whose lives had been upended by the uprising against Mr. Assad."