This citizen journalism image provided by Shaam News Network SNN, taken on Friday, Aug. 3, 2012, purports to show pillars of smoke as a result of shelling by Syrian government forces near al-Zafaran mosque in Homs, Syria. (AP Photo/Shaam News Network, SNN)

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- International envoy Lakhdar Brahimi says the civil war in Syria threatens to spill across the Middle East and is "extremely bad and getting worse."
He told reporters after a closed-door briefing to the deeply divided U.N. Security Council on Monday that he and the council members began to discuss "the way forward."
Brahimi said he didn't have "a full plan" now but was working with a few ideas he hopes to expand after another visit to the region.
He said the situation remains stalemated and "extremely difficult," with no prospect to move forward "today or tomorrow."
But Brahimi said he told the council that "paradoxically," now that he has learned a little more about what's happening, "I think that we will find an opening in the not too distant future."