Scoop: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told CBS News the US should expect retaliation for an attack on his country.  “You should expect everything,” Assad said in a surprise interview with anchor Charlie Rose. The dictator said the US has no proof his government attacked near Damascus with chemical weapons on Aug. 21. He dismissed videos of dead and dying people released on the Internet, saying such videos are not proof. “We are not the social media government like the US.”

Secy. of  State John Kerry said today in London that Assad could end the crisis by handing over “every single bit” of his chemical weapons stockpile.

To Your Health: IBM is moving its 110,000 retirees off the company health plan and giving them a flat sum to buy insurance. This may be a sign that companies will start pushing employees toward the cheaper plans offered by the Obamacare health insurance exchanges.

Pinned: The International Olympic Committee has restored wrestling to the 2020 and 2024 summer games. Squash, men’s baseball, and women’s softball were the losers. Wrestling was one of the original ancient Olympic sports along with running and the javelin, but the IOC earlier this year decided to end it with the 2016 Olympics. The wrestlers’ federation pulled a miraculous reverse.

At the Net: Serena Williams won her 5^th US Open and 17^th Grand Slam title yesterday at the National Tennis Center in Queens, NY. Williams beat Victoria Azarenka of Belarus in 2 hours, 45 minutes, the longest recorded US women’s open final.

Blue Blazers: Oracle Team USA held on to an early lead to win the fourth race of the America’s Cup finals in San Francisco. The high-tech catamarans hit speeds of 48 mph. But the US finishes the weekend 1-5 with three losses and a two-race penalty for illegally altering their boat. New Zealand needs 7 wins to take the cup, the US, 10.

Starry Day: A landscape painting ignored in a Norwegian collector’s attic has been identified as a work of Vincent Van Gogh. It’s the first newly identified Van Gogh since 1928. The collector had bought the painting thinking it was a Van Gogh, but put it away when he was told it was not.

Picture This: The LA Times reports on an effort to reduce the number of expensive painted portraits of federal officials. The portrait of a former EPA administrator you’ll never remember cost $40,000. The bill for former Secy. of State Condoleeza Rice, $52,450; Former Senate Majority leader Bill Frist, $51,000. The law to stop the madness is called, the “Eliminating Government-funded Oil-painting,” or, for short, The EGO Act.

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