A cease-fire went into effect Friday after intense government attacks killed at least 37 people in an underground shelter, prompting a rebel group to call for negotiations to evacuate a new section of the besieged eastern Ghouta region near the capital Damascus, rescuers and a rebel spokesman said.

At least 14 people have been killed and dozens wounded in a car bomb explosion near a sports facility in southern Afghanistan, a health official has said.

Turkish forces and Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebels captured the centre of Afrin in northwest Syria after Kurdish fighters who were in control evacuated the city in order to fight another day.

A suicide car bombing in the Afghan capital Kabul on Saturday killed at least four people, an official confirmed.

Syrian troops on Saturday cut off the largest town in eastern Ghouta from the rest of the rebel-held enclave which is now split in three, a monitor said.

Air strikes have hit Douma in Syria’s rebel-held Eastern Ghouta just after 13 trucks of food aid crossed into the enclave, heading for the town, according to opposition activists and a monitor.

A Palestinian youth was martyred — and another four injured — in clashes with Israeli troops that erupted in the occupied West Bank on Friday, according to witnesses.

More than two weeks of ferocious bombardment of Syria’s rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta have left 800 civilians dead, a monitoring group said Tuesday in a new toll.

A Russian transport plane crashed in Syria killing all 39 people on board with the defence ministry saying the aircraft reportedly wasn’t shot down.

Syrian regime bombardment on the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta killed at least 45 civilians on Monday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.