Suicide bombings and other attacks across Iraq have killed at least 33 people and wounded another 80, in a surge of violence as the country counts down to parliamentary elections.

Air strikes in southern Yemen killed about 40 suspected al-Qaeda members over Saturday and Sunday, local tribal sources said, while the defense ministry said the strikes were based on information that “terrorist elements were planning to target vital civilian and military installations,” according to its official website.

At least 24 Palestinians were arrested during clashes at the gates of Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Al-Quds (occupied East Jerusalem).

Former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah leads the race to become Afghanistan’s next president, according to the latest official tally of votes, but is short of an outright majority.

Activists in Syria have claimed that government forces used chlorine gas in an attack on a village near the city of Hama.

At least 25 people were killed in the latest wave of attacks across Iraq, including a series of bombings targeting shoppers in a Sunni neighbourhood in Baghdad, authorities have said.

Police in Pakistan say gunmen have shot a famous television talk show host amid a wave of attacks on journalists in the country.

At least 30 Syrian regime troops were killed in clashes with the main armed opposition group Free Syrian Army on Friday.

The designer of the CIA’s “enhanced interrogation” program, which has been the subjet of much scrutiny from the US Senate after a report last week revealed that agents had overstepped their legal boundaries regarding their intel extraction techniques, has broken his silence.

Syrian armed forces have made advances around the Old City of Homs, where some 1,200 rebels are dug in and under regime siege.