At least 38 people were killed in three bombings in Christian areas of Baghdad, including a car bomb that exploded as worshippers were leaving a Christmas service, Iraqi police and medics said.

Israeli warplanes launched on Tuesday afternoon several air raids on different areas in the Gaza Strip killing a baby girl and wounding several others.

A powerful explosion believed to have been caused by a car bomb ripped through a police headquarters in a Nile Delta city north of Cairo early on Tuesday, killing 12 people and wounding more than 100, while leaving scores buried under the rubble.

Palestinian-born Muslim cleric Abu Qatada has hit out at a judge, as he protested his innocence at the resumption of his  trial on terrorism charges in Jordan.

Syrian army helicopters have killed at least 56 people, including children, by dropping “barrel bombs” on the northern city of Aleppo, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

        The Iranian president’s religious and ethnic minority representative said on Sunday December 22 that the administration is working toward appointing ethnic and religious minorities to key posts.

Syrian forces are “wreaking disaster” on Aleppo, killing hundreds in air strikes on the city, Human Rights Watch said Saturday, as peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi held talks with Iran’s foreign minister.

The leader of the most powerful rebel group in Syria, Ahrar al-Sham, says he will not recognise any agreement reached in the Geneva peace conference planned for January.

Fighting between military factions has spread from the capital to the rural state of Jonglei in South Sudan, raising fears of a slide into civil war.

The Israeli army has shot dead two Palestinian men in separate raids in a town and a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, sources on both sides said.