A weekend cyberattack campaign has targeted Israeli government websites but failed to cause serious disruption, officials say.

A new exodus is flowing from Syria as fighting edges closer to the heart of Damascus – those who swore they would never flee are selling their belongings to escape a battle now raging on their doorsteps.

The North Korean army has warned Washington that its military has been cleared to wage an attack using “smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear” weapons.

Deputies of the Muslim Brotherhood and their allies in the Islamist-led Shura Council (the upper house of Egypt’s parliament, currently endowed with legislative powers) teamed up on Monday and Tuesday to approve amendments to a 1956 law on the exercise of political rights.

Israeli prison guards have fired teargas on Palestinian inmates in several Israeli jails who have been protesting the death of a prisoner who died of cancer.

Fresh battles broke out in a flashpoint district of Aleppo on Monday, while violence raged on the road linking the Syrian city to its international airport, a watchdog said.

The Shura Council of Hamas has re-elected Khaled Mishaal as head of the movement’s political bureau for another term, according to a Quds Press report.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai held talks Sunday with the emir of Qatar during a visit to discuss opening a Taliban office in the Gulf state, as a prelude to a possible peace deal with the militants.

Private daily newspapers are being sold in Burma for the first time in almost 50 years, as a state monopoly ends.

A car bomb killed at least three people, wounded dozens and blew the windows out of buildings in northeastern Damascus on Tuesday as rebel fighters stepped up attacks in the Syrian capital, pro-government television stations said.