A Turkish fighter jet shot down by Syria last month asked for trouble when it entered Syrian airspace, the Interfax news agency quoted an unnamed Russian source as saying on Wednesday.

"The actions of the Turkish plane were no doubt a provocation. Otherwise how would you explain the fact that the fighter jet flew two, albeit short, sorties in the Syrian airspace?"

The Palestinians want an international probe into the death of former president Yasser Arafat after an investigation showed he may have been poisoned, an official told Agence France Presse Wednesday.

"We call for the formation of an international investigation committee modeled on the international investigation committee set up to look into the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri," senior Palestinian official Saeb Erakat said.

A car bombing at a market in central Iraq killed eight people on Wednesday and three others were assassinated in Baghdad, the latest in a spike in nationwide unrest ahead of Shiite rituals.

The violence struck a day after a series of attacks across Iraq killed 38 amid preparations for ceremonies on Friday to commemorate the birth of a key figure in Shiite Islam.

Syrian rebels and troops clashed in a Damascus suburb near a branch of the feared air force intelligence service, as monitors reported seven people killed nationwide.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported dawn clashes in Jaraman south of Damascus near a branch of the air force intelligence service, one of the most feared in Bashar Assad's regime.

Western nations led by the United States are seeking to persuade Russia to host President Bashar Assad in exile as a way out of the escalating Syria crisis, a Russian newspaper report said Wednesday.

But Moscow so far has not been receptive to the idea, even though Kremlin sources put Assad's chances of political survival at "10 percent,” the Kommersant daily said.

Hundreds of Palestinian activists demonstrated in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Tuesday to protest against the violent dispersal of two similar rallies at the weekend.

Watched by only a handful of local police, the activists waved Palestinian flags in a rare expression of public discontent with the West Bank's ruling Palestinian Authority headed by President Mahmoud Abbas.

Syrian troops pounded several rebel-held districts in the central city of Homs on Tuesday, as the death toll mounted across the country, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

In total, at least 48 people were killed on Tuesday, bringing to more than 120 the death toll over two days, the Britain-based watchdog reported.

The UAE is keen on strengthening relations with Egypt, its foreign minister said on Tuesday, welcoming newly elected President Mohamed Morsi's pledge not to "export" his country's revolution.

Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan's statement came days after Egypt's foreign ministry summoned the UAE ambassador over comments made by Dubai police chief General Dahi Khalfan offering "condolences" on Morsi's victory.

Algerian authorities have identified a suicide attacker who killed one person and wounded three at a paramilitary police headquarters in the town of Ouargla, al-Watan newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Investigators have "identified the DNA of the attacker," local commander Colonel Tahar Othmani was quoted as saying on al-Watan's website, without naming the person.

Moammar Gadhafi’s last premier, Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi, who was controversially extradited from Tunisia to Libya to face justice, said on Tuesday that he was innocent.

"I am not guilty, not guilty, not guilty," Mahmoudi told journalists during a visit to his prison organized by the authorities in an apparent bid to quash rumors that he had been tortured on his arrival in Libya.