Russia has sent a naval flotilla of six warships led by an anti-submarine destroyer to its naval base at the Syrian port of Tartus, the Interfax news agency reported Tuesday.

The Admiral Chabanenko and three landing craft have left their home port of Severomorsk in the Arctic Circle on their way to the Mediterranean where they will be joined by the Russian patrol ship Yaroslav Mudry as well as an assistance vessel, a military source told the agency.

Egypt's dissolved parliament convened on Tuesday in defiance of the powerful military and the judiciary, amid a legal crisis triggered by a presidential decree to reinstate the Islamist-led assembly.

"We are gathered today to review the court rulings, the ruling of the Supreme Constitutional Court," which ordered the house invalid, speaker Saad al-Katatni said.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Tuesday called for talks among all those involved in a showdown between the Egyptian parliament and the military to bring an end to the crisis.

"We urge that there be intensive dialogue among all of the stake-holders in order to ensure that there is clear path for them to be following," she said in a press conference after talks in Vietnam.

Russia said Tuesday it wanted to host a new meeting of foreign powers concerning the Syria crisis but stressed that the talks should not decide the fate of President Bashar Assad.

Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said the attempt made in Geneva on June 30 to save international envoy Kofi Annan's tattered peace plan for the crisis needed to be continued with the involvement countries such as Iran.

Al-Qaida's front group in Iraq has claimed responsibility for a spate of attacks last month, including dozens on June 13, when violence across the country killed 72 people.

The Islamic State of Iraq, in a statement posted on jihadist Internet forums, said it carried out 47 attacks over several months, including 27 on June 13, which was the country's deadliest day since August 2011.

There can be no transition in Syria until President Bashar Assad falls, the Syrian National Council said in a statement on the eve of a visit to Moscow by the opposition group's chief.

"Our main goal is to continue on the path of the revolution and the demands of the Syrian people," the SNC said on Tuesday, emphasizing that its priority was to "work for the fall of the Assad regime and all its symbols."

The Palestinian government in the West Bank called Tuesday for local elections to be held in the West Bank and Gaza on October 20, the first since 2006, an official said.

"The Palestinian government decided today during its meeting to hold the local, municipal and district elections on October 20th throughout the Palestinian territory," the Palestinian official told Agence France Presse.

Regime forces rained shells on the rebel-held central Syrian town of Rastan as violence killed 13 people across the country on Tuesday, a watchdog said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights described the bombardment of Rastan as "violent," while activists on the ground said the situation was "tragic."

An Israeli court acquitted former prime minister Ehud Olmert on two key corruption charges on Tuesday while finding him guilty on a lesser charge, media reported.

The Jerusalem district court cleared Olmert on charges of receiving cash-stuffed envelopes and falsely billing trips abroad multiple times, but convicted him on the charge of granting favors to a former colleague during his time as a minister.

The Israeli air force carried out an air raid on the Gaza Strip overnight, in retaliation for a Palestinian rocket attack against southern Israel, a military spokesman said Tuesday.

"An air force plane attacked two bases of Hamas terrorist activity in the southern Gaza Strip," the Israeli armed forces said in a statement.