General Manaf Tlass, a key military defector and ex-ally of Bashar Assad, called Tuesday for a political transition in Syria and condemned military attacks on civilians in a statement sent to Agence France Presse.

In his first statement to the media since his defection was announced on July 6, Tlass said the regime held "the majority of responsibility" for the crisis and confirmed he was in Paris.

U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon urged Russia to step up pressure on Syria's President Bashar Assad during talks with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, a U.N. spokesman said Tuesday.

"He called on Russia to use its influence to ensure the full and immediate implementation" of the peace plan of U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, said U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky.

Members of Israel's center-right Kadima party decided on Tuesday to leave Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition after the sides failed to agree on a new universal draft law.

A vast majority of the party led by Shaul Mofaz was in favor of leaving the coalition after only joining it in May, reducing the governing coalition by 28 members but still leaving it with a majority.

The Pentagon is building a missile defense radar station at a covert location in Qatar, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

The site will be part of a system intended to defend the interests of the United States and its allies against Iranian rockets, unnamed U.S. officials told the newspaper.

A train crashed and derailed south of Cairo on Tuesday, leaving four people injured, the Egyptian health ministry said.

The train, heading for the town of Sohag 500 kilometers (300 miles) south of the capital, crashed near Badrashin station near Cairo, a security source said. Five of its 15 carriages overturned.

Syrian President Bashar Assad has moved army forces from the Golan Heights area next to Israel toward Damascus and other internal conflict zones, the Israeli army intelligence chief said on Tuesday.

As fighting rages between Assad's forces and rebels trying to oust his government, he has moved troops from the Syrian side of the disengagement line that divides the Golan Heights between Syria and Israeli-held territory, he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told visiting Syria peace mediator Kofi Annan on Tuesday that he would "do everything" to support the U.N.-Arab League envoy's plan to end the conflict.

"From the very start, from the first steps, we supported and continue to support your efforts aimed at restoring civil peace," Putin told Annan at the start of their Kremlin meeting.

A Syrian general and several soldiers crossed into Turkey on Monday, a Turkish diplomat told Agence France Presse, bringing the number of defections by generals from Bashar Assad's embattled regime to at least 18.

Turkey has become home to dozens of defectors who have crossed the border and formed the Free Syrian Army in opposition to Assad's regime.

Israeli police said they have arrested a Jewish man suspected of spray painting death threats outside the Jerusalem home of a prominent Israeli anti-settlement activist working for Peace Now.

"A 21-year-old man suspected of spraying the graffiti on Hagit Ofran's home was arrested on Monday evening, following the incident earlier that day," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told Agence France Presse.

Residents of Treimsa are adamant: government troops and their proxy shabiha militia slaughtered hundreds in their village last week to push Syria into a religious war.

Despite government assertions its troops targeted armed rebels and not residents during the military offensive, hatred is palpable everywhere in this small central Syrian village.