The campaign for Turkey's June 7 legislative elections has been rich in political point-scoring while ignoring one of the biggest challenges the country faces in the years ahead -- the future of the almost two million refugees from the civil war in Syria.

Turkey is hosting 1.8 million Syrian refugees, more than any other country, and they have already become significant minorities in several cities, causing social tensions.

Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Tuesday that Syrian refugees have overwhelmed Lebanese public schools, asking the world for more support as estimates suggest that more than 400,000 children from neighboring Syria need schooling here — nearly twice the number of Lebanese children in school.

Brown, now a U.N. special education envoy, spoke during a visit to Lebanon, where he is trying to help the country of 4.5 million people raise money to deal with what he said were "great" pressures on its public services, including education.

Turkey and the United States have started training moderate Syrian rebels on Turkish territory to prepare them to fight Islamic State (IS) militants, the Turkish foreign minister said on Tuesday. 

The U.S.-led program to equip and train Syrian rebels on Turkish territory has started "with small groups" after months of delays, Mevlut Cavusoglu was quoted as saying by the official Anatolia news agency. 

The U.N. World Food Program (WFP) on Tuesday called for a humanitarian ceasefire in Syria to allow farmers in the war-torn country, which is ravaged by food shortages, to harvest their crops.

"With indications that the 2015 harvest in Syria may exceed the last two years’ harvests at a time of massive food insecurity and internal displacement, it is paramount that crops are not lost and that food stays within the country," WFP director Ertharin Cousin said in a statement.

A Sydney mother has abandoned her two children and fled to Syria for a new life under the Islamic State group, media reported Tuesday, becoming one of more than 100 Australians who have joined the jihadists.

The Australian government said it was deeply disturbed by the report and that it was monitoring the situation closely.

Britain's David Cameron and Russia's Vladimir Putin have agreed to re-start talks on finding a solution to the crisis in Syria, a statement from Cameron said on Monday.

The Russian president phoned Cameron to congratulate him on his re-election as prime minister and the two agreed that Syria talks should resume, a spokeswoman from Cameron's office said.

At least four people were killed in a blast in the Syrian government stronghold of Latakia on Monday, but there were conflicting reports about what caused the explosion.

It comes amid heightened fears of attacks in the coastal region after a rebel alliance that includes the al-Qaida-affiliated Al-Nusra Front last month seized Jisr al-Shughur in neighboring Idlib province.

Two members of a banned Bangladeshi radical group have been arrested for trying to recruit young Muslims to fight with the Islamic State organisation, police said Monday.

Aminul Islam Baig, 40, and Shakib bin Kamal, 30, were both arrested on Sunday night during raids at two addresses in Dhaka in which officers also recovered jihadist literature and computer equipment, police added.

Syrian government aircraft carried out intense strikes Monday against the Islamic State group in and around the ancient city of Palmyra after its fall to the jihadists, a military source said.

"The air force struck more than 160 Daesh targets, killing and wounding terrorists and destroying weapons and vehicles equipped with machineguns" on Palmyra's outskirts and elsewhere in the east of Homs province, the source said.

Greek investigators were to question Monday a Syrian caught trying to sneak tens of thousands of bullets into Turkey, a police source said. 

The 28-year-old man was detained over the weekend at the Kipi customs post in Evros, the northernmost part of Greece, after police foud parcels of bullets concealed in special caches in his car.