Singapore on Wednesday expressed concern at the risk of militant attacks posed by local and foreign jihadists returning to Southeast Asia after fighting in Syria.

Interior Minister Teo Chee Hean said returning fighters have the skills to carry out terror attacks or support others planning them. 

Syrian President Bashar Assad decreed an amnesty last month but for tens of thousands of prisoners, among them high-profile dissidents, the promise of freedom is a fraud.

Yara Bader, 29, has been desperately waiting for word on her husband Mazen Darwish, a journalist and activist detained since February 2012.

Iran's foreign ministry on Wednesday condemned Israeli air raids in the Gaza Strip, calling on the West to urge the Jewish state to prevent a "human catastrophe".

The remarks by Iran, traditional ally of Palestinian militant group Hamas, came after Israeli warplanes pounded targets in Gaza as part of a major campaign to halt rocket fire from the enclave.

Before she began working as a hairdresser, poverty forced Syrian Umm Mahmoud to seek donations for food and rent money to survive as a refugee in Lebanon.

Often men suggested she have sex with them to show her gratitude, the 32-year-old said.

The main exiled Syrian opposition group on Wednesday elected Saudi-based businessman Hadi el-Bahra as its new president in a bid to end internal divisions and breathe fresh life into its flagging struggle to oust President Bashar Assad.

The Syrian National Coalition, the main exiled opposition group seeking the overthrow of Assad, will be hoping el-Bahra enjoys greater success than his predecessor Ahmad Jarba in keeping up the pressure on the regime.

Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas denied on Wednesday reports saying that he obtained a report stating that the U.N.'s refugee agency is planning to naturalize 100,000 Syrian refugee in Lebanon.

Derbas, however, said that Thursday's cabinet session will tackle the "sudden" situation imposed by the refugees crisis.

Two 22-year-old British men pled guilty to terrorism charges on Tuesday after returning from months spent in Syria.

Childhood friends Mohammed Nahin Ahmed and Yusuf Zubair Sarwar admitted spending eight months in the war-torn country fighting alongside a group linked to al-Qaida.

Elite government forces backed by Hizbullah converged Tuesday on the north Syrian city of Aleppo as rebels bolstered their own fighters in readiness for a major showdown, a monitor said.

Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it was likely that pro-regime forces were preparing to lay siege to rebel-held parts of Aleppo, the country's pre-war commercial capital.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder called Tuesday for cooperation with Europe to stem the "grave threat" of extremists traveling to Syria, saying dozens of aspiring fighters were being investigated by Washington.

On a trip to Oslo, Holder highlighted the urgency in clamping down on U.S. and European nationals seeking to join extremist organizations in Syria and Iraq.

A woman appeared in court in Britain on Tuesday accused of trying to smuggle a roll of cash hidden in her underwear to jihadists fighting in Syria.

Nawal Msaad, 27, was stopped at London's Heathrow airport and found to have 20,000 euros ($27,000) in notes wrapped in a condom which allegedly fell into her pants after being lodged inside her body.