Syrians trying to flee their conflict-ravaged homeland are facing growing difficulties as they try to get to neighboring Iraq, Turkey and Jordan, the U.N.'s refugee agency warned Tuesday.

"We call on all parties in the conflict to enable people to leave, and on countries in the region to keep their borders open," UNHCR spokeswoman Melissa Fleming told Agence France Presse.

Shellfire near the Russian embassy in Damascus killed a civilian and wounded a member of the security forces on Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

"It was recorded that five shells hit the Al-Adwi area of Damascus," the Britain-based watchdog said.

Israeli bulldozers demolished four homes on Tuesday in an area of the Jordan Valley just north of Jericho that is supposed to be under full Palestinian control, the family and the city's Palestinian governor said.

The Israeli defense ministry confirmed the demolitions in Al-Nuweima but did not specify whether the houses lay in so-called Area A of the occupied West Bank, lands on which the Palestinians are supposed to enjoy full civil and security control.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday Moscow had not yet delivered its sophisticated S-300 missiles to the Damascus regime despite hints from Syrian President Bashar Assad that such shipments had already been made.

"The contract was signed several years ago. It has not been realized yet," Putin said at a joint press conference with EU leaders. "We do not want to upset the balance in the region."

Syrian government forces have pushed rebels battling to topple President Bashar Assad out of a key district on the edge of Damascus, the country's state news agency reported Tuesday.

If confirmed, the regime's latest gain would bolster the defenses of the Syrian capital and further shift the balance of power Assad's way in the civil war.

A Cairo court on Tuesday sentenced 43 Egyptian and foreign NGO workers to jail terms ranging from one to five years for working illegally, causing outrage abroad and raising fears for the future of civil society work.

The sentences follow trials which came in the wake of raids in 2011 on the offices of foreign NGOs, many which had operated without licences under ousted president Hosni Mubarak but which the new authorities deemed were receiving funds illicitly.

Kuwait is to tighten its already strict controls on driving by the 68 percent of its population who are expats, withdrawing driver's licences from students who have graduated and from housewives who have found work, press reports said on Tuesday.

The move, which is expected to affect tens of thousands of foreigners, comes after the deportation of hundreds of expatriates for traffic offenses over the past two months.

An aide to Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi has apologized after she failed to inform politicians holding talks with the president that they were live on air, allowing viewers to watch them cook up plans to sabotage a dam in Ethiopia.

"Due to the importance of the topic it was decided at the last minute to air the meeting live. I forgot to inform the participants about the changes," presidential aide for political affairs Pakinam El-Sharkawi said.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Tuesday criticized a Jordanian government decision to block 290 unlicensed local news websites, saying the move restricts media freedom.

"Jordanian authorities should immediately rescind an order to censor... unlicensed local news websites," HRW said in a statement.

The bodies of 147 men pulled out of a river in Aleppo between January and March were "probably" executed in government-controlled areas of Syria's main northern city, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday.

HRW said it had visited the war-torn city and interviewed the residents and activists who found the bodies, a forensics expert and 18 of the bereaved families.