Israeli police closed on Tuesday a Palestinian research center in Jerusalem and arrested its director, a prominent cartographer, accusing him of working for the Palestinian security services.

A third round of Russian-backed talks on the Syrian war opened in the Kazakh capital Astana on Tuesday without armed rebel groups, leaving little hope for a breakthrough in ending the six-year conflict. 

The talks, sponsored by regime allies Russia and Iran and rebel-backer Turkey, come as other diplomatic efforts to end the bloodshed have proved fruitless. 

Rivals battling in Libya's eastern oil region have reportedly carried out summary executions, torture and other violations, the UN said Tuesday, as a military strongman launched a fresh assault in the area.

The two main groups fighting for control of Libya's oil terminals are the Islamist Benghazi Defence Brigade (BDB) and the Libyan National Army (LNA), led by strongman Khalifa Haftar.

A sea of tents stretches to the horizon at a camp for displaced near Mosul but Ahmed Hassan says he and 17 relatives have to sleep outside because there is no room.

Tens of thousands of civilians have poured into camps set up around Mosul as Iraqi forces battle to retake the city from Islamic State group jihadists.

One man was killed and seven wounded when a fireworks warehouse in northern Israel went up in flames in a series of colorful explosions, emergency services said Tuesday.

Troops commanded by Libyan military strongman Khalifa Haftar launched an assault on Tuesday to seize two of the country's key eastern oil terminals, a spokesman said.

"Ground, sea and air forces launched joint attacks to liberate Ras Lanuf from terrorist groups," Khalifa al-Abidi said after orders were issued early Tuesday for the offensive, which is also targeting the nearby Al-Sidra oil terminal. 

The UN rights chief warned Tuesday that a "tidal wave of bloodshed" over more than six years of war in Syria had effectively turned the country into a "torture chamber".

U.S. President Donald Trump's administration waded into the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict on Tuesday as one of his top advisers held his first meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

After five hours of talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Monday night, Jason Greenblatt met Abbas in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

U.S. President Donald Trump's special envoy Jason Greenblatt met Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday in Jerusalem, as the White House put out feelers on reviving Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

When the army recaptured Aleppo in December, Mohammad Baqdul left Beirut and returned with his family to his native city, convinced the end of Syria's six-year war was near.