Guided more by what they can hear than see, Syrian troops and rebels are battling in the bowels of Damascus, digging tunnels in a campaign to control the eastern entrance to the capital.

This is the suburb of Jobar, next to Abassid Square, a stronghold of President Bashar Assad's regime. The army knows that if it is lost to the rebels, the capital's entire defenses are in danger.

Israeli police raided the east Jerusalem studios of Palestine TV on Friday and briefly detained three staff for questioning, a spokeswoman said.

"Police carried out searches at the headquarters of the television channel, as part of an investigation into the content of its programmes," spokeswoman Luba Samri told AFP.

Twin suicide bombings targeting Iraq's Shabak minority and fighting between security forces and militants killed 33 people in the northern province of Nineveh on Friday, officials said.

Provincial capital Mosul is one of Iraq's most dangerous cities, with well-entrenched militant groups carrying out almost daily attacks.

The head of the Libyan capital's now disbanded Supreme Security Committee survived a car bomb detonated outside his home before dawn on Friday.

Hashem Bashar, who now heads a committee tasked with integrating Tripoli's myriad of former rebel militias into the security forces, told AFP he was sure he was the target of the blast.

Australia has decided to remove the term "occupied" when referring to East Jerusalem in a move blasted by an opposition party leader Friday as "inflammatory" and "at odds with the peace process.”

The issue flared in the upper house Senate this week with Attorney-General George Brandis issuing a statement to clarify Canberra's stance on the controversial question of the legality of settler homes.

A senior State Department official will represent the United States at Sunday's inauguration of the new Egyptian president, but in a sign of U.S. unease, no cabinet-level ministers will attend.

The U.S. delegation to the swearing-in of president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will be led by State Department counselor Thomas Shannon, a senior adviser to Secretary of State John Kerry, a U.S. official said Thursday.

The shadowy leader of thousands of Islamist fighters in Syria and Iraq, many of them Westerners, appears to be surpassing al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri as the world's most influential jihadist.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant -- known for its ruthless tactics and suicide bombers -- is arguably the most capable force fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad, and has even held control of a major Iraqi city for the past five months, in tandem with other groups.

The European Union said Thursday it was "deeply disappointed" after Israel unveiled plans to build another 3,200 settler homes, and called for the decision to be reversed, as the U.N. urged Israel to respect “international law.”

Tenders for nearly 1,500 new settlement houses and plans to advance some 1,800 others were issued in retaliation for the formation of a Palestinian unity government backed by Hamas and the international community.

Egypt approved new punishments Thursday for sexual harassment, amid rising pressure on authorities to fight the rampant phenomenon.

Until now, Egypt has not had a law defining sexual harassment, despite more than 99 percent of women being subjected to some form of abuse, a 2013 study by the United Nations said.

The European Union said Thursday it was ready to work "closely" with newly elected Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi but urged him to ensure his government respected human rights and the rule of law.

A former general, Sisi won nearly 97 percent of the vote in last week's polls, nearly a year after he toppled Egypt's first freely elected leader, Islamist Mohammed Morsi.