A Syrian opposition group announced Monday that they are creating a new military structure consisting of 12,000 fighters to topple the regime of the Syrian President Bashar Assad.

"We announce today the unification of all fronts in a single center to bring about the collapse of the oppressing regime," Khaled al-Okla from the Syrian Revolutionaries Front (SRF) read from a statement at a press conference.

Clashes erupted between regime forces and rebels in Syria's Idlib province overnight, killing two opposition fighters, as two others died in the Damascus region on Monday, a watchdog said.

Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets of Istanbul Sunday to protest the government's plan to reduce the time limit for abortions.

Women chanted slogans and unfurled banners reading "Abortion is a right" and "It is our body" during the rally in the city's Kadikoy district, which was also attended by men.

A British tourist who was kidnapped by Kurdish rebels in southeastern Turkey at the weekend was freed on Monday, officials in London and Turkey said.

The 35-year-old man was described as being in good health and is to be taken to the main southeastern city of Diyarbakir for brief questioning about his ordeal, a Turkish official said on condition of anonymity.

Turkey has requested that Lebanon reduce its “media uproar” over the 11 Lebanese pilgrims who were kidnapped in Syria nearly two weeks ago in order to allow it to resolve the case, reported the daily An Nahar on Sunday.

Sources monitoring the situation stated that the abductors chose to raise their demands for the release of the captives once they noticed the great media and political attention the case has been receiving.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati on Friday met with a delegation representing the families of 11 Lebanese Shiite pilgrims abducted in Syria on May 22, in the presence of Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour and MPs Ali Ammar and Ghazi Zoaiter.

After the meeting, Ammar said “PM Miqati and Minister Mansour briefed us about their contacts and discussions with Turkish authorities concerning the case of the Lebanese abductees in Syria.”

Prime Minister Najib Miqati highlighted on Thursday Lebanon’s diversity, saying that it is an “example of the convergence of civilizations.”

He said: “The international community must help Lebanon preserve its diversity.”

German prosecutors on Thursday charged a Turkish man on suspicion of being a member of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party and taking part in guerrilla operations in northern Iraq.

The federal prosecutors said in a statement they indicted the 46-year-old, named only as Ali Ihsan K., on charges of "belonging to the foreign terrorist organization Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)".

Somalia needs a global reconstruction effort to back up ongoing stabilization efforts and stop the Horn of Africa's 20-year descent into chaos, leaders said Thursday at the start of a meeting in Turkey.

Representatives from 54 countries gathered in Istanbul to find a path towards a better future for a country that was the reason the term "failed state" was coined two decades ago.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati on Thursday held three-hour talks in Istanbul with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, urging Ankara to carry on with its “satisfactory and ongoing” efforts to secure the release of 11 Lebanese Shiite pilgrims abducted in Syria’s Aleppo on May 22.

“Mr. Erdogan stressed that Turkey will continue to exert intensified efforts to rescue the Lebanese citizens held in Syria,” Miqati’s press office said in a statement issued after the meeting.