3.56pm BST

Here is a summary of today’s key events.

Syria

• A video obtained by Reuters suggests that Palmyra’s Temple of Bel, which dates from the first century, has been damaged in fighting between government and rebel forces. Palmyra, which is in central Syria near the modern town of Tadmur, is a Unesco world heritage site, and features the ruins of a city that was once one of the most important cultural centres of the ancient world.

• Opposition activists reported shelling and warplane attacks across the suburbs of Damascus today. A Reuters reporter in the capital found a “new exodus” of residents fleeing the continued fighting there. A Syrian military commander has told rebels in Damascus that a continued attempt to advance in the capital would mean "certain death for them and their leaders". The Local Co-ordination Committees group also reported shelling in Aleppo and its surroundings, and in Daraa province. The group said 38 people had been killed in fighting across the country today, including 18 in Damascus. Its reports cannot be verified because most media are banned from Syria.

• A Syrian helicopter travelled 12 miles into Lebanon and fired a missile into a house. There were no reported casualties. The Associated Press said the missile hit the house on the outskirts of Arsal, a town that has backed opposition fighters in Syria. Lebanon has maintained a policy of "dissociation" from the Syrian civil war, but with more and more Syrian refugees arriving in Lebanon the country has become divided between those who back the rebels and those who support Bashar al-Assad.

• The activist group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the opposition had taken an air defence base on the outskirts of Daraa, in the south west near the border with Jordan, after days of fighting. Its report cannot be verified because most media are banned from Syria.

• An Assad supporter from Aleppo spoke to the Guardian about the arrival of the Free Syrian Army in the town, which she said resulted in kidnappings and the rise of Islamist fighters from the al-Nusra front. Her story cannot be verified because most media are banned from Syria.

US

• American secretary of state John Kerry is travelling to Turkey and Israel this weekend to build on the two nations' efforts to repair ties, US and Turkish officials said today.

Libya

• Libya has formally applied to the International Criminal Court to be allowed to put Muammar Gaddafi's former spy chief on trial in Tripoli instead of sending him to the Hague to face justice, according to documents published today.

Egypt

• The Egyptian president's office is distancing itself from legal proceedings against a popular comedian questioned over accusations he insulted the president and Islam in his weekly TV show.