4.05pm GMT

Here's a summary of today's main developments:

Syria

• Former foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi has confirmed his defection from the Assad regime, 10 weeks after it was first reported. In a statement he said he abandoned the regime because his hopes for reform had been dashed and that the country had become polarised. His whereabouts are still unknown.

• Ali Haidar, Syria's minister for national reconciliation, has distanced himself from a Guardian interview in which he offered to travel abroad to discuss talks with opposition leaders. He told Syrian state TV that didn't discuss whether he was willing to meet Moaz al-Khatib abroad. But in a recording of his interview Haidar can be heard offering to travel "overseas" to meet any opposition leader.

• The UN’s humanitarian chief Valerie Amos has admitted that the UN could do more to ensure that aid reaches rebel-controlled areas in Syria. In an interview with the Guardian she said: "I think we can and must do more to forge relationships on the ground to allow us to move more freely between the lines that are government controlled and opposition controlled." Her comments came as the UN refugee agency announced that it had delivered aid to a rebel-control area in north-west Syria for a second time.

• Russia says it will continue shipping weapons to the Assad government despite the country's escalating civil war. Anatoly Isaikin, the director of Rosoboronexport, says arms trade with Syria isn't prohibited by the UN and so Russia has no intention to stop.

• Qatar has pledged to hand over the Syrian embassy building in Doha to the opposition Syrian National Coalition, the group announced. It named the new "ambassador" as Nizar al-Heraki.

Egypt

• Police officers have continued to protest across Egypt urging the removal of Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim, the Egypt Independent reports. They claim they are being unfairly blamed for Egypt's violent protests.