3.57pm BST

Syria

• The UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, has urged the Syrian government to cooperate fully with a UN investigation into the use of chemical weapons after the Assad regime said it would not permit the mission to widen its original scope. The investigation was originally launched after the Syrian government accused rebels of using chemical weapons in an an attack on Khan al-Assal village in Aleppo last month. The rebels blamed government forces for the attack. Syria's state media reported that the UN now wants "additional investigations which might allow the UN mission to spread all over the Syrian territories, and this contradicts the Syrian request from the UN and indicates to the presence of hidden intentions at the states which have sought to add those investigations as this constitutes a violation of the Syrian sovereignty". Sana reported that that the government would not allow such "manoeuvres" but would still allow the mission to visit Khan al-Assal in keeping with its original intention. France said Syria's reluctance to cooperate "raised doubts" about the role Damascus may have played in the alleged incidents that involved use of chemical weapons.

• Syrian rebels have accused government forces of using chemical weapons overnight in the Damascus suburbs. An opposition media group claimed rebel fighters Otaiba in Damascus suburbs feared a chemical attack after government forces withdrew abruptly and so donned gas masks. But it said animals were killed when three rockets of chemical gas were fired at 4am on Tuesday.

• The Iraqi wing of al-Qaida announced that the al-Nusra front - a rebel group at the forefront of the rebellion in Syria that has claimed responsibility for many of the car bombings - is its branch in the country, Reuters reports.

The leader of the Islamic State in Iraq, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, said his group and Syria's al-Nusra Front - which has been blacklisted by the United States - would now jointly go under the name of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, the SITE Intelligence Group reported.

• The Syrian opposition is to meet some G8 foreign ministers in London tomorrow, including US secretary of state John Kerry. UK foreign secretary William Hague said they would be discussing "the urgent humanitarian needs and the urgent need for a political and diplomatic breakthrough on Syria".

Egypt

• Egypt's Islamist-led government has asked independent legal experts to propose amendments to the new constitution, the state news agency Mena said on Tuesday. Aswat Masriya reported that the move may signal that it is heeding concerns of the liberal and leftist opposition. Mena said Prime Minister Hisham Kandil had assigned a committee of scholars to review 10 to 15 articles of the disputed charter, which was rushed through parliament in December over opposition protests, and passed in a referendum.

• The leader of Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church has blasted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi over his handling of the recent deadly sectarian violence, including an attack on the main cathedral in Cairo, AP reports. Accusing Morsi of "negligence", Pope Tawadros II said that Morsi had promised him in a telephone conversation to do everything to protect the cathedral, "but in reality he did not". An angry mob of Muslims threw firebombs and rocks on Sunday at the Coptic cathedral in Cairo, leaving two Christians dead.

• A colleague says a Dutch journalist has been arrested by Egyptian citizens while reporting in Cairo, accused of being a spy and handed to authorities who detained her overnight, AP reports. The Netherlands Embassy confirmed on Tuesday that Rena Netjes had been arrested the day before. An Egyptian security official said she will be interrogated by prosecutors.

Bahrain

• Bahrain says four suspects have been arrested after homemade firebombs were hurled at the foreign ministry in a possible escalation of anti-government protests, AP reports. The interior ministry said on Tuesday there were no injuries or serious damage from the Molotov cocktails. The attack, late on Monday, was a rare attempt to strike government offices in the Gulf state's more than 2-year-old uprising, led by majority Shias seeking a greater political voice in the Sunni-ruled kingdom. The ministry offered few details of the arrests. Online activists, however, said police stormed areas of the capital, Manama, at dawn.