Egypt's forensic authority spokesman Hisham Abdel Hamid said Tuesday he had been sacked after an interview in which he said a protester died of birdshot wounds because she was too thin.

An officer has been referred to trial for allegedly shooting dead activist Shaima al-Sabbagh when riot police fired tear gas and birdshot to disperse a peaceful rally in January.

Britain is set to boost military defenses in the Falkland Islands in response to the "very live threat" from Argentina, Defense Secretary Michael Fallon said Tuesday.

He was speaking ahead of a statement to parliament where he was to announce the results of a review into the maritime and air defenses of the South Atlantic archipelago.

Washington is providing reconnaissance support for Iraqi forces fighting to retake Tikrit from the Islamic State group, an official said Tuesday, the first confirmation of American involvement in the operation.

Such assistance could help Iraqi forces move forward with their largest operation against IS jihadists to date, which enjoyed initial success but has since stalled into a siege, with the city surrounded but not retaken.

Anti-government forces advanced Tuesday toward President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi's refuge of Aden in southern Yemen, fighting fierce battles with loyalist forces in which at least 30 people were killed.

The Shiite Huthi militia, backed by troops allied to former leader Ali Abdullah Saleh, clashed with forces loyal to the president in at least two southern provinces as they pushed on Aden, sources said.

A U.S. drone strike in eastern Afghanistan has killed nine militants linked to the Pakistani Taliban in an area close to the countries' rugged border, officials said Tuesday.

The strike came in the Nasyan area of the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar, close to the border with the Pakistani tribal district of Khyber.

British Prime Minister David Cameron's announcement that he would not seek a third term sparked heated debate on Tuesday over whether he was being laudably honest or had undermined his authority just weeks before an election.

He even went so far as to name three potential successors from within his Conservative party, risking the prospect of a leadership race that could distract from the campaign.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari met President Bashar Assad on Tuesday in the first visit by a senior Baghdad official since Syria's conflict began in 2011. 

Speaking after meeting Assad and his Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem, Jaafari urged regional support for Damascus as it battles "terrorism."

A car bombing in Baghdad killed Iraqi footballer Mahdi Abdulzahra on his way to practice, an official from his Electricity Club team said on Tuesday.

Abdulzahra, who was born in 1996, was among eight people killed in the blast close to a restaurant and a mosque in the Sadr City area on Monday.

Al-Mustaqbal bloc leader MP Fouad Saniora said on Tuesday that his longtime friend, slain former Premier Rafik Hariri, confided to him that he had discovered several assassination attempts by Hizbullah against him.

“Hariri was driving his car and I was sitting next to him when he suddenly turned towards me and said: 'You know Fouad, by now we have discovered several assassination attempts by Hizbullah against me',” Saniora told the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

A roadside bomb killed two soldiers and wounded six others on Tuesday as it struck a passing armoured vehicle in the restive Sinai peninsula, Egyptian military and medical officials said.

A military official said the explosion took place as army forces patrolled an area near the village of el-Kharouba, close to the Gaza Strip in the north.