A Kurdish mayor on hunger strike in Turkey to protest the building of a barrier on the border with Syria accused Ankara on Tuesday of putting up a "wall of shame".

Ayse Gokkan of the pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party (BDP), who has been on hunger strike for seven days, says the wall will divide the Kurdish people and has called it a "black stain on history".

A Palestinian imprisoned by Israel on suspicion of militant activity died of cancer Tuesday, three weeks after being released, with Palestinian officials blaming Israel for his death.

But Israel rejected the accusation, saying the man had received proper care from the beginning.

Israeli negotiators have told their Palestinian counterparts the separation barrier that cuts through the West Bank should serve as the border of a future Palestinian state, media reports said Tuesday.

Just hours before U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's arrival for top-level talks on ongoing direct peace negotiations, two press reports said the Israeli team had made the proposal.

The United Arab Emirates' state security court on Tuesday began the trial of 30 Emiratis and Egyptians charged with setting up an illegal branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The conservative monarchies of the Gulf have long viewed the Brotherhood -- a grass-roots movement founded in Egypt more than 80 years ago -- as a threat because of its political activism and advocacy for Islamic governance.

The Philippines said Tuesday it is seeking help from Sudan to commute the death sentence of a Filipino facing execution in Saudi Arabia.

Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said officials were trying to contact the family of the Sudanese man killed by Filipino laborer Joselito Zapanta in Saudi Arabia in 2009, resulting in his death sentence.

Two people were wounded in a gunfight that broke out at a Tripoli checkpoint between former rebels who fought to overthrow Moammar Gadhafi, a security official said Tuesday.

The fighting erupted after security forces stopped a car with tinted windows carrying members of a brigade that had fought in the city of Misrata during the 2011 uprising, according to Hashem Besher, head of a unit of former rebels under the authority of the interior ministry.

A mortar round hit the Vatican embassy in Damascus on Tuesday morning, damaging the building but causing no casualties, a diplomat told Agence France Presse.

"A mortar round fell this morning at 6:30 am (0430 GMT) on the embassy rooftop, causing only material damage," said Giorgio Ghezza, counselor at the papal nunciature.

Qatar's emir criticized Tuesday what he claimed were unconditional terms for a proposed peace conference on Syria, saying the talks would lead nowhere and should focus on "achieving justice" for Syria's people.

Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, whose country has been a main backer of the Syrian rebellion, criticized "attempts by some to substitute achieving justice for the (Syrian) people, who have paid the heaviest price... with unconditional negotiations that lack a time-frame and lead nowhere."

Russia insisted on Tuesday that Iran must be invited to peace negotiations on Syria that world powers hope to hold in Geneva later this month.

"All those who affect the situation must be invited to the conference," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters.

The U.N.-Arab League envoy to Syria began meeting with senior diplomats in Geneva Tuesday in a new push to prepare a long-delayed peace conference amid disagreement over who will take part.

Lakhdar Brahimi began talks with Russian deputy foreign ministers Gennady Gatilov and Mikhail Bogdanov and U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman at 10:00 am (0900 GMT) at the U.N.'s European headquarters.