At least three civilians were killed and 28 others wounded on Monday when mortar shells slammed into a neighborhood in southern Damascus, Syria's state-run SANA news agency reported.

"A mortar shell fired by terrorists fell behind a shop on Duwaliya road, killing three civilians and wounding 28 others," SANA said, adding that another shell slammed into nearby Bab Sharqi district causing further casualties.

The EU's anti-terror chief warned Europe on Monday to remain on its guard, especially against the threat of European jihadists who are finding new safe havens from Syria to Mali.

Gilles de Kerchove, marking a day of remembrance for victims of terror, said the threat remained real whether "it stems from terrorist organisations or lone actors."

A Ukrainian journalist held for several months by kidnappers in Syria is safe in Damascus after fleeing from her captors on Monday, her family said.

Ankhar Kochneva, an Arabic speaker who was working as an assistant for Russian media, was kidnapped in early October. She has reportedly said she was held by opposition forces who treated her poorly.

An Egyptian Christian jailed in Libya has been tortured to death in custody, an Egyptian human rights lawyer told Agence France Presse in Cairo on Monday, with demonstrators attacking the Libyan embassy in protest.

Ezzat Hakim Attallah "died after being tortured with other detainees" in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, said Naguib Guebrayel, a Coptic Christian lawyer who heads the Egyptian Union for Human Rights watchdog.

Syria's President Bashar Assad comes across as a remorseless autocrat ready to go to any lengths to stay in power, despite military setbacks and growing ever more isolated from much of the world, observers found.

"He appears relaxed and confident, and certainly doesn't give the impression of being about to quit," said Hala Jaber, a Sunday Times reporter who recently interviewed Assad.

"Yesterday I did not make anything to eat as there was no electricity for the entire day," says Umm Fadi, a resident of Artuz district near Damascus that has been caught up in the fighting between rebels and regime forces.

Like most Syrians, the mother of four faces a shortage of oil and gas and has to resort to cooking on a wood fire or, when there is power, an electric stove.

A U.N. commission of inquiry on Syria called Monday for direct access to the U.N. Security Council to make the case for referring crimes committed in the war-torn country to the International Criminal Court.

"We want access... directly to the Security Council and the General Assembly," said Vitit Muntarbhorn, one of the four investigators who make up the commission.

The Federal Supreme Court of Abu Dhabi on Monday heard the lawyers of 94 Islamists accused of plotting to seize power in the United Arab Emirates before scheduling the next sessions to March 18 and 19.

Eighty-five Islamists including 12 women appeared in court, for the second hearing in the largest trial in the history of the UAE, state news agency WAM reported quoting the justice ministry.

Kuwaiti coast guards shot dead on Monday a suspected drugs smuggler as they chased a boat in the emirate's territorial waters, the interior ministry said.

The ministry did not reveal the identity of the dead man but a security official told Agence France Presse that he was Iranian.

Lawmakers from Tunisia's secular opposition Monday denounced remarks attributed to an MP from the Islamist Ennahda party that female circumcisions in Africa are carried out for "aesthetic' reasons.

"It is unacceptable that a member promotes crimes against women," lawmaker Nadia Shaaban said in the National Constituent Assembly, referring to remarks purportedly made by Habib Ellouze, an MP from the ruling Ennahda.