Interior Minister Marwan Charbel revealed on Wednesday that there was a "positive development" in the cases of Lebanese kidnapped in Syria following talks with Turkey's intelligence chief and his aide.

Charbel made the revelation from the Grand Serail following his return to Beirut less than 24 hours after accompanying freed Turkish businessman Tekin Tufan to Turkey with General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim and Turkish Ambassador Inan Ozyildiz.

Amnesty International on Tuesday called on Iraq to investigate a bloody wave of attacks, while condemning a death sentence handed to fugitive Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi.

More than 80 people were killed and at least 400 wounded in the series of over 30 attacks across Iraq on Saturday and Sunday, according to security and medical officials.

Turkey on Tuesday said it won't extradite Iraq's fugitive vice president Tareq al-Hashemi, who has been convicted of murder and sentenced to death in absentia by an Iraqi court.

"We will host Hashemi in our country as long as he wants to remain in Turkey. We will not hand him over," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a news conference in Ankara.

Forty-four people, many of them journalists, went on trial in Turkey Monday for alleged links to outlawed Kurdish rebels amid protests from human rights activists and opposition lawmakers.

The suspects are accused of links with the Union of Kurdistan Communities (KCK), an organization deemed by the authorities to be the urban wing of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Turkish air strikes killed 25 Kurdish rebels inside northern Iraq in the past few days as heavy army-rebel fighting inside Turkey killed at least 461 people this year, the army said Monday.

"An air operation has been staged against 14 targets of the separatist terrorist organization in the north of Iraq between September 5 and 9," the chief of staff said in an online statement.

Forty-four people, many of them journalists, went on trial in Turkey on Monday for alleged links to outlawed Kurdish rebels, the third trial in a wave of legal action targeting the group.

The suspects are accused of links with the Union of Kurdistan Communities (KCK), an organization deemed by the authorities as the urban wing of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Iran said it was joining officials from Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey for a four-way "contact group" meeting in Cairo looking at ways to calm the conflict in Syria.

An Iranian deputy foreign minister, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, had left Tehran for the Egyptian capital to take part in the meeting, foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told Iran's Al-Alam Arabic-language broadcaster.

General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim informed Prime Minister Najib Miqati that a Turkish national kidnapped by an unknown group would be released on Monday or Tuesday, An Nahar daily reported.

An Nahar said that the Turkish man will be handed over to the General Security and will be accompanied by a European man of Syrian origin to Turkey.

Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani slammed the kidnapping of Turkish nationals in Lebanon in retaliation to the abduction of Lebanese in Syria, saying such assaults harm bilateral ties.

“Turkey is not a kidnapper and has nothing to do with the abduction of the ten Lebanese in Syria,” Qabbani said following talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu at the end of his visit to Ankara.

Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel praised on Saturday the efforts exerted by the Lebanese army to safely release the Turkish citizen, who was abducted by al-Meqdad clan in August.

“We hail the efforts exerted by the army and the security forces to free the Turkish citizen,” Gemayel said after holding talks with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul.