Bashar al-Assad

Thirty-one-year-old Adnan Rexhepi from Kumanovo, northern Macedonia, died on Saturday while fighting with a rebel group against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Albanian-language media in Macedonia have reported.

He was reportedly killed in the Syrian province of Sham.

A twin suicide attack in Syria's province of Hama took the lives of at least 18 people, 11 of which children, according to state media reports.

The two explosions, which were described as "terrorist"-originated, were in villages which are presently under government control, as the BBC reports.

Syria is to hold presidential elections on June 3, its Parliament Speaker announced.

Voting for Syrians outside the country, whose number has considerably increased amid an ongoing civil war, will be on May 28, according to Al Jazeera English.

Austria will receive an extra 1000 Syrian refugees in addition to the quota of 500 announced in August 2013, according to Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner.