Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi is to head to New York later this week for talks on Syria with U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon, a League official said on Monday.

"Arabi's four-day visit, starting on Thursday, will focus on the Syrian crisis and on efforts to convince the U.N. Security Council of the need for an urgent solution," the official added.

A powerful Shiite cleric and Iraq's main secular bloc have made new calls to unseat Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, as a long-running political crisis appeared set to drag on.

"We say, complete your (good work) and announce your resignation, for the sake of the people... and for the sake of partners," Moqtada al-Sadr said in a statement released late on Sunday.

Clashes erupted between regime forces and rebels in Syria's Idlib province overnight, killing two opposition fighters, as two others died in the Damascus region on Monday, a watchdog said.

Russia and the European Union must overcome their differences on the crisis in Syria to prevent a full-scale civil war, the EU president said Monday after talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Herman Van Rompuy, who is in Russia with EU Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso to meet with Putin, admitted after the talks that the EU and Russia "might have some divergent assessments" over the situation in Syria.

A lower court in Kuwait sentenced a Shiite tweeter to 10 years in jail on Monday on charges of insulting Islam's Prophet Mohammed, his wife Aisha and companions, his lawyer Khaled al-Shatti said.

"We plan to challenge the ruling against my client Hamad al-Naqi in the appeals court and we are very optimistic that the higher court will cancel the sentence," Shatti told AFP.

Four African migrants were taken to an Israeli hospital with burns and smoke inhalation on Monday after a deadly arson attempt on the Jerusalem building in which they were living, police said.

The incident, which police described as "very serious," took place in an old two-storey building in a poor neighborhood near the city's Mahane Yehuda market, just after 3:00 am (0000 GMT).

A military court handed stiff prison terms to 19 Ukrainians, three nationals from Belarus and two Russians accused of serving as mercenaries for ousted leader Moammar Gadhafi in Libya's conflict last year.

One of the Russians, judged to have been the coordinator, was condemned to life imprisonment while the others were sentenced to 10 years' hard labor.

Egyptian activists who spearheaded the revolt that toppled president Hosni Mubarak have called for mass demonstrations on Tuesday to protest against verdicts handed down in the strongman's murder trial.

Mubarak and his interior minister Habib al-Adly were sentenced to life in prison on Saturday but six security commanders were acquitted over the killings of demonstrators during last year's uprising that left around 850 people dead.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will for the first time meet French President Francois Hollande when he visits Paris later this week, his spokesman said on Monday.

"President Abbas will visit France on June 8 and will meet with French President Francois Hollande," Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP.

A suicide attacker blew up a bomb-packed car at a Shiite religious foundation's headquarters in Baghdad on Monday, killing at least 22 people in the capital's deadliest blast in more than four months.

The attack comes amid a dispute between Iraq's Shiite and Sunni endowments, which manage the country's religious landmarks, over a shrine north of Baghdad, and a protracted political standoff that has raised sectarian tensions in a country racked by brutal communal bloodshed from 2006 to 2008.