The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, which won a crushing victory in Egyptian legislative elections, on Monday nominated its secretary general to head the new parliament.

"We have decided to nominate Saad al-Katatni as the next speaker of the People's Assembly (parliament's lower house)," FJP chief Mohammed Mursi told a news conference.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday appealed to the Security Council to act with "seriousness" on Syria, where he said the situation has become "unacceptable."

"The situation has reached an unacceptable point," Ban told reporters on the sidelines of an energy summit in Abu Dhabi.

Iran has made arrests over a scientist's assassination last week blamed on Israel and the U.S., parliament speaker Ali Larijani said Monday, vowing his country would avenge the death using "non-terrorist" tactics.

He did not specify how many people were arrested or when the arrests were made, or give any details on the suspects' identities or nationalities.

Iran has repeatedly violated a U.N. arms embargo with exports to protest-hit Syria, the French foreign ministry said on Monday, citing a U.N. group of experts.

"The U.N. panel of experts on Iran has identified and informed the Security Council of several violations of the embargo on arms to or from Iran set up by... the United Nations Security Council," said spokesman Romain Nadal.

About 30 international observers will for the first time be allowed to monitor Kuwait's parliamentary election on February 2, the head of a non-governmental organization said on Monday.

Most of the observers will be Arabs from the Arab Network for Election Democracy but contacts are underway with some non-Arab organizations to send monitors, Salah al-Ghazali told a press conference.

Egypt's military ruler Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi arrived in Libya on Monday on a visit to boost ties between the two neighbors whose longtime autocratic leaders were toppled last year, an Agence France Presse photographer said.

The trip marks Tantawi's first state visit since the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces which he heads took over following the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak last February after an 18-day popular revolt.

A NATO warship went to the rescue this weekend of an Iranian-flagged vessel whose engine broke down just days after its rescue from pirates by another NATO ship, the alliance said Monday.

An Italian ship, the ITS Grecale, offered the five Iranian and nine Pakistani crew food and water and worked through the night to fix the engine, but to no avail, NATO said in a statement.

The current regime of U.S. and EU sanctions against Iran are not enough to force Tehran to halt its nuclear program, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday.

Although Western sanctions against the Islamic republic have been stepped up, Israel remains skeptical that Tehran will abandon its nuclear program without harsh steps against its oil-based economy and its banking sector.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's media advisor, Ali Akbar Javanfekr, has been found guilty by a Tehran court of insulting supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but on Monday fought back against the charge.

"My adherence to the sage supreme leader is more apparent than the sun, and is backed by my record," Javanfekr wrote on his personal website, Javanfekr.ir.

Israel and the United States opted to delay a major joint military exercise because of regional tensions and instability, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Monday.

"The entire world understands that we had to postpone this exercise because of political and regional uncertainties, as well as the tensions and instability prevailing in the region," Lieberman told public radio.