Syria insisted on Monday that a Turkish warplane shot down by its forces violated its airspace, but Ankara hit back saying it was a "hostile act of the highest order" ahead of NATO emergency talks.

The incident has reignited concern over the Syria conflict, with the European Union condemning the Damascus regime and slapping new sanctions against it while also warning of the dangers of military escalation.

A car bomb south of Baghdad killed eight people and wounded 32 on Monday, while a roadside bomb north of the capital killed four people and wounded seven, security and medical sources said.

The car bomb exploded at about 7:45 pm (1645 GMT) near a football field in Hilla, 95 kilometers (60 miles) south of Baghdad, killing eight people and wounding 32, police Second Lieutenant Ali Jassem and doctor Saad al-Khafaji of Hilla hospital said.

A Russian ship that tried to deliver repaired attack helicopters to Syria raised Russia's tricolor flag on Monday as it awaited orders in a naval port to possibly make a second attempt, a report said.

The Alaed cargo vessel dropped anchor at the main base of Russia's Northern Fleet near the city of Murmansk on Sunday after being forced to turn back when its British insurer dropped coverage on learning of the mission's true intent.

The Egyptian presidency on Monday denied that president-elect Mohamed Morsi gave an interview to Iran's Fars news agency, in which he reportedly pledged to strengthen ties with the Islamic republic.

"Mr Morsi did not give any interview to Fars and everything that this agency has published is without foundation," a spokesman for the Egyptian presidency told the official news agency MENA.

Iraq's Communications and Media Commission has decided to place restrictions on 39 media outlets including the BBC and Voice of America over alleged license problems, a CMC official said on Monday.

But the Journalism Freedoms Observatory (JFO), an Iraqi media rights organization, said that the CMC had in fact recommended banning 44 news outlets, and called for the move, which it said violated the constitution, to be reversed.

A group of Omani rights activists arrested in early June for demanding political reforms in the country have been charged with defamation and illegal gatherings, their lawyer said on Monday.

Fourteen activists, including bloggers, writers and lawyers, were charged with participating in "illegal gatherings and blocking roads," said Yacoub al-Harithi after the court hearing in the capital Muscat.

Egypt's president-elect Mohamed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood's winning candidate, benefits from unprecedented electoral legitimacy, but analysts say his leadership will be limited by the entrenched powers of the military.

This situation could lead to alternating periods of compromise and tension between the Brotherhood -- which hopes to loosen the grip of the military -- and the army -- which could exploit future failures by the new president to discredit Islamist rule.

Tunisia's post-revolution political alliance faced its deepest crisis yet Monday after the Islamist prime minister ignored the president's opposition to the extradition of a former top Libyan official.

President Moncef Marzouki was furious that Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali ordered the transfer to Libya of Moammar Gadhafi’s last prime minister, Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi, without his consent.

Violence killed 13 people across Syria on Monday, as the army pounded towns and cities in an attempt to regain control of territory lost to rebels, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

A rescue plane searching for a Turkish fighter jet that had been shot down over the eastern Mediterranean was itself placed in the crosshairs by the Syrian military, a European diplomat told Agence France Presse on Monday.

The Turkish army Casa CN-235, a twin-propeller transport, was targeted by a Syrian ground-to-air defense system as it looked Friday for the F4 Phantom jet that had been downed earlier with its crew of two, said the diplomat.