Floods that caused billions of dollars (euros) in losses were the world's most expensive natural disasters so far this year, with central Europe being hit hardest, reinsurers Munich Re said on Tuesday.

Altogether, natural catastrophes -- also including earthquakes, tornados and heat waves -- caused $45 billion (35 billion euros) in losses in the first half of 2013, well below the 10-year average of $85 billion.

The new head of the Syrian National Coalition has backed calls for a truce from U.N. chief Ban Ki-Moon during the holy month of Ramadan.

Ahmad Assi Jarba, who was elected to the post on Saturday, said he hoped all parties in the civil war would abide by any truce.

Pakistan reached an understanding with the United States on drone strikes targeting Islamist militants and the attacks can be useful, according leaked remarks from a former intelligence chief.

Pakistan publicly condemns U.S. missile attacks on Taliban and al-Qaida operatives as a violation of its sovereignty, but the new revelations are the latest sign of double-dealing in private.

A Taliban bomb in western Afghanistan on Tuesday killed 12 women, four children and one man traveling in a three-wheel minivan, officials said, adding that at least seven other passengers were wounded.

"Unfortunately as a result of this blast, 12 women, four children and one man have been killed and five children, one man and one woman have been wounded," Herat province police spokesman Abdul Rauf Ahmadi told AFP.

The Greek coastguard on Tuesday rescued 142 migrants off the island of Crete after their boat began to take on water, officials and reports said.

According to the Athens News Agency, the coastguard rescued 77 men, 24 women and 38 children of Syrian and Afghan origin.

An appeal trial over the murder of a British student in Italy is to begin on September 30 after Italy's top court overturned the acquittal of American Amanda Knox and her former Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito.

The two were initially convicted in 2009 for the frenzied murder of Meredith Kercher in Perugia in what prosecutors was a sex game gone wrong, then absolved on appeal in 2011 after nearly four years in prison.

The United Arab Emirates said on Tuesday it has offered Egypt an aid package of $3 billion, just days after it hailed the ouster of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi by the Egyptian army.

The package includes a grant of $1 billion and a $2 billion interest-free deposit in Egypt's central bank, WAM state news agency said.

The Egyptian authorities were set to reopen the Rafah border crossing with Gaza, which has been closed since Friday, to allow entry to the territory, the Hamas government that rules the Palestinian territory said.

"The crossing will be open tomorrow from 8:30 am until 2:30 pm (Wednesday from 0530 GMT until 1130 GMT) for arrivals, and for departures only for the sick and holders of Egyptian or foreign passports," Hamas's deputy foreign minister Ghazi Hammad said in a statement.

Egypt's Tamarod campaign, which launched the protests that prompted the ouster of president Mohammed Morsi, called on Tuesday for changes to a proposed interim charter, their spokesman told AFP.

Mahmud Badr said his group was drafting proposed amendments to the temporary constitution unveiled earlier on Tuesday by army-installed caretaker President Adly Mansour which sets out a blueprint for a political transition.

Britain is to train up to 2,000 Libyan troops in a bid to "help them achieve peace and stability across their country", the British defense ministry announced on Tuesday.

"The UK armed forces are to train their Libyan counterparts in basic infantry skills and leadership training with courses beginning later this year," the ministry said in a statement.