Syria's main opposition coalition called on Tuesday for a U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing the "use of force" and welcomed the expulsion of top diplomats from several Western countries.

After economic sanctions and the expulsion of top diplomats from several Western countries, the U.N. Security Council should "adopt a resolution under Chapter VII (of the U.N. Charter) allowing the use of necessary force in order to put a stop to the genocide and the murders committed by the regime's militias," the Syrian National Council said.

Somalia's president escaped an ambush unharmed Tuesday as al-Qaida-linked Shebab fighters attacked his armored convoy in territory recently wrested from the extremists, officials said.

Two Somali soldiers were wounded when Shebab gunmen opened fire as President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed drove down the Afgoye corridor -- a key road and the world's largest concentration of displaced people -- for the first time since its capture on Friday.

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood presidential candidate Mohammed Mursi sought on Tuesday to reassure women and Coptic Christians, who fear a conservative Islamist could threaten their freedoms.

"Our Christian brothers, let's be clear, are national partners and have full rights like Muslims," said Mursi in a press conference.

Iran claimed on Tuesday to have come up with an anti-virus program against "Flame", an extraordinarily sophisticated malware that hit its servers and deployed various spying procedures, apparently at the behest of a foreign power.

"Tools to recognize and clean this malware have been developed and, as of today, they will be available for those (Iranian) organizations and companies who want it," Maher, a computer emergency response team coordination center in Iran's telecommunications ministry, said on its website.

Major Western powers said Tuesday they would expel Syria's diplomatic envoys in protest at the weekend massacre in the town of Houla, in which more than 100 people were killed.

The United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain as well as Canada, Australia, The Netherlands, Bulgaria, Switzerland and Belgium announced decisions to expel ambassadors or top envoys.

Israeli President Shimon Peres said on Tuesday that Syrian President Bashar Assad has become the "murderer" of his people and they need help to free themselves from his regime.

"Their president, who is supposed to be the father of their nation, became their murderer," Peres told reporters during a joint press conference with visiting German President Joachim Gauck.

Saudi Arabia on Tuesday renewed a warning to its citizens not to visit Yemen, still reeling from a year of political unrest and an ongoing war against al-Qaida, the state news agency SPA said.

"Given the instability and the security situation" in Yemen, "the (foreign) ministry is renewing its warning to all citizens not to travel" there "until the situation is stabilized," an official said in a statement carried by SPA.

Injury doubts Danny Welbeck and Glen Johnson were both passed fit to play at Euro 2012 after being included in England's final 23-man squad for the tournament on Tuesday.

Manchester United striker Welbeck and Liverpool defender Johnson missed last Saturday's 1-0 friendly victory over Norway in Oslo because of lingering fitness issues.

Police in Pakistan on Tuesday arrested a Muslim cleric accused of sentencing six people to death for singing and dancing at a wedding in the north of the country.

"Police have arrested a cleric and his companion for issuing the death decree, but they totally denied it," local administration official Aqal Badshah Khattak told Agence France Presse.

Athens has gained a new tourist attraction alongside its ancient Acropolis, as visitors flock to view the nearby upmarket home of a disgraced former minister that has become a symbol of corruption.

"After the Acropolis museum, this has unfortunately become the second main attraction here -- the home of a corrupt minister," said one young Greek outside the mansion where Akis Tsochatzopoulos, 72, a former defense minister of the socialist party Pasok, lived before landing in jail.