Amnesty International on Thursday urged world support to help Jordan and other countries hosting Syrian refugees end border restrictions on those fleeing the conflict, saying hundreds are being turned back.

In a new report, Amnesty highlights the difficulties faced by people who are trying to escape the conflict in Syria to neighboring countries, mainly Jordan.

Amid new tensions over Western Sahara, a U.N. envoy said Wednesday there was still no hope of convening face-to-face talks on the disputed territory between Morocco and pro-independence rebels.

Morocco, which occupies the territory, recalled its ambassador to Algiers as the U.N. Security Council held talks on Western Sahara. Algeria is a key backer of the Polisario Front independence movement.

The United States vowed Wednesday to help Iraq combat terror groups as mounting attacks claimed more lives ahead of talks between Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and President Barack Obama.

Maliki's visit to Washington comes as his country is wracked by the worst unrest since 2008, and just a few weeks before the two-year anniversary of the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq.

Plans to build 1,500 new Israeli settler homes in east Jerusalem do not create a "positive environment" for ongoing peace negotiations with the Palestinians, a senior U.S. official said Wednesday.

Palestinians have reacted angrily to the plans announced just hours after Israel freed 26 Palestinian prisoners, accusing the Jewish state of trying to wreck the peace talks.

Morocco on Wednesday decided to recall its ambassador to Algeria over President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's "provocative" comments about the disputed Western Sahara, the foreign ministry said.

"This decision comes after a growing number of provocative and hostile acts by Algeria, towards the kingdom," and particularly a speech by the Algerian head of state at a meeting in Abuja on Monday, the Moroccan ministry said in a statement.

The bodies of 87 migrants were found Wednesday in Niger's desert north after they died of thirst, a security sources said.

The corpses of the seven men, 32 women and 48 children were in addition to five bodies of women and girls found earlier, the sources said, adding that they had been trying to emigrate to Algeria.

Human rights activists accused Iraqi forces Wednesday of carrying out a bloody attack on a camp of Iranian exiles in which 52 people were shot dead.

A German rights groups working with a Washington-based lawyer claimed their 70-page report "confirms the direct involvement of the government of Iraq in the attack" on September 1.

Tunisian security forces arrested five Salafist "terrorists" implicated in two failed attacks on Wednesday in resort towns on Tunisia's eastern coast, the interior ministry announced.

"The interior ministry's special forces have arrested five terrorists with direct links to the assailants who tried to carry out simultaneous terrorist attacks in Sousse and Monastir," a statement said.

A Syrian army shelling of Damascus killed six people Wednesday and 11 others died in a rebel attack on a Alawite village in central Syria, a monitoring group said.

The army targeted the southern Damascus neighborhood of Al-Hajar Al-Aswad, killing "a woman, three children and two men", said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

A car bomb intended for Egyptian troops in the Sinai exploded on Wednesday without causing any injuries, security officials said.

The bomb near the north Sinai town of Sheikh Zuwayid was discovered before the planned attack.