Egypt said Thursday it has boosted punishment for "terrorist" offenses and expanded the scope of crimes that fall under that category, a day after bombings killed a top police officer.

The legal amendments will come in force when interim president Adly Mansour approves the government-penned draft.

Israel has told the Palestinians that a planned release of 26 prisoners cannot proceed, placing already embattled peace talks in further jeopardy after both sides took steps Washington called "unhelpful."

Israel's chief negotiator with the Palestinians has told them that the planned release cannot go ahead, a source close to the embattled talks told Agence France Presse on Thursday.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman will fly to the United States Friday for talks including with Secretary of State John Kerry amid a crisis in peace talks with the Palestinians.

Lieberman's office said in a statement on Thursday he would be in New York on Friday to meet Mayor Bill de Blasio and American Jewish leaders.

Iraqi media released new pictures Thursday of President Jalal Talabani, who has been in Germany since December 2012 after suffering a stroke, with the Kurdish leader appearing in good health.

The images, published by media loyal to Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, come with campaigning having officially begun ahead of April 30 parliamentary elections and the PUK struggling to fend off a challenge from a breakaway faction.

Rebels demanding autonomy for eastern Libya said Thursday they had made progress in talks with the central government on reopening key oil ports that they closed to exports last July.

A rebel spokesman said a first port might reopen as early as next week, raising hopes of an end to the nine-month blockade which has slashed Libyan oil exports from 1.5 million barrels a day to just 250,000 in a massive blow to the economy.

Kuwaiti police will no longer be able to deport expatriates without interior ministry approval under new rules published Thursday after officers expelled thousands over the past year.

The Kuwait Society for Human Rights (KSHR) said the move was a "step in the right direction" to protect the rights of the emirate's 2.7 million expatriates, although it fell short of activists' calls for an end to all deportations not ordered by the courts.

Battles raged Thursday over key flashpoints in Syria's Latakia province, a monitor said, nearly two weeks into a rebel offensive against the heartland of President Bashar Assad's clan and Alawite sect.

Fighting was especially fierce over a strategic hilltop known as Observatory 45, overrun by rebels last week, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Kuwaiti parliamentary committee for foreign relations on Thursday rejected a security pact ratified by other Gulf nations, with MPs saying the government-backed treaty is unconstitutional.

Leaders of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) approved the pact at a summit in December 2012 after it was signed by all GCC interior ministers including Kuwait.

Iraqi soldiers killed more than 40 militants in clashes near Baghdad on Thursday as anti-government fighters edged close to the capital just weeks before national parliamentary elections.

The firefight was the latest in a surge in bloodshed over the past year, amid fears insurgents could seek to destabilize the April 30 polls by upping the pace of attacks with violence already at its worst since 2008.

A pro-government Syria newspaper accused U.N.-Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi Thursday of encouraging "terrorism" and plotting the "destruction and dismantling of the Middle East."

"Brahimi has not for a single day acted as an honest broker," said an editorial in Al-Watan. "He has consistently been a party and an employee in the plot to destroy and dismantle the Middle East."