Egyptian authorities on Wednesday detained suspected "Black Bloc" members as they protested an order by the public prosecutor to arrest anyone from the shadowy opposition group, Agence France Presse reported.

Riot police took into custody at least four protesters, who were wearing black masks, outside the public prosecutor's office in central Cairo, the journalist reported.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged the visiting Egyptian president Wednesday to ensure dialogue remains an option as his country grapples with a political crisis that has sparked deadly unrest.

Merkel told a joint press conference in Berlin with President Mohamed Morsi that Germany wanted a successful transformation process in Egypt, where Morsi took over last year, and was ready to help.

Umm Mohammed walks slowly among the 32 shrouded corpses lying on the floor of a school in Syria's Aleppo city, some of scores shot at point-blank range who were being buried on Wednesday.

She stops and kneels down to draw aside the sheet covering a face too damaged to recognize. One of the fighters pulls the sheet further away to reveal a tattoo on the dead man's right arm.

Israeli President Shimon Peres on Wednesday formally began a period of consultation with the parliamentary factions to select the MP most able to put together the country's next ruling coalition.

Pundits are unanimous that most of the parties will recommend that Peres task Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with forming the next coalition government in a decision likely to be announced within the next 48 hours.

Syria's opposition chief Moaz al-Khatib said on Wednesday he is ready for dialogue with officials of President Bashar Assad's regime, subject to conditions including that detainees are released.

"I announce I am ready for direct discussions with representatives of the Syrian regime in Cairo, Tunis or Istanbul," Khatib said via his Facebook page, citing as another condition that passports for exiled citizens be renewed.

Gaza's Hamas rulers on Wednesday authorized the Palestinian elections commission to begin voter registration as part of efforts to restart reconciliation, an official said.

"We have agreed to start operations in the Gaza Strip and we will begin in Gaza and the West Bank," Central Elections Commission chief Hanna Nasser said, after a meeting with Gaza's Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya.

U.N. humanitarian aid chief Valerie Amos Wednesday denied that part of the aid money raised for war-hit Syrians goes to the regime, but agreed that several rebel-held areas were still out of reach.

"It's not true. We are working with a number of partners on the ground. There is no money going directly to the government," Amos told reporters on the sidelines of an international donors conference on Syria held in Kuwait City.

Two people died in clashes between protesters and police near Cairo's Tahrir Square on Wednesday, medics said.

Both of the victims, neither of whom was identified, were hit by buckshot.

Israel's premier Benjamin Netanyahu believes an Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear facilities could cause "significant damage" but only a U.S. attack could halt their operations, a newspaper said on Wednesday.

According to the Maariv daily, Netanyahu told a visiting delegation from the American Jewish Committee that only U.S. military action could completely halt Iran's nuclear program, which Israel and much of the world believes is a guise for building a weapons capability.

Officials from the United Nations and European Union on Wednesday expressed concern over a spate of incidents in which Palestinian civilians in the West Bank have been killed by Israeli fire.

In separate statements, U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator James Rawley and the local EU missions in Jerusalem and Ramallah said security forces should largely refrain from using live fire.