Iraq's ailing President Jalal Talabani is to be airlifted to Germany for specialist treatment after suffering a reported stroke, his office said on Wednesday.

Talabani was hospitalized late on Monday with what state television reported was a stroke, but doctors said on Wednesday his condition was improving.

The U.N. appealed Wednesday for $1.5 billion to help Syrians fleeing the fighting, warning that the number of refugees in neighboring countries could double to a million by June.

"The conflict has become increasingly brutal and indiscriminate and has exacted a heavy toll," the U.N.'s humanitarian affairs agency said in a statement.

Israel's plans for new settler homes are accelerating Palestinian moves to appeal to the Hague court over Jewish settlement policy, a senior official told AFP on Wednesday.

"The intensification of settlement activity and all the Israeli actions, from killings to arrests, are pushing us to accelerate our recourse to the International Criminal Court," said Palestinian negotiator Mohammed Shtayyeh.

French President Francois Hollande arrived in Algeria on Wednesday for a landmark visit to the former French territory, amid hopes of a new phase in relations but persistent bitterness over crimes committed during colonial rule.

Hollande was received with full honors by his Algerian counterpart Abdelaziz Bouteflika as he got off the plane.

An Israeli committee gave final approval on Wednesday to plans to build 2,610 new homes in Givat HaMatos, a settlement suburb of annexed east Jerusalem, an Israeli NGO told AFP.

"I just spoke with the deputy mayor and they told me the 2,610 units have been approved," said Danny Seidemann, head of Terrestrial Jerusalem.

Syrian government forces are carrying out a broad offensive against rebels in the suburbs of Damascus, the state media said Wednesday.

The state-run SANA news agency said that troops have killed "scores of terrorists" — the government term for the rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad.

An 18-year-old Israeli Arab was on Wednesday indicted for planting a bomb on a bus in Tel Aviv that wounded 29 people at the height of last month's eight-day conflict between Israel and militants in Gaza.

In a hearing at Tel Aviv Magistrates Court, Mohammed Mafarja, a resident of Taibe village in central Israel, was charged with aiding the enemy during war, dozens of counts of attempted murder, conspiracy to commit a crime, causing an explosion and wounding dozens of people.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urged the international community to help Palestinian refugees fleeing fighting in camps in Syria to enter the West Bank and Gaza.

"Mahmoud Abbas, president of the state of Palestine, requested Wednesday that U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the international community enable our people in Syria to enter Palestinian territory," a statement carried on the official WAFA news agency said.

Syrian rebels are closely monitoring the regime's chemical weapons sites but don't have the means to seize and secure them, their newly elected military commander told The Associated Press.

Gen. Salim Idris, who defected from the Syrian army in July, said he is "very afraid" a cornered Syrian President Bashar Assad will unleash such weapons on his own people.

Eight people were killed when a coal mine collapsed a day ago in central Iran, a local official was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency on Wednesday, updating an earlier death toll of four.

"We managed to get five bodies out last night, and three bodies were taken out today," said Ahmad Talebian Moqadam, governor of Tabas city where the accident occurred on Tuesday morning.