Fearful of Arab Spring-inspired unrest, Gulf monarchies have stepped up efforts to monitor and control the media, particularly online, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said Wednesday.

Saudi Arabia, which is on the group's "Enemies of the Internet" list and ranks 164 out of 179 on its 2014 World Press Freedom Index, has been particularly aggressive in policing the Internet, including by arresting those who post critical articles or comments, it said.

A bomb killed six Iraqi soldiers south of Baghdad on Wednesday, while another blast in the country's north left four civilians dead, officials said.

Iraq is suffering a protracted surge in violence to a level not seen since 2008, which authorities have so far failed to stem.

Search teams combed the wreckage of an Algerian military plane Wednesday for clues to why it crashed in a mountainous region killing all but one of 78 people on board.

Algerians began three days of national mourning after the C-130 Hercules aircraft carrying 74 passengers -- soldiers and their families -- and four crew came down in bad weather on Tuesday in the northeast Oum El Bouaghi region.

The head of a mission overseeing the dismantling of Syria's chemical arsenal has urged Damascus to speed up operations, amid Western concerns the regime is deliberately dragging its feet.

Sigrid Kaag, in an interview with Agence France Presse late Tuesday, was confident however that a mid-2014 deadline for the regime's entire arsenal to be destroyed would be met.

A new round of talks between Syria's warring sides dragged into a third day Wednesday amid signs that Russia aimed to play a greater role in trying to break the deadlock.

Representatives of President Bashar Assad's regime and the opposition National Coalition were holding face-to-face negotiations in Geneva, as they did Tuesday, according to the U.N.

The Israeli authorities have blocked 70 patients from Gaza from entering Israel to receive medical treatment because their transfer documents were marked "State of Palestine", officials told AFP on Wednesday.

Until recently, official stationery has used the term "Palestinian territories".

Syria's air force carried out 15 air strikes against the strategic rebel-held Yabrud area near Damascus on Wednesday, as the army escalated a campaign there, activists and a monitor said.

The army meanwhile advanced on Jarajir, a village near Yabrud and on the Lebanese border, a military source told Agence France Presse.

Kuwait has described its relations with Tehran as "excellent" despite mounting tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia, particularly over Syria, where the two regional powers support opposite sides.

Kuwait's relations with Iran are "excellent, historical and developing," the official KUNA news agency cited foreign ministry undersecretary Khaled al-Jarallah as saying late Tuesday.

The Tripoli headquarters of Libya's Alassema privately owned television channel was attacked early Wednesday, with three powerful blasts heard, an Agence France Presse journalist said.

A source at the broadcaster said three rocket-propelled grenades were fired at the building, and that a guard was lightly wounded.

Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who is likely to become Egypt's next president, headed to Russia accompanied by Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy on Wednesday to discuss bilateral cooperation, the army said.

Field Marshal Sisi, who is also Egypt's defense minister and deputy prime minister, and Fahmy would hold "2+2" talks with their Russian counterparts, army spokesman Colonel Ahmed Aly said in a statement.