U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, who is in Egypt to discuss its political crisis, has no meeting scheduled with deposed president Mohammed Morsi, the State Department said Monday.

"As of right now, there are no plans for him to meet with Mohamed Morsi," State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters.

Tunisia's ruling Ennahda party leader Rashid Ghannouchi raised the prospect of a referendum as a way out of the country's political crisis, in an interview published Monday by Belgian daily Le Soir.

"It's a fact that in Tunisia there are two 'streets'," Ghannouchi said, referring to demonstrations for and against the ruling cabinet following Ennahda claims that 200,000 people rallied Saturday in support of the embattled Islamist-led government.

Supporters of two French journalists kidnapped in Syria launched an impassioned call for their release Monday to mark the two-month anniversary of their disappearance.

Didier Francois, a seasoned war reporter for Europe 1 radio, and Edouard Elias, a photo-journalist, were detained on June 6 by unknown men at a checkpoint while travelling to Syria's second city of Aleppo.

The royal pardon may have been revoked but residents of the Moroccan city of Kenitra still want to know why a man convicted of raping their children was ever released.

Spanish pedophile Daniel Galvan Vina, who lived in their midst for years, was found guilty of raping 11 children aged between four and 15, and jailed for 30 years in September 2011.

Norway has closed its embassies in Saudi Arabia and Jordan to the public due to threats of attacks by al-Qaida, the foreign ministry said Monday.

The Scandinavian country has also raised the security level at other diplomatic missions in the Middle East and North Africa, as well as sensitive locations such as Nairobi, the ministry said.

Spanish police on Monday arrested a convicted pedophile who had his pardon revoked by Morocco's King Mohamed VI after it sparked angry protests in the north African country.

Daniel Galvan Vina, a Spaniard found guilty of raping 11 children aged between four and 15 in Morocco and sentenced in September 2011 to 30 years in prison there, was detained in Murcia in southeastern Spain, a Spanish interior ministry spokesman said.

Fresh protests against Tunisia's Islamist-led coalition government erupted on Monday, deepening the north African nation's political crisis as two soldiers killed by militants linked to al-Qaida were to be buried.

Police used batons and tear gas against protesters who tried to break into local government offices in the center-west city of Sidi Bouzid, cradle of the 2011 revolution.

An Egyptian soldier was shot dead and two others were wounded in two separate attacks in the Sinai Peninsula on Monday, security officials said.

Gunmen shot at an army checkpoint outside a military building in the north Sinai town of El-Arish, killing one soldier.

Iraqi forces killed six suspected al-Qaida militants during an operation north of Baghdad on Monday, while two soldiers and seven civilians died in attacks, officials said.

Security forces, who have so far failed to stem the worst violence to hit Iraq in five years, have launched operations targeting militants in various areas in recent days, including in the Baghdad region.

The Syrian colonel is still astounded. He was directing operations from the second floor of building when he heard gunfire -- rebels had penetrated his headquarters via an underground tunnel.

"One floor closer and I wouldn't be here to describe the attack," he said.