Austrian troops in the U.N. monitoring force on the Golan Heights began withdrawing on Wednesday, days after Vienna decided to quit the mission over security concerns, an Agence France Presse photographer said.

A group of 20 soldiers entered the Israeli side of the strategic plateau through the Quneitra Crossing, the only direct passage between Israel and Syria, the photographer said.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will meet with his British counterpart William Hague on Wednesday to discuss Syria as Washington struggles to organize a peace conference to end the conflict.

Plans to bring together the Syrian regime of President Bashar Assad and the opposition at talks in Geneva have so far failed to come to fruition, and Hague at the weekend warned regime gains on the ground raised new hurdles.

Algeria's prime minister and army chief of staff on Tuesday visited President Abdelaziz Bouteflika at the hospital in Paris where he is convalescing after suffering a mini-stroke, state television announced.

"Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal and the Chief of Staff of the people's national army Ahmed Gaid Salah paid a visit to President Abdelaziz Bouteflika at the Institution des Invalides in Paris," the broadcaster said.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appealed Tuesday for dialogue and greater efforts at "national reconciliation" in Iraq after a wave of deadly attacks.

Ban "underscores the pressing need for dialogue between political blocs in order to overcome the current crisis," his spokesman Martin Nesirky said.

Supporters and opponents of Egypt's Islamist President Mohamed Morsi clashed on Tuesday outside the culture ministry, where artists have been protesting against what they see as efforts to impose a religious agenda.

Dozens of Islamist protesters and anti-government demonstrators fought outside the ministry headquarters in the Cairo neighborhood of Zamalek leaving several lightly injured, Agence France Presse reporters said.

International media watchdog Reporters Without Borders called on the Libyan authorities on Tuesday to rein in allied militia it said were responsible for detaining journalists.

The Paris-based group said it was "extremely concerned" about the deteriorating security situation in Libya and the behavior of certain militias towards media personnel.

The U.N. refugee agency said Tuesday that it was seeking a haven for 5,000 vulnerable Syrians in countries outside the Middle East, calling on countries to match the number that Germany has pledged to take in.

"UNHCR is calling on other states to complement the German offer with a further 5,000 places for humanitarian admissions, enabling a total of up to 10,000 highly vulnerable Syrians to find safety elsewhere," the agency said in a statement.

Italian diplomats in Tripoli escaped from their booby-trapped car before it exploded during a shopping trip in the Libyan capital on Tuesday, officials said.

"The Italian diplomats got out of their car in the district of Zawiet al-Dahmani to shop when they noticed a wire hanging beneath the vehicle," a diplomat said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Israel has foiled five suicide bombings and many other "terrorist" attacks since the start of the year.

Shin Bet, the domestic security service, and the army had prevented the bombings and 30 attempted kidnappings of soldiers, Netanyahu told visiting Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos.

Iranian ex-president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani backed Hassan Rowhani for Friday's presidential election, saying the former nuclear negotiator who champions better international ties is "more suitable" for the post.

"I will vote for Dr Rowhani, who entered the race after consulting me," Rafsanjani said in remarks reported by the ILNA news agency on Tuesday.